You know what makes pizza so delicious? That perfect combination of italian tomato sauce and melted cheese, plus meaty or veggie toppings. The pizza base is nothing more than just a gluten-filled, over-processed plate to put the good stuff on. And it fills you up too fast to enjoy more of the good bits. So here’s an idea – use veggies as your pizza base!
Eggplant is a fun place to start with this idea, as it’s easy to slice, quick to cook, and the flavour goes well with your pizza sauce and any toppings.
Get the Good Cheese
To make it a really primal pizza, all that’s left is to replace processed cheese with some unpasteurised (raw) parmesan cheese like Grana Padana or Parmigiano Reggiano. We have found these in our local supermarket, but you have to make sure to get a European brand that says unpasteurised in the ingredient list.
No-Crust Eggplant Pizza Ingredients
– 1 Eggplant
– Olive oil (or melted butter or ghee)
– Tomato paste
– Italian dried herbs like oregano, thyme, sage, parsley
– Raw parmesan cheese, grated
– Optional: fresh basil leaves, finely diced chorizo or other meat.
No-Crust Eggplant Pizza Recipe
Step 1: Slice eggplant into rounds of even thickness. Not too thick, not too thin. Or you can slice your eggplant lengthwise to make bigger ‘pizza bases’.
Step 2: Lay eggplant slices on a baking tray or on your broiler (oven grill) tray. Spray or brush lightly with olive oil or melted butter/ghee.
Step 3: Turn broiler (oven grill) to med-high heat and cook eggplant slices until lightly browned.
Step 4: Flip eggplant, brush or spray again with olive oil or butter and cook until lightly browned.
Step 5: While eggplant is cooking, mix dried herbs into the tomato paste and season well with salt and pepper. Pizza sauce!
Step 6: Spread pizza sauce onto browned eggplant slices. Then sprinkle grated cheese on top of the sauce. Add any optional diced chorizo, chicken or other meat, if desired.
Step 7: Put eggplant pizzas back under the heat for a couple minutes, just until the cheese melts.
Step 8: Top each eggplant pizza with one basil leaf to serve. This last step is optional but highly recommended for amazing flavour, especially if you’re not using any other toppings.
Best served immediately as an appetizer or side dish. Everyone is impressed with these when I serve them at dinner parties!
Unless you must have that crusty crunch in your pizza, why bother with all the gluten-free, paleo pizza crust recipes that are so time-consuming and don’t add any delicious flavour to your pizza? The best grain-free pizza crusts are the vegetables themselves!
Other Veggie & Meat Pizza Bases
What’s your favourite grain-free pizza idea?
No-Crust Eggplant Pizza, Plus 4 More Grain-free Pizza Crusts – February 2018