Surprise surprise! Our newest post is on pizza!
… Not surprised? You say the pizza pictured in the last post gave it away? You do have a point there… Well, there’s only so many ways to showcase balls of cheese so we thought pizza to be the most appetizing of our immediate options.
Any who, we’re not only making this pizza for ourselves, we’re making it for one of our followers, Bianca, who emailed us exclaiming the food she misses the most since going lectin-free is pizza. But not just any pizza – American style pizza with chewy crust, tomato sauce, and thick mozzarella cheese. That, my friends, is a craving I can get down with.
I feel inclined to believe that every kid who grew up in America had a favorite pizza take-out restaurant, for Kim & I, that spot happened to be Hungry Howie’s, who dished out large, garlic herb crusted pizzas for only $5.99. Nothing tasted better as a broke high school kid. After coming to the West Coast, I realize there’s no Hungry Howie’s out here, but without a doubt, there are cheap pizza joints that have stollen each & every one of our hearts.
Because we didn’t want to make a super thin New York style crust, but also didn’t want to make a crust so thick that it’s bready & dense (this is gluten-free after all), we decided to land somewhere in the middle with a crust that’s got a bite & chew but is also thin enough that it crisps up on the bottom. We wanted to keep this recipe as simple as possible, so we constructed a sauce that requires no cooking or chopping – it’s as easy as popping open a can of tomato sauce & mixing it with onion powder, garlic powder, balsamic vinegar, & erythritol. The resulting sauce is savory, lightly sweet, subtly tangy, and perfect for a classic, American-styled pizza.
If you read our last post, you can probably guess what cheese goes on here: our Nut-Free Vegan Mozzarella! Which we’re beyond stoked about, because this cheese melts, stretches, & browns just like a good mozzarella, only without lectins, dairy, or gluten. It’s the dream cheese. To make lives happier, the cheese can be made in 6.5 hours, fermentation and all, which is extremely short when it comes to homemade cheeses.
Let’s a take a second to talk about lectins, because there’s always questions concerning tomatoes (sauce) & white rice (crust). I’m not going to go too in to detail, as I’ve talked about these two foods many times over, but I’ll give you the bare bones. When it comes to tomatoes, the lectins are contained within the seeds & peel of the fruit, so if you remove those two parts then you have a lectin-free food. Tomato sauce is only made from the meat of tomatoes, meaning it too is lectin-free, and if you use a non-BPA, organic product, you have nothing to worry about it.
White rice (and white rice flour) comes from a whole grain that contains lectins. However, similarly to tomatoes, certain parts can be removed to create a lectin-free food; when it comes to rice, if you remove the bran & hull of the grain (which are the parts that make brown rice brown), you’re left with white rice, which is lectin-free. However, that does not mean it’s Plant Paradox approved, as Dr. Gundry warns about eating white rice as it can raise blood sugar levels, which can be dangerous for diabetic & auto-immune patients. Although, if you are neither of those, then you have nothing to worry about. In fact, in a recent interview with “Goop,” Gundry talks about how 4 billion people live healthy, disease free lives with white rice as their staple food. Plus, white rice (and white rice products) open doors of possibilities in the lectin-free realm by allowing for an abundance of creations to be crafted.
If you’re still on the edge about using rice or not, check out this post on the differences between white rice & brown rice – this post will help clear up a lot of questions you may have.
All in all, this pizza is:
- Quick & easy to make
- Gluten-free, lectin-free & vegan
- Classic, American Cheese styled pizza
- Savory, melty, chewy, and lightly crispy
Like our last post, this recipe was made from a follower submission, so if you have a dish you’d like to us re-create, submit it here!
If you like what your taste buds are tellin’ ya, leave behind a nice rating, share your thoughts with us in the comments, or show us your creations by tagging @noeggsorham on Instagram.
Go Forth & ‘Zha
Ryan
American-Style Cheese Pizza (lectin-free, vegan & gluten-free)
Chewy & lightly crisp crust with homemade, melty vegan mozzarella & savory tomato sauce.
Ingredients
Crust
- 2/3 c white rice flour
- 1/3 c sorghum flour
- 2 tbsp tapioca starch
- 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar*
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 c + 2 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Sauce
- 1/3 c tomato sauce
- 1 tsp low-carb sweetener (like Swerve or erythritol)
- 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
Assembling
- 2 balls of Nut-Free Vegan Mozzarella
- pinch of Italian herbs
- pinch of salt
- brush of olive oil
Directions
- Place 1/2 c + 2 tbsp of warm water into a small bowl or measuring cup. You want it to be very warm to the touch, but not scolding hot; about 110° F if you have a thermometer.
- Stir yeast & sugar into the warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes. While yeast awakens, stir together rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt & garlic powder in a large bowl.
- After 5 minutes, stir yeast mixture & olive oil into dry ingredients using a wooden spoon. Once combined, use your hands to knead the dough until it’s smooth and slightly stretchy; about 3 minutes.
- The dough should be sticky, but not so sticky that it glues to your hands. If it’s too moist, add a touch of rice flour (about 1/2 tbsp). If it’s too dry, add a touch of water (about 1/2 tbsp).
- Place a sheet of parchment paper onto a pizza stone or large cookie sheet. Dust it lightly with sorghum flour, plop down the dough, and roll it out into a medium-large circle; about 14 in across.
- Note: You can use a rolling pin, wine glass, or simply your hands to stretch it out.
- Form crust around the edges by scrunching the dough up and shaping it with your hands. Let dough rest for 30 minutes in a warm place. (I like to turn the oven on for a minute, turn it off, then place it in there.)
- Place mozzarella balls in freezer for 20 minutes and then grate using a cheese grater. Place back in fridge until ready.
- Stir together all of the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
- After 30 min, remove crust from oven (if that’s where you let it rise) then pre-heat oven to 500° F. When it’s ready, brush the rim of the dough with olive oil & bake crust without any toppings for 7 minutes.
- Remove from oven and spread on at least 3 tablespoons of sauce (you can use up to 5 tbsp, depending on how saucy you like it), sprinkle with Italian herbs & salt, then top that with all of your grated cheese – the more cheese the better.
- Place back in oven for 7-10 minutes, depending on how well done you like your pizza. We went with 8 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow it to rest for at least 2 minutes. Cut into desired sized pieces and enjoy while fresh!
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to three days. Reheat in a pan fitted with a lid over medium-high heat with some olive oil – this fries the crust and re-melts the cheese.
*Sugar is necessary for yeast to multiply & blow bubbles, which helps create an airy dough. Without sugar, the yeast has nothing to feed on; sugar alcohols will not work here. You can also use honey, agave, coconut palm syrup, coconut sugar, or any substance that actually contains sugar.
NO EGGS OR HAM 
I’ve had to give up xantam gum because of my corn allergy, and it being a corn derivative. Are you buying a corn free xantam gum, if yes can you please share where to buy?
Thanks!
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Hey Grace! I can’t say if the xanthan gum I use is corn-free or not :( Do you know if any of the other similar gums are corn-free? Best of luck!
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ammm….. you have used savory tomato sauce… But the tomatoes are rich in lectin, so how is this recipe lectin free? Can you please clarify?
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Hey there!
We cover tomatoes in a couple of posts, but essentially, only the skins and seeds of tomatoes contain harmful lectins. Thus, peeled and de-seeded tomatoes are okay in moderation.
Tomato paste, which is what tomato sauce is made from, doesn’t contain either the seeds or skins of tomatoes. In Gundry’s new cook book, there’s also a pizza recipe with peeled & de-seeded tomato sauce. The main thing to look out for smooth tomato paste, tomato sauce, or other smooth tomato products!
Hop this helps :)
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oh ok…. thanks :)
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