I love quinoa. It is such a versatile “grain” (well, actually quinoa is a seed!), is a great source of protein, and is naturally gluten-free. As Passover is quickly approaching, a holiday in which all traditional grains are not eaten, I have been looking for new quinoa recipes I can make to enjoy over the holiday. I have been wanting to make quinoa pizza crust for a long time now after seeing Cooking Light’s video on Facebook (you know which one). I finally took the opportunity to test it out, and I am in love. If you like thin crust pizza, you’ll love this vegan quinoa pizza crust recipe – a great guilt-free, allergy-friendly, gluten-free alternative to traditional pizza crusts.
What do you need to get started? Not a lot – quinoa, water, baking powder, salt and a bit of oil. And time. You need to have a bit of foresight with this one since you need to soak the quinoa in advance, preferably overnight, but at least for a good 8-10 hours.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Drain and rinse the quinoa, then add it to a food processor with 1/4 (clean) water, baking powder and salt, and pulse for about 2 minutes until you have a smooth mixture. Stop to scrape down the sides as necessary.
Line a spring-form pan with parchment paper, lightly grease it with oil, and pour your quinoa mixture into the pan, smoothing it out to be evenly distributed. Bake your quinoa pizza crust in the oven for 15 minutes, and then remove it from the oven.
Next, you’ll remove the siding from the spring-form pan, flip the crust, and in parallel remove the parchment paper. Return the crust to the oven to bake for another 5 minutes.
Remove your quinoa crust from the oven (but leave the oven on!), and add your choice of sauce and toppings. I chose a fresh pesto sauce, cherry tomatoes, chopped kale leaves and onion, and some vegan “cheese”.
Put the pizza back in the oven to cook for another 10 minutes. Your vegan quinoa pizza should now be ready to remove, slice, and serve up with your favourite pizza seasonings.
Fair warning – this is an easy to eat recipe. You may want to make a double batch and keep an extra quinoa crust in the freezer for later!
Ready to give it a try? Here’s the recipe. Be sure to share pics of your quinoa pizza masterpieces on Instagram and tag us -#accidentallycrunchy @accidentallycrunchy
Not sure what to do with the last bit of quinoa in that bag? Don’t put it away yet – check out this recipe for easy to make and super delicious puffed quinoa chocolates.
- 1 cup quinoa (rinsed and soaked overnight, or for at least 8 hours)
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp oil (grapeseed, olive, etc)
- Preheat the oven to 200 C
- Drain and rinse the quinoa after it has finished soaking
- Put the quinoa, ¼ cup of water, baking powder and salt in a food processor and pulse for about 2 minutes, until smooth.
- Line a spring form pan with parchment paper and brush with oil.
- Pour the batter into the pan and smooth with a spatula so it is evenly distributed.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, remove the pan edging and parchment paper, and flip the crust.
- Continue to bake for another 5 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and add the sauce and toppings of your choice.
- Return to the oven for another 10 minutes at 180 C.
- Remove from the oven, slice, and serve.
Welcome!
What a great idea. Never occurred to me to try to make Quinoa crust.
I love quinoa and I love pizza, so this sounds fabulous! Must try!
This looks really good, i have been looking for a gluten free pizza crust so thanks you so much for sharing!
Oh my goodness that looks so good! I’ve pinned it and will have to try it soon. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Rebecca!
Thanks for stopping by. Let me know what you think of the recipe once you’ve made it!
Yum! Pinning this now!
Thanks for stopping by Laura!
Oh my this looks incredible! I would like to try this one soon!!
That looks delicious! I’ve never made Quinoa or anything with Quinoa before, but I do like it!
This looks very tasty! I will definitely have to try this!
Hope you enjoy it!
Since I’m gluten free and now also flour free, I gave up even the thought of pizza. This recipe gives me hope and I look forward to trying it!
I’ve tried cauliflower crust, but at least the vegan version wasn’t such a success. This quinoa pizza crust though was a total success. Really recommend it!
I am definitely trying this, so excited because most veggie crusts require adding a bunch of cheese so yours is an added bonus!
Umm…nothing is going to get crunchy even accidentally at that temperature. The other version I have successfully used called for 425 degrees. 200 degrees and you have lukewarm soup. Maybe better check your temperatures.
Hi Roxane,
I think you are confusing Farenheit with Celsius here 🙂 Definitely at 200 F you wouldn’t make much progress, but 200 C is about 390 F, so am guessing you probably had a slightly shorter bake time on the recipe you tried.
Bests for the holidays!
Sarah
This recipe is absolutely wrong. Just tried it. Fell apart, there is no binding agent when it’s simply quinoa, water, salt and baking powder. The quinoa wouldn’t break apart with a blender. I tried a stick blender and a food processor. I even added oil and chickpeas in a second attempt to make this work. I bet you haven’t even tried this recipe. Don’t try it, it doesn’t work. After multiple attempts, just don’t bother. After this massive fail, I won’t bother checking out the rest of your blog. X
Hi Rachel,
I’m sorry to hear that you had problems with the recipe! That can certainly be unmotivating.
This is actually a favourite recipe of mine, and it has even been featured on the Joy Of Kosher website in their 2016 Passover recipe special.
If you had trouble blending the quinoa then it sounds like you didn’t soak the quinoa for long enough. Definitely adding chickpeas and oil wouldn’t help because it will end up making it too soft. The key to the recipe is that the water + baking powder + oil acts as a binding solution (it is a common egg substitute!). Just as important is the mid-bake flip to ensure an evenly baked crust. If you found it did not bake evenly, you may need to give it an extra couple of minutes before flipping it.
Hope you’ll consider checking out some of our other recipes! Feel free to email me if you want some extra help working out what went wrong with the recipe!
Can the crust be made ahead (baked) to be used later that same day? This recipe sounds exactly what I’ve been looking for! Can’t wait to try it!
Hi Kristi!
It should work out, yes – the crust is more or less sealed by the point that you add your toppings, so as long as you have a decent amount of cheese (or “cheese”) to help the toppings stick when you do add them, then I think it should be ok – just remember to take the crust out at the step before you would add the toppings, and to make sure your oven is really hot when you go to reheat it later for the final baking step.
Bests,
Sarah
This was delicious! Thanks for the recipe who the heck would of thought this was possible! Lol not me! But this is a keeper recipe…. Recommend trying it, just don’t be stingy on the soaking time of the quinoa …. So tasty
So glad you enjoyed it Leah! Yes, definitely pays to soak for the full time and not try to cut corners!
If you’re looking for other good quinoa recipes, you should try my sweet potato, lentil and quinoa burgers. So good!
Take care 🙂
So excited for this! Husband is gluten free and I want healthier options than the typical gluten free pizza recipes, so big hopes. Quinoa is almost done soaking so I will be back later to give my review.
Hope you enjoyed it! I was so happy to discover this recipe – It’s nice to be able to indulge and have a pizza night without feeling like I’m just carb stuffing!