I don’t eat pizza very often, because I don’t want to eat pizza crust very often. A few years back, I went strict Paleo for a while, and grains were something I discovered I didn’t miss. (Cupcakes were another story.) Nibbling on bread at restaurants was nothing more than a habit — plus, I realized I was only in it for the butter — and who really cares about sandwiches when you can still have sandwich fillings? So, I gave grains the ax permanently, with a few rare exceptions.
But every now and then, pizza sounds great, even when the carb crash afterwards doesn’t. Cue my friend Anna Sward, PhD, founder of the vibrant and information-rich website Protein Pow(d)er. She solved my pizza problem with the following sweet-potato-based crust, then took it to the next level by adding, figs, goat cheese, and prosciutto. (Uhhh…yeah. Best combo ever.)
Below, Anna explains how you can recreate the magic in your own mouth.
How great are Anna’s graphics? This is me doing an overhead pizza press.
Paleo-ish Sweet Potato Pizza With Fig and Prosciutto
My goal was to make a grain-free sweet potato–based pizza that could be classified as Paleo-ish.
I tried making it with a base of just sweet potato, coconut flour, and egg. I tried this twice, and both times I failed miserably: instead of ending up with a pizza base, I ended up with something resembling sweet potato hashbrowns. Tasty? Yes, extremely. But pizza? Uh uh, not by a long shot.
So I caved in. I opened my cupboard, got out some buckwheat flour and added 1/8 of a cup of it to my sweet potato mix. Result? Fantastic! The flour made all the difference in the world, giving the base volume, texture, and “hold.”
Now, if you’re not into buckwheat but still want to make this pizza base, you could use gluten-free oat-flour, amaranth flour, chestnut flour or even some almond flour instead. I just gravitated toward the buckwheat because it was there and I knew it would do the job. You could also add some unflavored pea protein or sunwarrior’s warrior blend protein powder to up the protein content of your pizza, too! I do this all the time. But this time I didn’t. This time, what I did was this:
Step 1: Blend together the ingredients for the crust.
1 large cooked sweet potato
2 egg whites
1 whole egg
1/8 cup of buckwheat flour
7 sundried tomatoes (I got them dried so, not in oil)
1 tsp of dried basil (optional but nice)
Step 2: Once you’ve blended the above ingredients, transfer your mix to a round cake tin or even a square one if you want to end up with a square pizza. You could use one big cake tin or a couple of smaller ones. Just make sure that your cake tin is either silicone or efficiently non-stick. If it isn’t, add some coconut oil to it to make it so.
Step 3: Bake the mix in a hot, hot oven until the crust browns nicely.
Step 4: Add your toppings! I added the following toppings to this pizza (in the order mentioned):
Organic tomato paste
Fig
Gevrik Goat Cheese (it’s kind of like a goat cheese brie)
Prosciutto
Basil
Step 5: Stick the whole thing under your broiler until the cheese has melted. Finally, sit back, take in the beauty of the fig against the prosciutto and chevre, and dig in.
Macros per pizza base (sans toppings): 188.95 cals, 27.3g carbs (8.5 g sugars), 10.45 g protein, 3.4 g fat (1.6 g saturated), and 6.6 g of fiber
For more from Anna, check out her site Protein Pow(d)er, which includes a vast, beautifully photographed and instructed archive of protein-rich recipes ranging from more pizza to protein fluff, from protein cake to protein pancakes. In other words, Anna has a recipe for about anything you’re craving. You can also connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.
OMG. I need to eat this NOW!
Me too, Erin…me too.
also have a sweet potato pizza crust (grain/gluten free). not paleo as it contains pea protein but you could substitute 1/3 quantity of coconut flour for the quinoa flour, or a 1:1 substitution of almond four.
recipe link: http://chocolatechillimango.com/2011/12/09/sweet-potato-protein-pizza-base/
That looks fantastic, Viviane! Thanks for sharing!
oops no pea protein, just quinoa flour *late in the day here in Australia*
UM?NomNom!!! (It’s like om nom nom, but a bit unsure and curious) I’m into the crust! Any advice on the type of fig to use?
Anna used fresh, but those are hard to come by in Minnesota this time of year, so I used dried mission figs. Also delish.:)
I so need to try this! Can I sub something for the buckwheat flour?
Yes indeed! Anna says “you could use gluten-free oat-flour, amaranth flour, chestnut flour or even some almond flour instead.”
As a diabetic, this sounds great. I’m gonna have to give this a try.
Lemme know how it goes, Dave!
Ryan and I were on a mission a few months ago to find a paleo friendly pizza crust that didn’t fall apart when you pick it up. This was our favorite so far: http://www.againstallgrain.com/2012/08/07/meat-lovers-pizza/
…that being said, now we HAVE to try out this recipe too to compare. Plus, I’m a super huge fan of the salty+sweet combo on pizza.
Yum!!
Very impressive form on the pizza press, Jen. I mean that’s a huge pizza. I am assuming you PRed.