Raw Pizza - Part 2

A couple/few days ago I started to make Raw Pizza (vegan).  For part 1, see Raw Pizza - Part 1 blog entry.  That entry includes preparation of the crust.
Last night I was planning to do part 2 but....  I was just too tired.  So, I took the crust out of the dehydrator and put it into the fridge for finishing tonight!
When I got home this afternoon, I took the crust out of the fridge and put it back into the dehydrator, set on 115 degrees Fahrenheit, and started preparing the raw red pepper marinara and nut cheese for the pizza.


ingredients for raw red pepper marinara

The Hippocrates kitchen recipe for the Raw Red Pepper Marinara is as follows:
4 chopped red bell peppers
1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic
1 Tablespoon Frontier Pizza Seasoning
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Fresh Oregano, to taste
Fresh Thyme, to taste
Braggs Aminos, Dulse, Or Kelp Granules, to taste
Liquid Stevia Extract, to taste

1. In food processore, combine all ingredients.
2. Blend to a smooth consistency.
3. Season to taste.

Most of the Hippocrates recipes yield large amounts and I need to halve them at a minimum.  I had already halved the crust recipe so I simply halved the raw red pepper marinara recipe as well with the following modifications....
I used about 1 Tablespoon of sweet onion instead of the red onion.
I didn't have any of the fresh herbs in the recipe so I used 1 teaspoon of basil and about 1/2 teaspoon each of oregano and thyme.
I used 1 teaspoon of kelp powder.
I did not use any Braggs, dulse, nor Stevia.
I used Organic Tuscan herb infused olive oil from Bella Balsamic and Pressed Olive.  Delicious!  I'm fortunate there is a store within an hour's drive that carries these fabulous oils.
I also added a dash of cayenne, because I love it!
The consistency of the pepper sauce was looking pretty wet and runny so...  I also added 1 teaspoon of psyllium husk powder to thicken it up.  I set the sauce aside to thicken as I made the nut cheese...




putting nut cheese onto raw pizza crust

The Hippocrates kitchen recipe for the Nut Cheese is as follows:
2 cups macadamia nuts, soaked & rinsed
1 cup pine nuts, soaked and rinsed
2 stalks celery
1/4 yellow (or better yet, Vidalia) onion
1 Tablespoon Kelp powder
pinch of Cayenne
2 Tablespoons Oregano
2 ounces lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup water

1. Blend in a high speed blender, stirring vigorously.

I halved the nut cheese recipe as well with the following modifications....
I'm not sure if they meant to use the macadamia and pine nuts straight out of soaking and rinsing without dehydrating but...  I have found it near impossible to do that much planning such that the nuts are done soaking just at the time that I'm ready to use them for a recipe...  So, I used nuts that were soaked, rinsed, AND dehydrated.  It's a lot easier to have the nuts already soaked, rinsed, dehydrated, and ready to go in the cupboard.
I didn't have yellow onion, nor Vidalia onion.  I wish I had Vidalia onion. Those onions are simply superb.  I used about one Tablespoon sweet onion.

spooning raw red pepper marinara onto nut cheese on crust

Although I halved the rest of the recipe, I did use two small cloves of garlic, because it's Friday night and I don't have to worry about being garlicy tomorrow!
I ended up using close to the 1/2 cup of water.  I found 1/4 cup of water didn't work too well...  Maybe I needed more water because the nuts were dehydrated...  Maybe I needed more water because this halved small batch just wasn't mixing well in the Vitamix...
One problem with making small batches of the nut cheeses in a large high speed blender, like the Vitamix, is that it is tougher to get them blended properly.  It's also a tad difficult for a short person to "Blend in a high speed blender, stirring vigorously."  Once I put my Vitamix on the countertop, the top of the blending container is already at my shoulder height... and that's before I put the 2-inch cover on the container and the Vitamix stirrer into the cover.  My arm is arching up and over trying to "stir vigorously" and getting very sore in the process.  So, I decided that wasn't going to work for me.  What I did was toss the cover and Vitamix stirrer and gradually bring the speed up on the blender until it sounded like an air pocked was forming.  Then I turned it off, used a spatula to move the ingredients back down, and repeated this process until the nut cheese became a consistency that looked fairly well blended.


zucchini and carrot added to top of pizza

Also of note for this recipe, Chef Ken from Hippocrates pointed out during the Kitchen Techniques Class that the recipe uses oregano in place of nutritional yeast for helping bring out a "cheezy" flavor.  Hippocrates does not use nutritional yeast because of its yeast characteristic.

With the raw red pepper marinara and nut cheese complete, I decided to spread the nut cheese onto the crust first since the nut cheese is a much thicker consistency than the pepper sauce.  The red pepper sauce was then spooned and spread over the nut cheese.  To finish, I sliced some zucchini and shred some carrot for toppings.  I placed the pizza into the dehydrator, set to about 120 degrees Fahrenheit to start and turned down to 115 after about 30 minutes.


pizza after a little less than 2 hours in dehydrator

The initial crust recipe indicates that the pizza crust is to be topped and dehydrated overnight again!  Well, I just couldn't wait that long to taste this pizza and, I figure, raw is raw, and take it out after about 1 hour 45 minutes to feast!  Along with a large salad with lots of sprouts, of course :)  It was delicious!  After eating one slice each, the pizza is now back in the dehydrator for overnight dehydrating and lunch tomorrow!  This raw pizza is very heavy and one piece is really about all that is necessary, especially with a nice big salad.  I found this raw pizza quite satisfying.  Although it doesn't totally squelch the thoughts of a dairy cheesy salty doughy pizza, it does a pretty darn good job.  Yum!  Great job to all the Hippocrates chefs that helped create this deliciousness!

Of note, although I had already halved the recipes, I still had lots left over of both the marinara and nut cheese.  These will be lovingly used to make some kind of nut burrito probably tomorrow night :) 

Next time I will probably make the crust thinner...  This 9 inch round of crust is about 1/4-inch thick, which is pretty thick.  Next time I'll shoot for 1/8 inch if possible, which will make for an even larger pizza and toppings used further...  It's a lot of pizza though and I don't like to keep things more than a few days in the fridge so perhaps I will need to cut the recipe down to 1/3 instead of 1/2...