Foodie Recipe: Cauliflower Pizza Crust and Homemade Tomato Sauce

 

I have been wanting to make cauliflower pizza crust for as long as I could remember. The closest I ever got to making it was when I purchased cauliflower for faux tater tots, but even then I was too busy making soap and working two jobs to get around to that either. After making cashew cream last week, I think it gave me the needed confidence to make the cauliflower crust. I was inspired by this recipe. The only thing I tweaked initially was doubling the recipe. What I would tweak for the future is reducing the amount of water I used. The bake time was more like 45 minutes before getting a truly golden brown crust (but my crust was more than 1/4 inch thick). Also, I made two pizzas. My boyfriend's had real cheese and lots of it, and that seemed to work better in terms of holding the crust together and making it sturdy enough to pick up. So the key to a sturdier crust is using less water and lots of cheese. My instructions includes toppings prep and homemade tomato sauce. I know in reality most people don't have three hours or so to devote to prepping dinner, so feel free to buy store-bought sauce and precut veggies to cut the time.

Tools
Food processor
Pot
Cookie sheet (greased and/or with a silicone liner)
Blender (or simply used food processor)
Pan

Crust Ingredients: (prep 30 minutes, cook time up to 45 minutes)

1 Large head of Cauliflower

3/4 cup of almond flour

1 1/2 Tbsp Dried Oregano

1/4 cup chia seeds

1/2-1/4 cup water (1/2 cup for thicker crust, 1/4 cup for thinner crust)

Sea salt and pepper to taste

1. Set the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Add chia seeds to water and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
3. Chop up the cauliflower florets then run them in the food processor 2-5 minutes until grainy. Put the mixture in a bowl
4. Mix cauliflower with almond flour, dried oregano, and salt and pepper.
5. Add chia seed mixture to bowl and mix everything by hand. Form mixture into a ball and place in the center of a greased cookie sheet.
6. Use your hands to carefully flattened out into a circle, oval, or square. Add a little ridge around the edge if desired. Make into the thickness desired (if you used less water = thicker crust up to 1/4 in)
7. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown for thinner crust. Bake up to 45 minutes for a thicker crust.




   





Tomato Sauce: (prep time 5 minutes, cook times 10 minutes)

2-3 tomatoes (pureed in blender or food processor)
1/4 cup fresh oregano
2-6 cloves of fresh garlic
1/2 small onion
1 tb olive oil
Sea salt and pepper to taste
1 cup+ of other pureed veggies if desired (I added broccoli and eggplant to maximize my veggies)

1. Put oregano, garlic, and onions in the food processor until minced.

Tomato sauce

2. Heat pan with olive oil and add oregano/garlic/onions mixture. Saute until translucent.
3. Carefully pour in tomato puree (and other pureed veggies if desired) and bring to a simmer. Simmer on low until sauce reduces at least by half (or until it thickens to desired consistency.
4. Add salt an pepper to taste.
5. Once the crust is done, spread layer of sauce onto crust.





Toppings (all thinly sliced in food processor; prep time 10 minutes, cook time up to 7 minutes)
1/2 cup of mushrooms
1 bell pepper
1/4 cup of red onions
1-2 oz vegan pepperoni
6-8 oz of vegan cheese (the more you use, the more it will stay together)

1. Turn on the oven's broiler.
2. After crust is completed, and tomato sauce is added, add a layer of cheese. Try to layer the cheese so that there are no gaps (the least amount of gaps results in a pizza that holds together better).
3. Layer the veggies and pepperoni, then top with more cheese.
4. Put pizza under the broiler 3-7 minutes until cheese is melted to your liking.
5. Cut and enjoy!











Please tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter if you make this recipe!


See our other recipes:

• Foodie Recipe: Vegan Pesto
• Food recipe: Homemade Salsa Verde
• Food recipe: DIY vegan protein powder
• Foodie Tip Cream of Coconut
• Foodie Recipe: Vegan Cream Sauce

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Marquita Bell is soaper-in-chief and the owner of The Body Buffet where foodie meets beauty. Based out of Philadelphia, The Body Buffet aims to cultivate beauty inside and out from foodie adventures, self-care tips, and via handmade artisan soap, shampoo bars, facial bars, laundry soap and more. They use local ingredients when possible and have aimed to make conditioning skin-loving, hair-loving, clothes-loving soap since 2009.

Foodie Recipe: Vegan Cream & Mushroom Pasta

For years I have been reading about how to make a cream sauce using cashews, but I just have never gotten around to trying it, mainly because I can make it using a plant-based milk with a little flour for thickening. Because my vegan friend was visiting me for dinner, I thought I would try a new recipe using cashews. True to my nature, I almost never follow a recipe exactly, so I adapted a recipe from Nadia the Good Food Cook. The results were impressive. I was able to achieve a very thick cream without needed flour or another thickener. And it was delicious (partly due to how much garlic I added). I loved it so much I had foodie day dreams about eating it right up to lunchtime today. Here is my not-so-precise recipe.

Tools

Food processor

Pot

Strainer

Knife

Cutting Board

Ingredients

Cream sauce:

8.5 oz can of cashews, soaked for at least 6 hours and drained (or boil 10-15 minutes)

4-10 cloves of garlic (10 cloves is really strong, so add however many to your preference)

1/2 Onion diced

1 tb Olive Oil

1/4 cup Soy Sauce or Teriyaki Sauce (I used Teriyaki and it didn't have a sweet taste)

1/4 cup Almond Milk (or any other plant-based milk)

2 tb lemon juice

3/4 water

1/4 cup of fresh basil

1/2 of fresh, minced spinach (optional)

Pasta & Mushrooms:

8-oz whole wheat pasta

Four cups of water with 1 tb Salt

1 tb of salt

1.5 pounds white button mushrooms (thinly sliced)

1/4 cup Soy Sauce or Teriyaki Sauce
Additional salt + pepper to taste

Soaked cashews.

Directions

Cream sauce:

1. Saute 1/4 onion with 2-4 cloves of thinly sliced garlic in the olive oil just until softened.

2. Put mixture into food processor along with drained cashews. Add remaining garlic, almond milk, lemon juice, water, basil, and spinach and blend until you have a thick, pourable sauce. Add more almond milk if necessary.

Pasta:
1. Put four cups of water into pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add salt and pasta and cook to desired firmness.
3. Save 1/2 water from the pot and drain the rest of the water from the pasta using the strainer.

Mushrooms:

1. Saute mushrooms in olive oil until they shrink and turn brown.

2. Add teriyaki sauce. Add cream sauce to mushrooms. Add 1/2 cup of water from pasta and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

3. Pour sauce over cooked pasta. 

4. Enjoy!

Please let us know if you try this recipe. Tag us in pictures on social media.

See our other recipes:

• Foodie Recipe: Vegan Pesto
• Food recipe: Homemade Salsa Verde
• Food recipe: DIY vegan protein powder
• Foodie Tip Cream of Coconut

Marquita Bell is soaper-in-chief and the owner of The Body Buffet where foodie meets beauty. Based out of Philadelphia, The Body Buffet aims to cultivate beauty inside and out from foodie adventures, self-care tips, and via handmade artisan soap, shampoo bars, facial bars, laundry soap and more. They use local ingredients when possible and have aimed to make conditioning skin-loving, hair-loving, clothes-loving soap since 2009.

Foodie Recipe: Homemade Salsa Verde

Being from California, I love Mexican food and the side dishes, condiments, especially salsa because it is so incredibly easy to make. I personally prefer pico de gallo, chunky salsa with tomatoes, but tomatoes tend to give me heartburn; so the next best thing is salsa verde, made predominately from tomatillos, and actually requires less work in my opinion, and is harder to mess up. Here is my recipe. The numbers aren't exact, I mostly wing it to whatever way my tastebuds feel, so you can tweak as necessary. This last batch was a bit on the spicy side since I risked using two jalapeños. I encourage you to make and gauge, and adjust accordingly. I never actually looked up a recipe other than reading a jar of a store-bought brand (do you notice a trend here?). The hardest part might be finding tomatillos. Luckily I've never had that problem.

Equipment
Food processor or blender
Knife
Cutting Board
Colander
Cookie sheet (with silicone liner optional)
Oven
Container for salsa

Ingredients
Tomatillos (1.5 to 2 pounds)
Cilantro - 1/3 cup
Lime Juice (freshly squeezed 1/3 to 1/2 cup)
Onions (chopped 1/2 cup)
Jalapeños (optional 1-2 chopped)
Salt 1 tsp or more to taste
Pepper 1 tsp or more to taste


1. Remove the husks from the tomatillos and discard.

2. Wash the tomatillos well, usually they have a waxy feeling.
3. Place tomatillos on a lined cookie sheet.



4. Bake on 450F 15-30 minutes or until slightly brown and softened. Be careful not to spill any juice as you remove them.



5. Roughly chop the onions, cilantro, and jalapeños and add to the food processor/blender.



6. Carefully pour the juices from the tomatillos and the tomatillos into the food processor/blender.

7. Add lime juice and salt and pepper.

8. Blend until completely liquified.  Add more salt and/or pepper to taste and blend again.



9. Pour into container and cool in the fridge.

10. Enjoy. I usually keep mine for 5-7 days (if it lasts that long)


See our other recipes:

• Foodie Recipe: Vegan Pesto
• Food recipe: DIY vegan protein powder
• Foodie Tip Cream of Coconut
• Foodie Recipe: Vegan Cream & Mushroom Pasta

Marquita Bell is soaper-in-chief and the owner of The BodyBuffet where foodie meets beauty. Based out of Philadelphia, The Body Buffet aims to cultivate beauty inside and out from foodie adventures, self-care tips, and via handmade artisan soap, shampoo bars, facial bars, laundry soap and more. They use local ingredients when possible and have aimed to make conditioning skin-loving, hair-loving, clothes-loving soap since 2009.