Thursday, June 10, 2010

Raw Pizza


Yep, you read that right...raw pizza. What the heck is that? I had no idea either until my friend let me borrow a few cookbooks that were geared toward making raw food. What is raw food? Simply put, raw food is food that has not been heated above a certain temperature - usually 105 degrees. Why cook this way? All food have enzymes. Enzymes help make the digestion process easier, but when we heat the food above 105 degrees or so, the enzymes start to be killed. The cooking process can kill up to 100% of the enzymes in our food.

I am not going to adopt this lifestyle fully, but raw food presents a nice alternative, especially in the warmer weather. Not to mention that I am able to dehydrate fruits and veggies for a quick snack that my daughter seems to love.

So, the raw pizza crust is made from onion "bread". This recipe comes from the book RAWvolution by Matt Amsden.

Ingredients:
3 large yellow onions
3/4 cup flax seed, ground in a high speed blender
3/4 cup sunflower seeds, ground in a food processor
1/2 cup Nama Shoyu or Bragg's Amino Acids1/3 cup olive oil
1. Peel and halve the onions. In a food processor, cut the onions with the slicing disc. Transfer the onions to a large mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix until the ingredients are thoroughly combined.2. Spread 2 cups of the mixture evenly on a dehydrator tray lined with a Teflex sheet. Repeat until all of the mixture is used.
3. Dehydrate at 100 degrees for 24 hours. Flip the tray over onto a work surface, and gently peel the Teflex sheet off the bread. Return to the dehydrator for another 12 hours. Once dehydrated, cut into 9 equal pieces.

This is what the bread looked like when it was done (not horribly attractive, but yummy I assure you):

Since I am new to making raw food, I did not deviate from this recipe at all. I did thinly slice the onions by hand instead of using a food processor as the recipe suggests. We used a sauce made with sundried tomatoes, fresh basil, olives and scallions for toppings. The scallions in addition to the onion bread was a little much. Both my friend and I opted to take them off of our pizza. This was the finished product:

6 comments:

  1. That sounds so yummy Beth - I might try it sometime. And thanks for sharing about raw food - it is ridiculous how we kill most of the healthy stuff in food before we eat it.

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  2. What a great idea! Would you make it again?

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  3. No cheese? I need cheese on my pizza! Did you use a dehydrator or did you use the oven on a low temp?

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  4. Thanks so much for posting your raw pizza. I was so curious about this. Hopefully one day I'll get to try it, but first, I need a dehydrator.

    I'll be sure not to put scallions on onion crust pizza. How about sliced tomatoes, basil, and Kalamata olives?

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  5. It was so yummy! And the company was even better :)

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  6. Lauren - I know...I would be curious to know what percentage of the enzymes is killed at various temps. Like, if you steam the veggies versus if you microwave them...

    Angie - I would definitely make it again. It took no time to prep and it was yummy.

    THM - You can make raw cheese. We just didn't. I used my dehydrator, but you could use an oven at a low temp, I would think. I entertained the idea before I purchased the dehydrator. I think you'd need to have a fan involved though. I would Google it. ;)

    Betty - I think those toppings sound awesome!

    Heather - You better believe it! :)

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