Raw pizza on a portobello cap with chipotle walnut cheddar

A portobello cap replaces the dough here: it carries without faltering a thick sauce of sun-dried tomatoes blended with garlic, basil and red onion. The cheese is walnuts blended with sun-dried tomatoes, a chipotle seasoning and salt, until the mixture turns smooth and slightly warm from the friction of the blades, then pressed through cheesecloth to firm up into something closer to a soft, spreadable cheddar than a liquid sauce. Diced red and green pepper, red onion and a few slices of pineapple go on top to bring the sweetness and crunch that answer the smoky heat of the chipotle. A short 30-minute stint in the dehydrator is enough to bring the whole thing to the temperature of a pizza just out of the oven, without cooking any of the ingredients: the vegetables keep their crunch and the cheese its raw character. It is a good stand-in for takeaway pizza night, sized at one portobello cap per person, and the chipotle cheddar recipe makes enough to use elsewhere if you do not need it all for the pizza itself.

Ingredients

Toppings

• 2 organic red bell peppers, diced
• 1 organic green bell pepper, diced
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1/8 pineapple, sliced

Sauce

• 2 cups sun-dried tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves
• A pinch of pink Himalayan salt (the equivalent of 1 tablespoon - 15 ml - of seawater)
• 10 fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup red onion

Chipotle walnut "cheddar"

• 11 organic sun-dried tomatoes (soaked, or packed in olive oil)
• 1 cup raw walnuts
• 1 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt
• 1 teaspoon chipotle seasoning
• 1/3 cup water

Preparation

1. For the sauce, blend the sauce ingredients on medium speed until you reach a thick, spreadable texture that is still a little chunky.
2. For the cheese, combine all the cheese ingredients in a high-powered blender, starting on low and gradually working up. Use the tamper to keep everything moving, until the mixture turns smooth and slightly warm from the blending.
3. Pour the cheese mixture onto cheesecloth and gently squeeze to shape and drain it.
4. Assemble the portobello cap with the sauce, the toppings and the chipotle cheddar, then dehydrate for about 30 minutes - just enough to warm it through while keeping it raw.

Tip

Squeeze the cheese mixture through the cheesecloth gently rather than wringing it hard: too much pressure pushes out the fat along with the liquid and leaves the cheese dry and crumbly instead of spreadable. Any extra chipotle cheddar keeps well refrigerated for several days and works equally well as a dip for raw vegetables or a spread on crackers.

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