I was doing my happy dance tonight at dinner. Finally! A pizza crust that’s gluten free, vegan, and doesn’t taste like some over-cooked slice of bad, crumbly bread. I’ve tried a lot of different crusts. A lot. There is one frozen crust that’s pretty tasty, but it’s definitely not vegan and pretty expensive as well, plus, even though it’s gluten free, the ingredients are slightly questionable (a few too many processed ingredients). Okay, granted, this crust probably wouldn’t make the Dr. Fuhrman book. It does have some starches in it (tapioca and arrowroot) to give it some stretchiness and it has xantham gum in it (which, if you’re really persnickety, you could use guar gum instead) to give it some pliability. But, the teff flour is a great choice: made from an ancient grain that has a good balance of amino acids and it’s full of protein and and calcium and iron. It’s really good stuff. I think if I was to stay true to the Fuhrman way of eating, I wouldn’t use any flours or I would use only sprouted wheat flour, but I thought that this would be a good compromise for Friday Pizza Night. Hey, throw me a bone, here (metaphorically speaking, of course): a real, sustainable ‘diet’ adds in things like pizza or your favorite foods, just making them healthy so you’re not killing yourself while eating them. Anyway, it’s really a way of life, not a diet as most people think of it. In the same vein (or should I not say that when I’m talking about vegan food), just as an aside, I think the term ‘everything in moderation’ has become an overused myth that culminated in the Standard American Diet (SAD) – but that’s just my humble opinion. For me, personally, it’s all or nothing thing. It’s not a diet I can try and go off when I feel like eating another way. My body just doesn’t function well like that. I can’t dispute how this has changed my life – eating a nutritarian lifestyle. I’m losing weight even though I don’t feel like I’m dieting and I’m eating quite a bit of food. My energy level has increased dramatically. My chronic aches and pains and fatigue have vanished. And that’s only been within three weeks. I can’t imagine how I’ll feel after eating like this for a year. Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels. Anyway, I digress.
Back to the recipe. This crust makes a great tasting pizza. On this pizza, I used some marinara sauce (high in lycopene), dairy free cheese (my cashew cheese), and some mushrooms, kale and onions that I pre-sauteed in some vegetable broth. Plus, I still have half a pizza left over for lunch tomorrow. Plus, I have three more in the freezer to use over the next few weeks. Bonus! It does take a bit of time to make, but considering that you have three in the freezer for future use and leftovers, and a healthy crust, it’s worth the time. I hope you like.
Vegan Pizza Crust
Ingredients:
½ Cup Millet Flour
½ Cup Brown Rice Flour
½ Cup White Rice Flour
½ Cup Teff Flour
¼ Cup Tapioca Flour
¼ Cup Arrowroot Flour
3 Tsp. Xanthan Gum
3 Tsp. Powdered Pectin
1 Tsp. Salt
1 ¾ Cups Almond Milk
2 ¼ Tsp. Active Dry Yeast (or 1 packet of yeast)
1 Tsp. Sugar
2 Tbsp. Almond Butter
Directions:
In a mixing bowl, combine the flours, xanthan gum, pectin, and salt. Heat the almond milk to about 110◦ (it should feel slightly above body temperature, but not scolding hot). In a separate bowl, combine the almond milk, yeast, sugar, and almond butter. Allow the yeast to bloom (to get fluffy looking), about 5 minutes. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat for about 3 minutes. 
Precut some parchment paper to fit on your pizza pans or baking sheet. Preheat oven and pizza pans without the parchment paper to 425◦. Shape dough into whatever shape you want on the prepared parchment paper (the recipe can make up to 4, 12” pizza crusts), making sure the dough is about 1/8” thick. I used some greased plastic wrap to push down the dough and form it into crusts – it slides around better that way. Allow crusts to raise for 30 minutes. When crusts have raised, slide them onto the hot pizza pans and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and put toppings on them. Broil for about 4 minutes, until toppings are done. Makes 4, 12” pizza crusts.
Eating to Live 
This looks so good!!:-)
It really is. 🙂
Hi Heather! I can’t wait to try this. I tried many crusts that were more like anti-crusts than pizza crusts. I make my pizza on a slice of Ezekiel bread a lot, not bad but not pizza. If I can get my kids to eat it we’ll have a winner! Thanks!
Hey Nicole! I was actually thinking of trying this with some sprouted flours instead of gluten free flours. I think your family will like it. It’s one of the chewiest gluten free crusts I’ve ever made. It really comes close to the real thing. (maybe I’ll get to the family reunion this year and we can talk food) 😉
You mention living a nutritarian lifestyle, is this an actual protocol or a cool name for eating clean healthful foods? 😉
It’s from a book called ‘Eat to Live’ by Dr. Fuhrman. He talks about a high nutrient diet, suggesting a vegan diet or a very low animal protein diet. He says to eat foods that are nutrient dense. I’ll do a post on it so I can explain it better. He does have a specific protocol and what foods he considers nutrient dense. So far, in three weeks I’ve lost 10 pounds and I’m not really even trying. In three years of eating paleo, I didn’t even lose an ounce. I actually gained weight even though I was so very careful with what I was eating and didn’t eat any fast food or sweets or anything like that. I like eating like this and I feel really great. I’ll post about the Eat to Live protocol tonight.