I would never in a million years have thought I’d be able to make a gluten free and vegan pizza base from scratch, but I promise you it’s not hard and you’ll absolutely love it.

This pizza could be a large pizza for one or perfect for sharing; typically my husband and I share one, and that gives us 4 slices each.

Ingredients:

2.5 cups of uncooked quinoa (this needs to be soaked in water for at least 7 hours)

1 cup of water

3-5 tbsp of nutritional yeast (I go with 5 as I like the base to have a slight cheesy flavour)

2 tbsp of garlic powder (optional)

1.5 tbsp of onion powder (optional)

2 tbsp of dried herbs (optional)

1 tbsp of baking powder

1 tsp of Himalayan or sea salt

Instructions:

1. Soak the uncooked quinoa in a bowl of water for at least 7 hours – ensure the quinoa is completely submerged in the water.
2. Preheat the oven to 400F/205C.
3. Drain the water from the quinoa and give it a good rinse.
4. Add the quinoa and water to a blender/food processor/coffee bean grinder until broken down (my blender and food processor were not able to do this, which is why I also suggest using a coffee bean grinder as this worked perfectly for me – although I couldn’t do the whole mixture in one go, and had to do it in a few smaller batches).
5. To a large bowl, mix the blended quinoa mixture with the rest of the ingredients.
6. The mixture will have a wet batter consistency.
7. Spoon the mixture onto a parchment paper-lined baking tray, and spread evenly.
8. Place in the oven for 15 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and flip the base as we now want to cook the other side. I find that using the parchment paper as ‘handles’ helps to flip the base over – think of it as almost like flipping a pancake, have confidence and go for it!  Peel the parchment paper off and discard.
10. Cook this side of the pizza base until golden brown, approximately for 10 minutes.
11. Remove base from oven and add tomato paste, veggies and cheese.
12. Cook pizza until the toppings are your preferred level of cooked and melted (between 10-20 minutes).
13. Remove from oven, slice and enjoy!