Last week I was lamenting about the lack of decent vegan pizza options in Chicago. Quality pizza is about the only thing I miss about being vegan. There are a couple restaurants here who have a decent appetizer pizza, but nothing traditional. Not a day later, a recipe for quinoa crust pizza came up in my twitter feed. It sounded like an easy and healthy way to indulge in one of America’s great comfort foods, and something I’ve certainly been craving. I’ve wanted to try making either a cauliflower or quinoa crust pizza for a while and hadn’t gotten around to it. I was particularly intrigued by the quinoa crust idea because I thought it had the best chance of maintaining the likeness of a traditional pizza crust.

If you aren’t familiar with quinoa, you should be. Quinoa hails from South America, looks like a grain,and can be used interchangeably with rice or cous-cous. However, it is actually a nutrient rich seed so it’s lower glycemic than grains. Packed with protein, iron, calcium, and inflammation fighting flavonoids, this ancient plant has been declared one of the most nutrient dense foods available. Typically, you cook quinoa in water of vegetable stock, but for the pizza crust, you want to soak it overnight. This is because you bake it later, once you’ve turned it into a pizza dough.

I had the perfect opportunity to try out this new crust concept the other night, when my friend Michelle came over for dinner. She doesn’t eat gluten, and we always joke that we are the two pickiest eaters in Chicago with all of our dietary requirements. I can’t think of a more perfect opportunity to make a homemade vegan, gluten free pizza!

I’d never made pizza sauce from scratch before either, so this was a totally new experiment. We were thrilled with the outcome, and will definitely make it again! Especially because it was so easy and all the ingredients are things you probably have around in your pantry.

Growing up, we made homemade pizzas all the time as a family, so I’m really thrilled that I’ve come up with a satisfying health foodie version! I’m sharing the crust and sauce recipes here, the tofu ricotta topping is available on my web site (katshotcakes.com) and in the archives online at offthewater.com

15 Minute Pizza Sauce from Scratch
Yield: Sauce for 2-8 inch pizzas

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil    ½ cup minced yellow onion
3 cloves garlic, minced    1 teaspoon agave nectar
6 ounce tomato paste    ¼ cup vegetable stock
½ teaspoon Batti Becco seasoning salt    ¼ cup chopped fresh basil (available at Caffe Tosi)

1. Warm the olive oil in a medium size sauce pan. Sautee the onions until almost translucent, then add the garlic.
2. When the onions are cooked, whisk in the agave, tomato sauce, vegetable stock, and seasoning salt. Reduce to low and let simmer about 10- 12 minutes, whisking often.
3. Stir in the fresh basil, cook another 3-5 minutes, turn off heat, and allow to cool a little before spreading on crust.

Easy Quinoa Pizza Crust
Yield: 2-8 inch pizzas

1 cup quinoa, rinsed drained, and soaked overnight.
¼ cup vegetable stock
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1. After soaking 1 cup rinsed quinoa overnight, drain and rinse again, then place in a food processor fitted with the “S” blade.
2. Add remaining ingredients and puree until you have a smooth batter. It takes about five minutes of straight running the food processor to achieve a smooth batter. The quinoa seeds are tough, so it takes a while to break them down. You will want to stop the processor often and scrape the sides.
3. Fill two well oiled 8 inch cake pans with batter and bake at 425 for about 15 minutes.
4. Remove from oven, flip crusts over onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, top with pizza sauce, toppings, and tofu ricotta then bake for another 10-15 minutes.
5. Allow to cool, slice and serve.

Kat Barry, a St. Joseph, Michigan native, is owner of Kat’s Hot Cakes vegan catering, and co author of “The New Chicago Diner Cookbook: Meat Free Recipes from America’s Veggie Diner.” She also develops recipes for eHow.com, where you can find over 30 of her vegan instructional cooking videos. She is also a certified yoga instructor. Kat currently resides in Chicago, and in her free time she enjoys practicing yoga, sampling local spirits, listening to live music, and getting outdoors. Follow @katshotcakes on twitter. Kat can be reached via email at: kat@katshotcakes.com.