My First Raw Pizza!! Buckwheat Base :)

This was my summer mission, and with only 5 days to go until i head back to uni i can finally say.... i did it!!!
I made my Raw Pizza :)

About 4 months ago now i was introduced to raw food through visiting the Raw Kitchen in Fremantle, it was there i saw and could not resist trying my first raw pizza... oh my gosh it was amazing, so tasty and fresh!! Since then i was both hooked on changing my lifestyle to learn and incorporate more raw and wholesome foods into my diet, to experiment with taste and creations and of course to make my own raw pizza. It was a long term mission seeing as though i had no idea what they used in the base and found out about the use of a dehydrator machine, i didn't know that within 3 months i would be buying my very own Excalibur dehydrator, but i have and so far from banana crepe, dried fruits, raw biscuits and now raw pizza... i am in love :)

So after some recipe hunting and gathering ideas and what could work best for me I decided on using sprouted buckwheat for the base. I have heard of Chia seeds, flax seeds and others for the base but they are for future Janelle to try. I'm not sure if you can buy sprouted buckwheat but i definitely recommend starting from scratch and sprouting them yourself!! So i began by putting them in my little greenhouse for 2 days, rinsing every morning and night. My sister and i remarked that they smelt just like a pizza base already! Perfect :) I was a little worried at the end of the 2 days that they had mold on them but the little white hairs i soon learnt where part of the buckwheat roots.

Sprouted Buckwheat after 2 days

That day when they were ready (the sprouts are as long as the buckwheat grain) i turned most of them into a pizza base!

Base
2 cups Buckwheat sprouted
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 carrot grated
4 pre-soaked dates (soaked 10-15min)
Pinch of salt and pepper
1 teaspoon Italian spices

Place buckwheat, garlic and olive oil in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the grated carrot, dates, salt and pepper and Italian herbs and process again until combined.

Place on a teflex sheet (or you can use baking paper) and dehydrate at 115F (43 degrees) until the top is dry, then flip and dehydrate some more. I dehydrated mine for 6 hours then flipped it over while taking the base off the sheet so both sides can then dry. Then i left it is for another 8 hours or so overnight until it was mostly dry and ready by the morning. If you do not have a dehydrator and you would like to make the base you could leave the oven going on low but leave the door open or simply cook the base at 180 degrees for around 40 minutes (this will still be tasty but not raw).

Sprouted Buckwheat base

If you have sprouted and made the base that is the hardest part! Apart from the time it takes waiting it really is an easy recipe to make. Next i marinated some mushrooms for an hour while i prepped the rest of the ingredients. Ideally these can be marinated for at least 4 hours or overnight and then dehydrated for another 4 hours to intensify the flavour, but i just marinated for an hour and placed them straight on the pizza and they were still so tasty :)

Marinated Mushrooms
1 cup button mushrooms sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Mix altogether in a bowl, cover and set aside to marinate for an hour.

Marinating the mushrooms

Next while the mushrooms were marinating i made the marinara sauce.

Marinara Sauce
3 tomato's
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 lemon juiced
4 pre-soaked dates
1 teaspoon Italian spices

Place in a food processor and process until smooth around 30 seconds.

Ready to process!

Mmm marinara sauce with home grown tomato's :)

Putting that aside in the fridge it was onto the 'cheese'!

Nut Cheese
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 lemon including the skin
1/4 red capsicum
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce

Add together in a food processor and process until combined and smooth. I processed mine for 2 minutes stopping every now and then to scrape down the sides. I also added 1/4 of water as i found it was a little too dry. Other recipes use cashews which have been soaked overnight but i liked how this nut cheese recipe included more flavours. In fact i may use this as a dip in the future!

Nut cheese ready to go

Then it was time to create! Out came the base, spread with the marinara sauce, followed by spinach leaves, some 'cheese', marinated mushrooms, chopped cherry tomato's, chopped spring onion, avocado and left over buckwheat sprouts on top. You can really put any vegetables you like on the topping!

Spreading the marinara sauce 

Looks pretty good already!

Next adding the spinach and nut cheese

I did it! :)

Once it was done i had to stare at it for a while... i did it!!!! It was the best lunch i have ever made myself so far, raw, nutritious AND so tasty! Complete with one of mums green smoothies i was in lunch heaven. I was happy, my body was happy, all is good in the world with a home made raw pizza :D

Rockin Raw

Xox