Ready for another quick mid-week meal?
Of course you are and this one has quickly become one of my favorites because it checks off three of my important things:
- Quick to make
- Simple ingredients
- Delicious to eat
pesto
Pesto Quinoa Salad
I feel like I can’t get enough basil lately. Every time I think about what flavor I want in my food, I want basil. That’s what made me come up with this basil hummus dressing and that’s also what made me make this pesto quinoa salad. The other reason I made this salad? 
It was ridiculously hot. Continue reading
DIY Wednesday: Cauliflower Pizza Crust
The cauliflower pizza crust. For many, it is an elusive dream. You see recipes on Pinterest and they claim that it is the best crust ever (just like real pizza) and that will fulfill all your gluten-free pizza dreams.
And then you make it.
And it turns into a soggy wet pile.
Or it has five pounds of cheese and eggs holding it together.
I’ve tried a lot of cauliflower pizza crusts and while some were good, none were great. Most of them had to be eaten with a fork and a knife and that’s ok if you’re eating a deep dish pizza but not ok when you want to pick up a slice and feel like you’re eating pizza. That’s what I wanted.
Then I stumbled across Sprint 2 The Table’s quinoa flour crust pizza and it sounded simple enough and didn’t have the cheese that most crust recipes use to keep everything together. So I gave it a shot and EUREKA! It worked. I could actually pick it up and while I won’t go as far as saying it tastes exactly like real pizza it was the closest I had ever come.
I kept playing with the crust and swapping out a few things and came up with one that doesn’t use eggs or grains as the flour. If you’re totally fine with eating quinoa flour and eggs then go ahead and try Sprint 2 The Table’s pizza crust. If you want an eggless and grain-free version try this one below.
I’ll give you a step-by-step tutorial (along with pictures) so you can get the best pizza crust possible then you can go crazy with toppings. And I may have gone crazy with my toppings aka the whole refrigerator on my pizza.
Cauliflower Crust Pizza- Based on this one by Sprint 2 The Table
- 1 cup of cauliflower with as much of the stems removed as possible
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 3 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 6 tbsp water
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp basil
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Preheat your oven to 425 and get out a pizza stone/pan or regular baking sheet. Line whatever you’re going to use with parchment paper (I used a pizza stone and cut my parchment paper into circles) and then cut another piece of parchment paper to match the first.
- In a small bowl, combine the ground flaxseed and water and let it sit and gel for a few minutes.
- In a blender or food processor, pulse the cauliflower a few times until it’s in small rice-like pieces and then dump it into a large bowl. Add the flour and seasonings and whisk to combine everything. It’s ok if it’s a little clumpy.
- Add in the flaxseed and water mixture and start stirring everything together with a spatula. It should start to form a big dough ball. If it’s too dry, add a little water a tablespoon at a time. Remember that coconut flour likes to soak up water like a sponge so as you add water wait just a few minutes to see if it needs more.
Nice dough ball. Not too dry or too soggy.
- Once you have your dough ball place it on your stone or pan that’s lined with parchment paper. Slightly flatten the dough with your hand and then using a rubber spatula start pressing the dough out into a pizza shape.
Spreading out the dough. It takes awhile so don’t rush it
- Work from the middle pressing out and keep going until you have about a 10 to 12-inch circle. You want it to be fairly thin so the crust will cook all the way through and not end up soggy. As you press the dough out the edges might crack a little but that’s ok just press them back together.
About how thick you want your crust. You could even go a little thinner for a crispier crust.
- Place the other piece of parchment paper on top of the crust and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove it from the oven.
- Ok, this is the slightly tricky part. You’re going to flip the whole crust over. What worked for me was putting on an oven mitt and then using the parchment paper to slide the middle part of the crust onto my hand and then flipping it over in a quick motion. The crust should be mostly cooked at this point and if you rolled it out thin enough won’t break apart on you. Don’t freak out, I’ve made this crust a dozen times and even if I totally botched the flip it hasn’t broken or ruined the crust.
- Once it’s flipped remove the parchment paper from the top of the crust and top with your favorite pizza toppings! Bake for another 5 minutes and enjoy!
Ready for toppings!
A few other tips:
- Don’t use a crazy amount of sauce because that is just going to turn the pizza to mush. Trust me. My favorite sauce so far has been a light layer of my spinach or cilantro pesto.
- If you put on a lot of heavy toppings your pizza may fall a little bit as you pick it up. If you don’t care and want all of the toppings go for it!
- You can make this crust in advance and keep it in the fridge or freezer until you’re ready to use it. I’ve only done it a few hours in advance so I can’t vouch for the quality after it’s been frozen and thawed but I will update this if I try it.
- If you put onions or peppers on your pizza and you want them cooked a little more than the five minutes at the end, saute them before you top your pizza. If not, they might be a little less done than some would prefer.
Oil-Free Cilantro Lime Pesto
One of the things I hope this blog proves is just because you have a certain dietary restriction/need/preference doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice flavor or some of your favorite things. There is usually always a way to meet your cravings based on your food needs. Now, that being said, that doesn’t mean I’m magic and can fix all your dietary woes with a healthy substitution. Some things just cannot be recreated and more often than not it’s better that we can’t turn all junk food into healthy food. Who wants to eat a healthy Twinkie anyway? Or a real one for that matter….
I digress. Today’s recipe was created because of two things. 1. While I love fat, it’s super easy to go overboard with it especially when it comes to liquid oil like olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil. Unless you’re measuring everything out, oil can add up pretty quick. I started to realize I was buying big jugs of olive oil more and more frequently and running out of them fast. Which leads me to my second reason… 2. I was out of olive oil and I wanted pesto.
I want to stress I don’t think good fats are bad. In fact, they’re awesome and I try to get them in at every meal. But too much of a good thing can be bad and when you use an entire 1.5-liter bottle of olive oil in less than a week and a half, you might need to evaluate your food situation. I’ll still use olive oil to make my spinach pesto, broccoli rabe pesto, and all other delicious things that require olive oil but it’s nice to have an option that is oil-free and just as delicious.
I used this last night on Adam’s fish and he deemed it “pretty tasty”, which is husband speak for good. It has a nice light flavor from the cilantro and even though there is no oil, it’s still creamy. You can use any green herb or vegetable you would like, I just happened to have a bunch of cilantro I needed to use so that’s what I went with. This would also be great on pasta or zoodles or panini’s or chicken/pork or crackers or your finger….
Oil-Free Cilantro Lime Pesto
- 1 bunch of fresh cilantro, rinsed and dried and ends trimmed
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
- juice of 1 to 2 limes, depending on how lime-y you want it
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp roasted garlic
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast (or freshly grated parmesan if you do cheese)
- To toast almonds: Add almonds to a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Shake the pan back and forth every so often and dry toast the almonds until golden brown. Let them cool while you get everything else together.
- Place the rest of the ingredients into a blender or food processor, starting with the garlic, then cilantro, then seasonings, and finally lime juice. Pulse a few times then add the cooled slivered almonds.
- Blend until you have a relatively smooth and creamy sauce. If it’s a little too thick you can add more lime juice or water 1 tablespoon at a time to thin it out. Taste and adjust the salt then store in your fridge in an airtight container for about a week.
Broccoli Rabe Pesto
I have another recipe for you today that uses up leftover vegetables and still tastes delicious. Broccoli rabe has been one of my favorite things lately. It’s a little bitter and earthy, but if you prepare it right and use all the garlic it turns into this amazing dish that I have been putting in my veggie noodle bowls every weekend.
It’s a vegetable-palooza up in here.
Well, last week I was not digging the greens and ended up with a pile of cooked broccoli that was just about to go bad. I was so tempted to throw it away because what can you do with almost mushy vegetable? 
Turn it into pesto! Yes, you can use anything to make pesto and I will use any excuse in the book to make and use pesto because as Phoebe would say, pesto is the besto.
I kind of threw stuff together and hoped that everything would turn out and I got pretty lucky. I thought I was so revolutionary but then a quick internet search proved me wrong BUT my version is dairy-free so I think that counts for something. You can also make this pesto with regular broccoli if you haven’t jumped on the broccoli rabe bandwagon or can’t find it. Just make sure whatever you use is already cooked because raw broccoli rabe pesto would definitely not be the besto.
Broccoli Rabe Pesto
- 1 1/2 cup cooked broccoli rabe or plain broccoli
- 1/3 cup slivered almonds (you could use slices too)
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast (if you do dairy you could use parmesan)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 325 and spread the almonds onto a baking sheet and toast for about 5 minutes. Check often to make sure you don’t end up with burnt almonds. Remove from oven and let cool.
- While the almonds are toasting, check your broccoli rabe and remove any pieces that are too brown or mushy (a little mushy is ok as everything will be blended up)
- Put the garlic cloves into a blender or food processor and pulse a few times until it’s fairly minced. Add the almonds and nutritional yeast or cheese and pulse until you have a crumbly mixture.
- Add the broccoli rabe and pulse again and then add the olive oil. Blend until you have a smooth and creamy sauce. Taste and add salt or pepper if needed.
You can use this pesto anywhere that you would use regular pesto. Pasta, bread, vegetables, vegetable noodles, spoons, fingers… You know, the usual. It would be a great spring-like dish to bring to your Easter feast on Sunday and a great way to get in extra vegetables.
I hope you have a great Easter weekend and I’ll see you on Monday!
Life Healthfully Lived 