Raw Vegan Pesto Pizza On A Sprouted Lentil Crust

Day 18 of our “One Month Raw Food Cleanse”
Who doesn’t like pizza? Well, for one, people who are lactose intolerant. Maybe they actually love pizza but they definitely don’t love what it does to them. This raw pizza, with creamy cashew ricotta, is made without cheese but you’d never know it. The light, crispy crust is made from the green lentils I showed you how to sprout on May 9th, 2009. Top it with a lighter version of the pesto I posted on April 20th, 2009, and some cherry tomatoes, black olives, button mushroom slices or whatever else you’re in the mood for, and you have a very delicious, healthy and filling main course.

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Sprouted Green Lentil Crust/Crackers [fills 4 – 5 Teflex sheets]
1 packed cup of sprouted green lentils
1 cup of raw walnuts soaked for 6 hours or overnight
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup flax seeds soaked in 2 cups of filtered water
2 tablespoons Nama Shoyu
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Soak 1 cup of walnuts in water for 6 hours. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup of flax seeds in 2 cups of filtered water. Soak for 4 to 6 hours. The flax seeds will absorb all of the water and you will not be rinsing these. After soaking the walnuts, rinse well and place in a food processor with the sprouted lentils, carrots, celery, Nama Shoyu and lemon juice. Blend until smooth but don’t over process. Add this mixture to the large bowl with the soaked flax seeds and mix well. Drop a tablespoon or more of the mixture on a Teflex sheet (of your dehydrator) and form a 4 by 2 ½ inch rectangle crust. Don’t make it too thin as is will naturally thin out as it dries. Make as many crusts as you need for pizza and use the rest, if you’d like, for crackers. If you don’t want the extra crackers, you can cut the recipe in half. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 8 hours, flip over, remove the Teflex sheet and dry until crisp (6 to 8 more hours).

Cashew Ricotta [makes enough for eight 4 by 2 ½ inch pizzas]
1 cup raw cashews soaked for 4 – 6 hours
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup water

Add the soaked cashews, lemon juice, salt and half of the water to the Vita Mix or other high speed blender. Starting at a very slow speed, and increasing slowly, blend until the mixture reaches the texture of ricotta cheese, adding the rest of the water (or a little more) as needed.

Basil Pesto [makes enough for eight 4 by 2 ½ inch pizzas]

1 cup packed fresh basil

1 medium clove of garlic

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons raw pine nuts

1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

1 heaping tablespoon Red Star nutritional yeast

1/2 teaspoons sea salt



Run the garlic through the chute of the food processor. Add the basil, lemon juice, salt and oil and process until smooth. Add pine nuts and nutritional yeast and process again being careful not to over process the nuts.

Raw Vegan Pesto Pizza On A Sprouted Green Lentil Crust [serves 4, makes 8 small pizzas]
8 sprouted green lentil crusts (recipe above)
Cashew ricotta (recipe above)
Basil pesto (recipe above)
16 cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
2 button mushrooms, thinly sliced
8 pitted black olives, thinly sliced (those in picture are not raw but raw dried black olives are available)
2 tablespoons red onion, chopped

Place 2 sprouted green lentil crusts on each of four plates. Spread each crust with cashew ricotta and top with mushrooms, tomatoes, black olives, basil pesto and chopped onions. Serve immediately.

Menu for Day 18
Breakfast is a smoothie with banana, blueberries, strawberries with their green tops, a big handful of fresh organic spinach, stevia, soaked almonds, flaxseed oil and water. Lunch will be guacamole with red bell pepper and jicama slices. A basket of fresh cherries will be my snack. For dinner I’m going to make raw split pea soup served with sprouted lentil crackers and have watermelon for dessert.