In this episode of the Whole Food Plant-Based Cooking Show, host Jill introduces viewers to her mouth-watering plant-based Chicago style deep dish pizza recipe. With a passion for pizza, Jill dives into creating the perfect sauce, starting with sautéed onions, garlic, and a mix of herbs before adding crushed tomatoes and cooking it down to the ideal thickness.
Moving on to the crust, Jill combines almond meal, sweet potato, flax meal, tapioca starch, and baking powder to create a soft and sticky dough reminiscent of Uno’s famous pastry crust. Using a springform pan lined with parchment paper, Jill presses the dough into a ball and rolls it out to form a crust that will cover the sides of the pan.
As the pizza bakes in the oven, Jill takes a moment to share the background of the Whole Food Plant-Based Cooking Show, including the importance of supporting members who help fund the creation of free recipe videos and printable recipes on their website. She also introduces viewers to Essential Complement, a supplement designed to complement nutrient gaps often found in plant-based diets.
With a delicious deep-dish pizza in the making, viewers are in for a treat as Jill showcases her passion for plant-based cooking and creating flavors that are both nutritious and satisfying.
Watch the video by The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show
Video Transcript
Let’s make a plant-based Chicago style pizza Welcome Back to the whole food plant-based cooking show where we make plant-based cooking easy I’m Jill and today boy do I have a treat for you we are going to make a Chicago style deep dish pizza cuz I am a pizza holic I
Absolutely love pizza and Chicago style is one of my all-time favorites it’s all those that deep crust all those toppings just melded together so delici ious we’re putting that out today even though today was supposed to be our potato sweet potato Yi recipe uh but this
Turned out so amazing that we were so excited to get it out so we decided to do that one this week instead uh before we get started I just want to give a shout out to a little girl named Flora uh who’s been working her way through our recipes and making
Them so hi FL I hope you’re going to enjoy this recipe as much as we do all right so the first thing we’re going to start with is our sauce so I’ve got a small onion here just diced up pretty fine that we’re going to get in our
Pan we’re just going to sauté it a bit just to get some of that uh rawness cooked out of it you don’t need to add any oil to your pan there’s actually natural oils in the onions that will keep it from sticking but if it’s start sticking before they get fully cooked
You can always just use a little bit of water or vegetable broth just to keep keep it from sticking to your pan so we’re going to let these cook just a couple more minutes until and then we’ll add our other ingredients okay so now our onions are
Done we’re going to add three minced cloves of garlic one teaspoon of oregano teaspoon of basil and a/ teaspoon of thyme we’re just going to stir that around a little bit just to get those the heat from the pan get the garlic cooking a little bit here and then we’re
Going to add our crushed tomatoes so this is 1 28 Oz can of crushed tomatoes now we’re just going to have this cooking on about medium high and we’re just really essentially we’re just cooking this down so that the sauce is a little bit thicker and giving it time to
Get those herbs all incorporated into the sauce cuz this style of pizza you don’t want a wet type of sauce because that’s going to make the bottom of your crust soggy so we’re going to try to cook a lot of that moisture out while we’re getting our other things going
While we’re waiting for that I’d like to share some background on our show the whole food plant-based cooking show is crowdfunded which means these free weekly recipe videos along with our entire catalog of free printable recipes on our website plant-based cooking show.com and our plant-based cooking Made Easy cookbook series are all made
Possible in part by the generous patronage of our supporting members membership community so if you love our recipes I invite you to join us on our mission to make plant-based cooking easy and follow the link in the description to become a supporting member today there’s no denying the plant-based diet
Is a nutrient Powerhouse but did you know there are a handful of hardto get nutrients even well-crafted diets are often lacking the latest research suggests that complementing your diet with a few specific vitamins minerals and Omega-3s will help boost your energy and keep you thriving for the long term
That’s why my daily Health routine includes compliment essential compliment essential contains the eight critical nutrients lacking from most plant-based diets and dosages optimized specifically for us as a special discount for our viewers just use code plant-based easy at checkout to save 15% off of your order okay so now that your sauce is
Cooking onto the crust and this crust is amazing I don’t know if you’ve ever had Uno’s pizza I believe it’s some you know like a New York type of company that makes these Chicago style pizzas but there’s this it’s like a pastry crust and this is the flavor that I was going
For so I’ve got two cups of almond meal or almond flour 1 and 1/2 cups of mashed sweet potato and this is a white sweet potato but you can also use an orange one that will work just fine a half a cup of flax meal 1 half a cup of tapioca
Starch and 2 tpoon of baking powder now I’m going to use my pastry cutter just cuz it’s easier to incorporate you could use a fork or just spoon you know stir it around with a spoon I just like to get it Incorporated with this pastry knife it’s really very very
Handy so really you’re just trying to get it all mixed together until it comes into a nice big you know a ball that’s all of the stuff is sticking to itself okay now that I have it basically all stuck together I’m just going to press it into a ball just with my
Hands and I already have my oven preheated to 375 so that when we’re done here we can just pop it right in the oven okay so there we have our ball it’s very a very sticky very soft type of dough it’s not like a pizza dough at all it’s
More like a very soft pizza crust so the next step you’re going to need a couple pieces of parchment paper a rolling pin and then I’m going to do it in a 9in spring form pan because I love popping that spring form off and looking at the
Pizza just in its free form state but you can make this in a cast iron skillet or a pie PL plate would work just as well you might just have to oil the plate a little bit so that your crust doesn’t stick but we’re going to use
Parchment so I’m just going to mash it down a little bit flat with my hands first trying to keep it as round as possible and this crust is going to go all the way to the edge of these this parchment paper all right so now you’re just going to just
Like a pie crust you’re going to roll out your pastry crust all the way out to the edges of your paper or if you have your uh your spring form or your pan you can kind of look at the size by putting it on there and make
Sure that you have at least a good inch and a half maybe 2 Ines past the edge of the the pan that you’re going to use cuz that’s going to come up around and form the sides okay there we go that’s pretty pretty good and because it’s not like a pie
Crust you’re not going to be able to roll it onto your PIN so what we’re going to do instead is we’re going to keep it on this piece of parchment here but getting into the into the pan is a little bit tricky cuz we’ll have to take
Some of the folds down around the edges but you know since it is a very soft dough it breaks very easily so we’re going to move our pan over here you’re just going to kind of let it sink down into your pan and guide it a little
Bit trying to keep it so it’s centered so you have an even amount of crust around the edges the height that crust and this too if you you know if your crust breaks cracks and breaks it smooshes back together super well and it won’t leak none of that
Stuff so what I’m doing with the edges because it’s you know I didn’t form the paper to the pan for the parts that have the little fold in it where the crust has gone into the fold you just kind of nudge that out a little bit and then press
Your pie or your crust back into that edge without the parchment paper in there cuz if you don’t do that then when you try to take that spring form off when it’s done baking you’re going to have to try to get that parchment paper out of those crevices and it could break
Your crust so this just takes a little patience and a little creativity so take your time and just work with it until you think it’s a nice and pretty shape okay all right there we go so now that it is ready to go we’re going to pop it
Into the oven for 10 minutes just to kind of seal the surface so that when you do put those toppings in it is less likely to make that crust soggy so now that our crust is in the oven we’re going to get on to the cheese sauce so I’ve got a cup of
Cashews 2 tbspoon of tapioca starch and that is going to allow it to have a little bit of a a you know mozzarella has that kind of stringy slippery consistency so it’s going to give it that feeling one teaspoon of onion powder 2 tpoon of tamari this a low
Sodium Tamari and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and one cup of water and this uh recipe also usually to get the tapioca to firm up like that and get that consistency people usually cook it first but because it’s going to be in the oven for a pretty decent amount of
Time that’s going to happen while it’s in the oven so all you’re going to do is just blend this until it’s really silky and creamy okay there we go and if you see it does look a little bit runny right now but as it sits those cashews are going to bulk
Up and soak up that water and it’s going to get thicker the longer it sits here so we’re just waiting on our crust and our sauce and then we can assemble this guy all right time to assemble so the first thing you’re going to do you’re
Going to put about about about half of the cheese maybe a little less half of the cheese in the bottom layer just like that about that a little more all right we’re going to kind of level it just a little bit and then this is completely up to you what toppings
You use you don’t want to put too too many because it really you know it’s in the oven for a while but it does struggle really there’s a lot of ingredients so it’s it tends to be a little on the Wet Side so you don’t want
To overdo it too much so I’m going to use some of my homemade pepperoni here which will give you a link in the details below to that recipe so I’m just going to start with that layer put a decent Amount and the ingredients that are in these pepperoni actually help Wick up moisture also so it’s going to plump those up all right sprinkle on some olives these are just some sliced camata olives I really like the punchiness of the flavor of Olives then we’re going to put some
Spinach this is about I don’t know a good two or three cups of spinach and you know how spinach is it will just Wilt down to almost nothing but this is really a good green to get into your pizza making it really healthy and nutritious then we’re going to put some sliced
Mushrooms or you could do you know bell peppers or banana peppers something like that some sliced onion Red Onion that would be delicious too but this just is our favorite all right and I’m really trying to go for just like one layer of of each of these things
So mushrooms don’t overlap a whole lot all right just like that now I’m going to gently gently just press that down a little bit just to kind of seal them all together and I pour the rest of the cheese on and that is just going to ooze down
In all the little cracks and Crevices and then to make it the true Chicago style pizza the sauce is on the top which you never see right you think you would put the sauce somewhere in the middle too but the sauce is going on the top trust me you are going to love
This and this part you don’t have to use all of the sauce but it’s good to have a pretty decent amount cuz you don’t want it to overflow flow over your edges cuz then it’ll just make it a big sloppy soggy mess all right so there I’m left with just a
Little bit of sauce left I’m going to smooth it out just a little bit and then our oven is still on 375 and we are going to stick it in there for 55 minutes and that’s when you can check it and the way you’re going to know it’s
Done is you’re going to see that the the edges of the crust are really nice and browned all right in the oven we go okay guys it is out of the oven so now all we have to do I I did let this sit here for a good 10 minutes or so you
Don’t want to pop the spring form off right after it comes out of the oven cuz you risk the sides collapsing in it oozing all over so let it sit for a few minutes now we get to pull the spring form off all right so far so good
Oh look at that all right you got to come in for a closer look for this guy all right so I’m going to let this sit for just a few more minutes cuz it’s scalding hot and then I’ll meet you at the table for a taste all right our favorite
Part this I already know that this is amazing because we have been taste testing for a while and it is unbelievably delicious get out a nice slice here oh my gosh I wish you could smell this it smells so good and look at that look at how it holds all
Together that is just amazing but what’s even more amazing The Taste that’s a big bite a cheese is so creamy the crust buttery and Rich you are going to love it come on back next week for another great recipe
About The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show
The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show is a friendly step-by-step guide to home cooking plant based vegan recipes based on the leading nutritional research of Dr. Joel Fuhrman, T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Michael Klaper, and so many more. We teach you how to cook and eat for maximum health through nutritional density. The focus in on eating Whole Foods: fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, onions, mushrooms, nuts and seeds, and seasoning with herbs and spices. Removing all animal products (meat and diary), all processed and refined “dead” food, and all refined salt, sugar, and oil. Join us as our family undertakes this great health adventure and produces The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show from our kitchen to yours.
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Video “Plant-Based Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza 🍕 My Best Recipe Yet!” was uploaded on 02/26/2024 to Youtube Channel The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show