Two Raw Pizzas (or salads for those without dehydrators)
Wednesday 28th April 2010- A date to remember! My born and bred heavy meat eating boyfriend had his first ever - not just vegetarian, not even vegan, but a Raw Vegan Day of his life!
He made it quite clear early on in the relationship that he is not prepared to live a day without meat, so as disappointing as the statement was to me (being totally happy to live off my favourite tomato + cucumber + avocado salad), I found myself cooking meat especially for him every night of the week.
Ofcause there hasn’t been a time he didn’t look forward to trying all the new raw recipes I’ve been coming up with and he already religiously drinks his green smoothies each day and has his salads with dinner, but I am sure he is not the only one out there that struggles to overcome the mentality of dead animal consumption.
So for some time now, I’ve been thinking up a pitch, considering every aspect of an upcoming debate and a strong negotiation point to propose a ‘one day a week’ Raw Regime for Elliot. Going in for the win, I even got stage fright speaking and I can’t even remember at what point he agreed, but I’m sure I still carried on talking, unable to believe my own ears that it took no convincing, no debating and no persuading what so ever. I guess there was a bit of influencing, but that has been 2,5 years in the making.
With the toughest challenge now over, the next challenge was not necessary to make something tasty (I knew I was capable), but something of a ‘Real Man’ type that does not scream out ‘Happy Hippy’ on his plate. And so the answer was simple:
Having a great recipe for the pizza base and sauce already (see previous post), the 2 pizzas I decided to create were:
1. Mushroom and Basil Pesto
2. Broccoli and Tangy Tahini
I found its best for the toppings of both of these pizzas to be left marinating overnight, so prepare the night before you are planning on eating them, or early in the morning so the marination is complete by the time you get home from work:
Essentials:
1.Prep the night before
2.Food processor for basil pesto
3.Blender for Cashew Cream- optional
4.Dehydrator- if not available, then the below recipes are just as amazing as salads
ALL RAW BROCCOLI AND TANGY TAHINI PIZZA
Broccoli:
1 broccoli head chopped small without stems
3 x Tbsp Lemon juice
3 x Tbsp Olive Oil
2 x Tbsp Tamari soy sauce
1. Mix all ingredients in large bowl and massage with your hands until the broccoli becomes softer, then cover and leave to stand out of the fridge overnight.
2. The juices may have settled on the bottom of bowl by the morning, so mix all ingredients again and leave to marinate until lunch/dinner out of the fridge.
3. Arrange the broccoli onto the pizza base (from previous post) and dehydrate for 2 hours at 41 degrees C. You may find it useful to pour the Tangy Tahini sauce and cut into pizza slices half way through the dehydration process, so that you can serve straight out of the dehydrator while pizza is still warm.
Tangy Tahini sauce:
1/4 x Cup Tahini
3 x Tbsp lemon juice
1 x Tbsp Agave Nectar
3 x Tbsp Raw Apple Cider vinegar
2 x Tbsp tamari
1 x garlic clove or ½ tsp garlic powder
1/2 x tsp mild chilli powder
1/2 x tsp ginger root powder
1. Mix all ingredients in a small bowl
2. Pour over dehydrated broccoli pizza. I used an icing syringe for even spread and ease.
ALL RAW MUSHROOM AND BASIL PESTO PIZZA
MUSHROOMS
7 x medium portabella mushrooms
½ x Red pepper
7 x fresh basil leaves chopped
2 x garlic cloves
3 x Tbsp Olive Oil
½ x lemon juiced
3 x Tbsp Raw Apple cider vinegar
Pinch salt
-Follow the same preparation process as Broccoli pizza
[Mushrooms freshly chopped, ready for marination process]
BASIL PESTO
1 x Cup pine nuts
2 x Cups fresh basil
2 x garlic cloves
1 x lemon juiced
3 x Tbsp Olive Oil
1 x tsp salt
-Chop up basil in the food processor, then add nuts and then the rest of ingredients. The consistency will not be runny, so spoon small amounts over the pizza in blobs.
CASHEW CREAM (Optional)
½ x Cup cashews
½ x Cup water
1. Blend until smooth in a blender. If the ingredients do not cover the blades and you struggle to blend well, just double the ingredients and use left over Cashew Cream in another recipe later (will last in fridge for 7 days)
2. Splatter over pizza
It was so so good.
He made it quite clear early on in the relationship that he is not prepared to live a day without meat, so as disappointing as the statement was to me (being totally happy to live off my favourite tomato + cucumber + avocado salad), I found myself cooking meat especially for him every night of the week.
Ofcause there hasn’t been a time he didn’t look forward to trying all the new raw recipes I’ve been coming up with and he already religiously drinks his green smoothies each day and has his salads with dinner, but I am sure he is not the only one out there that struggles to overcome the mentality of dead animal consumption.
So for some time now, I’ve been thinking up a pitch, considering every aspect of an upcoming debate and a strong negotiation point to propose a ‘one day a week’ Raw Regime for Elliot. Going in for the win, I even got stage fright speaking and I can’t even remember at what point he agreed, but I’m sure I still carried on talking, unable to believe my own ears that it took no convincing, no debating and no persuading what so ever. I guess there was a bit of influencing, but that has been 2,5 years in the making.
With the toughest challenge now over, the next challenge was not necessary to make something tasty (I knew I was capable), but something of a ‘Real Man’ type that does not scream out ‘Happy Hippy’ on his plate. And so the answer was simple:
Having a great recipe for the pizza base and sauce already (see previous post), the 2 pizzas I decided to create were:
1. Mushroom and Basil Pesto
2. Broccoli and Tangy Tahini
I found its best for the toppings of both of these pizzas to be left marinating overnight, so prepare the night before you are planning on eating them, or early in the morning so the marination is complete by the time you get home from work:
Essentials:
1.Prep the night before
2.Food processor for basil pesto
3.Blender for Cashew Cream- optional
4.Dehydrator- if not available, then the below recipes are just as amazing as salads
ALL RAW BROCCOLI AND TANGY TAHINI PIZZA
Broccoli:
1 broccoli head chopped small without stems
3 x Tbsp Lemon juice
3 x Tbsp Olive Oil
2 x Tbsp Tamari soy sauce
1. Mix all ingredients in large bowl and massage with your hands until the broccoli becomes softer, then cover and leave to stand out of the fridge overnight.
2. The juices may have settled on the bottom of bowl by the morning, so mix all ingredients again and leave to marinate until lunch/dinner out of the fridge.
3. Arrange the broccoli onto the pizza base (from previous post) and dehydrate for 2 hours at 41 degrees C. You may find it useful to pour the Tangy Tahini sauce and cut into pizza slices half way through the dehydration process, so that you can serve straight out of the dehydrator while pizza is still warm.
Tangy Tahini sauce:
1/4 x Cup Tahini
3 x Tbsp lemon juice
1 x Tbsp Agave Nectar
3 x Tbsp Raw Apple Cider vinegar
2 x Tbsp tamari
1 x garlic clove or ½ tsp garlic powder
1/2 x tsp mild chilli powder
1/2 x tsp ginger root powder
1. Mix all ingredients in a small bowl
2. Pour over dehydrated broccoli pizza. I used an icing syringe for even spread and ease.
ALL RAW MUSHROOM AND BASIL PESTO PIZZA
MUSHROOMS
7 x medium portabella mushrooms
½ x Red pepper
7 x fresh basil leaves chopped
2 x garlic cloves
3 x Tbsp Olive Oil
½ x lemon juiced
3 x Tbsp Raw Apple cider vinegar
Pinch salt
-Follow the same preparation process as Broccoli pizza
[Mushrooms freshly chopped, ready for marination process]BASIL PESTO
1 x Cup pine nuts
2 x Cups fresh basil
2 x garlic cloves
1 x lemon juiced
3 x Tbsp Olive Oil
1 x tsp salt
-Chop up basil in the food processor, then add nuts and then the rest of ingredients. The consistency will not be runny, so spoon small amounts over the pizza in blobs.
CASHEW CREAM (Optional)
½ x Cup cashews
½ x Cup water
1. Blend until smooth in a blender. If the ingredients do not cover the blades and you struggle to blend well, just double the ingredients and use left over Cashew Cream in another recipe later (will last in fridge for 7 days)
2. Splatter over pizza
It was so so good.