Being Italian I love a traditional wheat crust pizza but I also love to experiment with different and a bit more unusual ingredients! Although it might sound a bit weird this cauliflower pizza crust is so flavoursome and moorish. It can be made completely gluten free by using a gluten free flour (i personally love buckwheat) and it’a packed to the brim with veggies and wholesome goodness. The Avocado pesto is definitely the best part. For this recipe I have used Gem® Avocado which are now available at Tesco. What makes these avocados stand out from the crowd is their incredibly buttery consistency, yes even more than regular avocado! Gem® avocados are also left on tree for longer which means they get to ripen more at their natural state. They have a gorgeous golden yellow colour and an insanely delicious nutty flavour!

I topped my pizza with even more sliced Gem®, spring onion, cherry tomatoes, peas and cress but other toppings like mushrooms and rocket will be great too!

By the way the Gem® cream is also super delicious stirred into pasta or used as a dip or salad dressing.

Makes 1 large pizza or 2 small ones

For the base:

1 head of cauliflower

2 tbsp of milled flaxseeds + 6 tbsp of water

1 cup of spelt flour or flour of your choice

A generous pinch of salt

1/4 cup of cold water

The juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of dried oregano

For the avocado “cream”:

2 tbsp of cashews

A generous handful of fresh basil leaves

1/2 Gem® Avocado

The juice of 1/2 lemon

2 tbsp of nutritional yeast (it gives it a nice cheesy flavour)

1 garlic clove

Salt & pepper to taste

A glug of extra virgin olive oil

For toppings”

1/2 Gem® Avocado cut into thin slices

A handful of cooked peas

A handful of cherry tomatoes cut in half

1 sprong onion finely chopped

Some kind of micro greens like cress or rocket will be great too

Toasted pine nuts (optional but adds a nice crunch)

Some basil leaves to decorate

To make the base:

In a small bowl mix together the flaxseeds with the water. Leave it onto one side until you have a gloopy kind of consistency (about 5 minutes).

Place the cauliflower florets into a food processor and pulse until it starts ti crumble and the cauliflower looks like rice. Place the cauliflower crumble into a nut milk bag or a cotton cloth and squeeze out all the excess water. This is a very important step please don’t skip it otherwise the pizza base might result in being too soggy!

Add the drained cauliflower to a large bowl and add in the flour, the lemon juice, water, gralic powder, salt, oregano and the flaxseed mixture. Mix everything together until you have a slightly sticky kind of dough. Cover a large baking tray with some parchment paper and spread the cauliflower dough into a round pizza shape. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. Make sure to flip onto the other side halfway through to make sure both sides cook evenly.

While the pizza base is cooking make the avocado cream. Simply place all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz util fairly creamy and smooth. Add a dash of water or extra olive oil if the consistency is too thick.

Remove the pizza from the oven and spread a even layer of the pesto. Place the pizza back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Add the toppings and enjoy while still warm!