Caramelized Onion & Coconut Bacon Pizza

In the virtual world, I’m quite active in the raw food community. However, in the real world, I’m shamefully not as active as I’d like to be. So last weekend I attended my first raw food meet up in (gulp) 4 years – Yes, that’s right, 4 long years. We have about 3 raw food meet up groups in Kansas City area that span from Overland Park, to downtown Kansas City and Lee’s Summit. While I’m a member of all three, it seems like with my summer/early fall traveling schedule, I was never in town when a meet up was taking place. Now that my life has slowed down (or, slowed down as much as it’s going to, ha), I was finally able to attend the Lee’s Summit pot luck this past Saturday afternoon.

The Lee’s Summit pot luck is run by Jan Van Benthusen, someone I’ve been wanting to meet for quite sometime – as I’ve used Jan (unbeknownst to her – I swear I’m not a crazy stalker!) many of times, as an example of someone who cured their cancer naturally with raw foods. I’ve never heard her speak on the topic (which is next on my list), but still, it’s amazing to ready her story (see here). Sure enough, Jan, alongside her husband and son, were contagiously spirited – and, did I mention that they all eat high raw?! Love that.

While everyone at the potluck brought wonderful dishes to share, there was one dish that completely stole the spotlight – and that was, Loren’s (Jan’s husband) pizzas. Hands down, these were phenomenal. The crust didn’t stick to your mouth (hello, flax seeds), the cheese was perfectly fermented (not too sour) and the sausage – I swear, tasted like real sausage.  Sometimes raw-mimicking meats can be questionable – but this, made me see them in a totally different way! I’m. Hooked.

And so, on that sunny afternoon, inspiration was born – raw pizza, but with a gourmet twist.

I’ll spare you the recipe for the crust, as it didn’t turn out like I’d hoped. Which was, to mimic a traditional flour-based pizza crust. I used the bare minimum, consisting of sprouted buckwheat flour, olive oil, water, salt and a bit of nutritional yeast. Basically, it’s not as neutral-flavored as I was hoping for (damn buckwheat) and a little too fragile for cutting… So, I’ll be going back to the kitchen on that one. Good news, is that it doesn’t take much more than a quick google search to find a decent tried-and-true crust recipe – so, pick freely.

The coconut bacon is inspired by Aux Vivres’s coconut bacon, but instead of using liquid smoke to flavor, I used my recipe for eggplant bacon – just, minus the eggplant. While it still has a coconutty flavor to it, it ain’t bad. And by ain’t bad, I mean – I kind of wanted to eat it with a spoon, bad.

Caramelized Onion & Coconut Bacon Pizza

Crust

see note above

Peppercorn Cheese

1 cup of cashews (soaked)
1 cup of hemp seed (soaked, hemp adds a more peppery flavor)
1 cup of water
2 acidophilus pills

1 tsp crushed peppercorns (my way – place peppercorns in a small baggie and use meat tenderizer to crush coarsely)
2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 T lemon juice
1/2 clove garlic minced
1/4 tsp sea salt

In a high-speed blender, blend the first four ingredients until creamy. In a glass jar, place cheese mixture and let sit uncovered in a dark, slightly warm (90 degrees) place, for about 18 hours (the longer it sits, the more sour it will become.) If you’d like to strain your cheese, reference my Leek and Herb Cheese for instructions.

Once fermented, mix in the remaining ingredients. Set aside.

Caramelized Onions

2 onions, thinly sliced
1 T maple syrup
1 T tamari
1 T olive oil
dash of sea salt

Mix all ingredients together and place on a non-stick dehydrator sheet until golden brown (about 6 hours).

Coconut Bacon

1 cup dehydrated coconut
1 T olive oil
1 T tamari
1 T apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne

Mix all ingredients together, making sure coconut is evenly coated. Spread coconut on a dehydrator sheet and dehydrate until crispy and dry (1-3 hours).

Assembly

Gather all ingredients.

Spread crust evenly with peppercorn cheese.

Top cheese with caramelized onions.

Sprinkle generously with coconut bacon.

And, Devour. See how fragile my crust was? I kind of like it and kind of didn’t – the jury’s still out.

Ahh, the perfect bite.

From a nutritional standpoint:

This pizza is especially great for the thyroid, as it has a healthy dose of metabolism boosting Essential Fatty Acids (from the hemp), pituitary gland stimulating zinc (from the cashews), and thyroid activating medium chain fatty acids (from the dehydrated coconut).

If you live in the KC area and are curious as to what all this raw food is I blog about (friends, that’s you), tag along with me to the next Meet-Up pot luck Novemeber 20th. It’s holiday themed and I’ll gladly help you make an easy raw dish to bring along – how can you pass that up!? I know, you can’t. Call me!

Tagged as: coconut, entree, Raw, vegan