Caramelised Onion & Spinach Pizza With Macadamia ‘Cheese’

Do you have a guilty conscience eating pizza? Too much fat, too many calories and overall known as not too healthy. No problem, I have the perfect solution for you: why not try vegan pizza in a way you have never tasted before?

Pizza base

• 1 cup almonds
• 1/2 cup flaxseeds
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp salt

Tomato sauce

• 1 cup sundried tomatoes
• Fresh tomatoes, 1 cup
• 1 tsp coconut nectar / maple syrup
• 1/4 red onion
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp olive oil

Caramelised onion

• 3 red onions
• 2 tbsp tamari (wheat free soy sauce)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp coconut nectar / maple syrup
• 1/4 cup water

Macadamia ‘cheese’

• 1 cup macadamia nuts
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup water

To make the vegan pizza base:

1. Grind the almonds and flaxseeds together in a blender or NutriBullet.  If you don’t have a blender then you could buy pre-ground almonds and flaxseeds, but you retain more nutrients if you grind them yourself.
2. Put the almond and flax meal in a large bowl and add in the remaining ingredients and mix into a dough.
3. The dough will be quite sticky (like regular pizza dough) as the flaxmeal becomes sticky when it absorbs water, but you can add a little more water if necessary.
4. Divide the mixture into 2 or 3 depending on how large you want the pizza bases to be, shape them into circles about 1/2 cm thick and place them on a teflex sheet and into the dehydrator.  Dehydrate at 40C for about 8-10 hours or so, removing the teflex sheets halfway through and flipping the bases over from time to time.  If you don’t have a dehydrator then simply line a baking sheet with greaseproof baking paper and place them in an oven on the lowest setting which is usually 50C.  When the top has dried sufficiently, carefully peel the bases from the baking paper and flip them over to dry the other side.  When they are fairly dry both sides remove the baking paper and carefully place them on the oven shelf to allow the air to circulate and for them to dry more quickly.
5. When the bases are dry, you are ready to add the toppings!  Leftover bases can be frozen easily for a month.

To make the tomato sauce:

1. Blend all the ingredients together in a blender or NutriBullet until smooth.

To make the caramelised onions:

1. Slice the onions very thinly using a sharp knife or mandoline.
2. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl and then place the sliced onions in this to marinade them for a few minutes.
3. Place on a teflex sheet and dehydrate at 40C for 2-3 hours, or until softened.  If you do not have a dehydrator then place the onions on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and into an oven on its lowest setting (50C).  They will take around 1-2 hours in a conventional oven.

To make the macadamia ‘cheese’:

1. Blend all ingredients together in a blender or NutriBullet, adding a little more water if necessary but not too much or it will form a paste more like cream cheese.

The finale

To build the pizza simply spread some of the tomato sauce on the base and then top with fresh spinach, caramelised onions and macadamia ‘cheese’.

Experiment with different toppings to your heart’s content!