Cooking With Dia

It wasn’t easy to come up with a recipe for Macrobiotic Pizza–no cheese, no tomatoes and no yeast. Where do I start? Well, the “pizza sauce” is pretty much hummus–I decided to do it this way so it would still add moisture while being tomato-less at the same time. Tomatoes are considered too yin because of their natural sweetness, but even so, if I really wanted to I could have added them.

While I’m on the macrobiotic philosophy, there is no one right way to go about this diet. You should avoid anything too sweet or too salty. Unfortunately the natural sugars in most fruit are enough to avoid them almost entirely. Although, if you are in good health, you are allowed to indulge once in a while.

I know, I know, most of us have grown up believing all fruit and veg is good for us. On the macrobiotic diet however, too much tomato soup or apple sauce will put your health off balance. Have you ever eaten a meal high in sodium and immediately after craved something sweet? The macrobiotic diet tries to avoid going from one extreme to another, but again, if you have your own way of living a macrobiotic life, who am I to say it’s wrong?

This pizza however, is for those following a strict macrobiotic diet–it is gluten and yeast free, cheese- less, tomato-less and concentrates on beans, nuts and green vegetables.

I had my doubts about how it would emerge from the oven, but I was pleased with the overall flavor. The pizza crust/base did not disappoint either, and I was delightfully surprised.

Preheat oven to 200°Celsius

Printable Recipe
For the pizza base:

3.5 cups of gluten free flour
25g of vegan spread
1.5 cups of warm water

For the pizza sauce:

1 drained can of chickpeas (225g)
1 drained can of Haricot beans (225g)
260 g of drained sweetcorn
1 romano pepper chopped
2 chili peppers chopped
2 cloves of garlic crushed and chopped
3 shallots chopped
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of safflower oil

For the toppings:

handful of baby spinach
handful of red chard
handful of baby red leaf
Broccoli florets from 1 crown of broccoli
1/2 cup of unbleached peanuts
splash of sesame oil
splash of safflower oil
1/4 cup of sesame seeds

For the pizza base:
Mix together the gluten free flour, vegan spread and water.
Form into a dough and set aside, if it is still to crumbly add a bit more water.
After preparing the sauce come back to the base and roll out to a 12 inch circle.
Cut the excess bits of dough off so the pizza base looks perfectly round.

For the pizza sauce:
Mix the chickpeas, haricot beans, sweetcorn, Romano and chili peppers, garlic and shallots up in a food processor.
Add in the safflower and sesame oil and pulse for 1-2 minutes.
When it looks creamy pour out into a bowl.

Take the rolled out pizza base and spread the sauce evenly around.
Once the sauce is spread start to add the toppings.
First lay out the spinach, red chard and baby red leaf.
On top place the broccoli florets.
Sprinkle on the peanuts and sesame seeds.
Finish up by splashing on the sesame oil and brushing the crust
with some safflower oil.

Bake in oven for 25 minutes.

Printable Recipe