Black-eyed pea quinoa pizza

As promised, here is what I made with yesterday’s Thrive Diet raw sauces: pizza! Kind of. Brendan Brazier himself says he uses the term "pizza" loosely. It has a base, sauce, and toppings, but the similarities end there. The crust isn’t firm or crispy, and you’ll need a plate and fork to eat it—to me, it’s more of a flat casserole. Whatever you want to call it, it’s highly inventive and unexpectedly yummy.

For the crust:
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup cooked black-eyed peas (1/2 can)
1/2 cup chickpea flour (or whole wheat)
1/4 cup coconut oil or hemp oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Sea salt to taste

Sun-dried tomato marinara
Sweet pepper hemp pesto

For the topping:
2 carrots, peeled and grated
1 cup cooked black-eyed peas (other 1/2 can)
1 red bell pepper, sliced or diced
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 medium sweet potato, grated
4 green onions, minced
1 tsp crushed red pepper
2T sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a food processor, combine all crust ingredients.



Process until the mixture starts to ball up.



Lightly grease a 10x15-inch baking pan with coconut oil (or cooking spray). Spread the mixture across the entire pan, about 1/4-inch thick. Spread about one cup of the sun-dried tomato marinara across the crust.



Evenly sprinkle on all topping ingredients.



Bake for 45-50 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before cutting.



Top each piece with a drizzle of the sweet pepper hemp pesto, sprinkle with sunflower seeds, and serve. Even though the pizza is huge, it’s quite thin, so you’ll easily be able to polish off 1/4 of it at a time. I love the salty-savory black-eyed pea and quinoa crust, and it was perfectly complemented by the sweet sauces. Use whatever veggies you want on top (I strayed pretty far from the original recipe’s toppings), but I particularly recommend including the grated sweet potato. This thing is packed with nutrition, from healthy fats to soluble fiber to plant protein. The initial prep work was a little time-consuming, but worth it. I just lent the book to a friend, but when I get it back, I plan to try some of Brendan’s other pizza recipes as well.



Yield: 4 servings. Per serving: 492 calories, 26.2g fat (8g sat), 52.6g carbs, 11g fiber, 15.8g protein.