Raw Pizza Reboot

I don't do raw gourmet foods nearly as often as I used to. When I first delved deeper into the world of raw foods, going gourmet was something that quickly became an obsessive culinary habit. Now it's something I probably do once in a blue moon, or in this case, Friday the 13th. Why? Mostly because I learned that I really do love raw foods for their simplicity, for their freshness, for their "alive-ness" so why mix and blend and dehydrate when you can have a food in all its natural glory? I realized that raw gourmet is exactly that: gourmet. It's a treat, something you have every once in a while like for a special occasion or when you want to put your chef cap on for an evening.

However, whenever I do choose to go all out, I turn to my trustiest source: the Goddess of raw gourmet, Alissa Cohen and her bible, Living on Live Food. To me, Alissa is like the Julia Child of raw foods, bringing what seems like really complex un-cooking techniques to us plebeians and showing us how simple it is to make yummy raw foods.

So when Andrew wanted pizza, I knew straight away that I would use her Easy Pizza Crust. Yet as much as I love her cheese recipe, I wasn't quite willing to shell out the dineros for all those macadamia nuts. Instead, I came up with a fantastic equivalent, that I frankly think tastes better than the original (and will cost you about half as much).

Raw Pizza Cheese

(or should that be raw pizza raw cheese?)

1 1/2 C raw cashews

1/4 C raw macadamia nuts

1/4 C raw sunflower seeds

juice of 1/2 lemon

2 teaspoons of Bragg's Liquid Aminos

2 tablespoons of water

Blend everything in you trusty ol' Vitamix/high speed blender!

I eye-balled my own tomato sauce recipe with what I believe to be 2 1/2 tomatoes, a very large handful of sundried tomatoes, a big slice of pepper, thyme, rosemary, salt, garlic, and 3 dates. Toppings included the usual fantastic combo of pineapple, black olives, spinach, broccoli, and red pepper.

I also always follow Alissa's tip to put the cheese first then the sauce. The cheese tends to be easier to spread and stick on the crust, so you can just pour the tomato sauce over it rather than make a big globby mess.

Other than that, it's Saturday so we're off to the market, a rainy market sure, but I'l take it! In the meantime, Go make a pizza! Have a great weekend!