Do512 Family Featured Babymaker, Quel from HomegirlBlog, has a little man with a long list of allergies. She’s sharing her everything-free pizza recipe that is gluten-free, dairy-free, nitrate and nitrite-free, and it looks yum!
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*cue violin music* I have a kid with allergies. Not just an allergy here or there, but all the allergies. On top of that, he’s sensitive to food preservatives, food dyes and salicylates (a natural pesticide found in some fruit and vegetables)—those things make him super hyper and emotional. If you have a child who is particularly hyperactive and emotional, I highly recommend checking out the Feingold Diet (aka ADHD diet). About three days after I made adjustments to Zack’s diet based on the Feingold list, I had a brand new 4 year old. At first, it was difficult telling my son he couldn’t have grapes anymore, but now he’s perfectly content with just having pears, pear juice and occasionally a strawberry or two. Feeding a tiny human to keep him alive and growing with all those restrictions is hella stressful. Add to that the repeatedly taking him to birthday parties where he is not able to eat anything including the grape and apples, and you get a major first-world problem, my dear.
*still the violins, bring in the piano and cue the horns, crescendo* However, with all the natural and organic food alternatives available to us these days, there is hope. No more music references, but I enjoyed that–hope you did too.
Normally I bother people with the much shorter list of what my son CAN eat, rather than the list of foods he cannot. Here, I will list his allergies and I think you will understand why finding a pizza recipe (or any other recipe that is not rice, meat, raw greens, bean chips and flax milk) is blog-worthy.
So, yeah. I found dairy and soy-free pepperoni and cheese and wheat/gluten/egg-free pizza dough. While my son is sensitive to the salicylates found in tomatoes, after adding it back to his diet, I found that he can have small amounts of tomato ketchup and not be reduced to a puddle of emotions later. So there is sauce on this pizza recipe. However, the dough tastes so yummy alone, and the cheese melts so smoothly that a sauce-free pizza would still taste really really good.
I scoured the shelves of several natural food grocery stores and read lots of labels and after doing a little happy dance when I had all the ingredients in hand, my son and I made our first pizza. I was fortunate to find all the ingredients I need for pizza in my neighborhood’s Natural Grocers. Both Whole Foods and Natural Grocer change their alternative cheese and pepperoni options frequently, I have learned, but the replacements so far have been great allergy-proof options. Without further ado, I give you…
Everything-Free Pizza Recipe of Your Dreams
Ingredients
– Namaste Foods Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix. It’s also sugar free, and made in dedicated facility free of gluten, wheat, soy, corn, peanuts, tree nuts, dairy and casein. It’s made from brown rice flour, tapioca flour and arrowroot flour primarily and is seasoned with garlic, onion and italian seasoning. Yep–there’s rosemary in there.
– Organic Prairie Uncured Pepperoni. It’s preservative, nitrite and nitrate free and contains certified organic and pasture raised beef and pork. I normally use Applegate brand, but Natural Grocer didn’t have it the day I went in. Instead I found this Organic Prairie one and it’s great.
– Daiya dairy, gluten, casein and soy free mozzarella shreds.
Directions
Set oven to 450 degrees. For the dough, follow instructions on the box. Basically, combine 1 and one-half cups of mix, 1 teaspoon oil of choice (I use avocado) and 1 and one-fourth cups water and mix for 3 minutes with an electric mixer. Then spread the cake batter textured dough in pizza pan and bake for 20 minutes.
It goes in looking like this…
And comes out looking like this…
Add whatever toppings you want. For us it was sauce and pepperoni, but do what you like. Return the pizza to the oven for 10-15 minutes to cook up and pizza’s ready!
Before…
After…
My five year old son loves it, definitely way more than his usual plain rice, meat and raw veggies, and he eats the whole pizza–every time, my husband and I are lucky to get one slice.
Are you dying to try this recipe? Do you have a favorite everything-free pizza recipe that’s different from this one? Tell us in the comments!
Mangia!
Quel is a work-at-home mom, homeschooler and all around crafty broad. She has blogged about her adventures in Austin since moving here in 2005 and loves exploring Austin fun with her 5-year-old son. Find her at http://www.homegirlblog.com.
No comments after a year? Ok, I’ll give you some of my allergen-free recipes for pizza toppings. (may sub out that dairy-free cheese for cashew butter) Good luck convincing a small child to taste new and odd looking foods… but they are delicious!
– Pear, caramelized onions, walnuts, cashew butter sauce
– Ham, pineapple, cashew butter sauce, tomato sauce
– Chicken, spinach, Italian spices, cheese
– Chicken, Bacon, Pork, Steak, olives, onions, bar-b-que sauce
(this one is ‘all leftover meats’ recipe)
Cashew Butter Sauce (may sub out the cheaper peanut butter, but cashew does taste more awesome)
1 cup Nut Butter
1 cup Stock or water
– Nuke until melted, stir until mixed
Add in salty, spicy and sweet flavors to taste – if using to replace cheese, subtle is better. I usually add in: Soy Sauce, Ginger, Garlic, Hot sauce
After the spices are mixed in, stir in 1 cup of milk (soy, almond, coconut) Cover and refrigerate to save. Add more milk if it thickens up.