A healthy paleo pumpkin pizza crust recipe using mashed pumpkin, almond flour and psyllium husk. It’s grain free and dairy free, and can be made vegan using a flax egg!
This pumpkin pizza crust is such an easy “crust” to whip up and makes pizza so much gentler on the stomach. Whether you have a tendency to feel bloated after bready things or not, a whole lot of pizza dough can leave a heavy, full feeling. You won’t feel so uncomfortable after this!
There are so many different veggie pizza crust ideas out there now. I love that they’ve become a “thing” because I think that any encouragement to build up your veggie intake is a good thing. You don’t have to be on a gluten free or grain free diet to appreciate a veggie-based pizza crust. It’s just one way of working some extra veg onto your plate!
That said, this paleo pumpkin pizza crust recipe does suit a grain free and dairy free diet, plus it can be made vegan friendly too! Mashed pumpkin combines with almond and coconut flours, with a little psyllium husk to help give a bit of stretch and hold the dough together. By the way, if you can’t find the psyllium husk version, psyllium powder will work too (try 2 tablespoons instead of 3 as it’s finer than the husk).
The trick to getting these paleo pumpkin pizza crusts turning out well is to be generous when you grease up the tray you’ll bake them on. They do have a tendency to be a bit sticky. Also, keep an eye on them in the oven to make sure they’re not burning; I know ovens can vary quite a bit! They’re done when the edges are browned and just a little crispy. That’s one of my favourite things about this recipe. The edges actually go a little crunchy like a typical pizza crust!
(p.s. This dough will make 2 pizza bases of approximately 20-22cm in diameter, or 3 smaller pizzas.)
Paleo Pumpkin Pizza Crust
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups mashed pumpkin - about 350 grams (roast skinless pumpkin chunks until soft, then mash)
- 1/2 cup almond meal - 100 grams
- 1/4 cup coconut flour - 28-30 grams
- 3 tbsp psyllium husk
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano - OPTIONAL
- 1 tsp garlic powder - OPTIONAL
- salt and pepper to season
- extra extra virgin olive oil for greasing trays
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200˚C.
- Take a large oven tray/trays and line with non-stick baking paper. Rub the paper with a generous splash of olive oil.
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (almond flour, coconut flour, psyllium, oregano, garlic powder and a pinch of salt and pepper).
- Add the mashed pumpkin and olive oil to the dry ingredient mix. Whisk the egg and add this in too. Then, combine everything together to form your "dough".
- Allow the mixture to sit for 10-15 minutes to allow the psyllium to swell up a little (it gives a bit of stretchiness to the dough).
- Divide the dough into two or three evenly sized portions, and roughly shape each piece into a ball. Then, using your fingers, flatten each out on your oiled tray/s to form pizza bases about 5mm thick, but no thinner. (As noted above, this dough will make 2 pizza bases of approximately 20-22cm in diameter, or 3 smaller pizzas.)
- Bake the crusts for approximately 25-30 minutes or until the crust starts browning and the edges are crispy.
- Remove crusts from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then gently flip the pizza base over. This is so you have a nice, crispy base for your pizza, and then the other side will cook when you return it to the oven with your toppings!
- Top your pizza with whatever you like; I like to start with either tomato puree or some fresh pesto, then build up from there.
Notes
Could you please put the recipe in Fahrenheit and american measurements, please? Thank you
do you have the nutrition facts for this recipe?
Hi Kris I don’t have a nutrition calculator on this website yet, however you can use a recipe analyser like HappyForks.com that lets you copy paste the recipe in, it’s pretty quick and will give you an estimate 🙂
A colleague of mine has found this recipe for me and I’m baking this pizza almost every 2 weeks. It’s so good and I can/could change the toppings to suit what I have in the pantry. Love it!!!
Hi Esther, thank you so much for this lovely feedback! 🙂
Hi how long should I put the pizza in the oven after I’ve taken it out the first time (I.e. When I put the cheese and Tamato sauce on ) thanks
Hi Eitan, thank you for your message and I’m so sorry for the delay in replying. The second time you bake the pizza crust, bake it until your toppings are ready i.e. the cheese is all melted and ingredients hot. I would imagine this will take at least ten minutes.
I just made this crust. It’s very good, but I’m having a hard time getting it cooked through. It’s been almost an hour and it’s still wet and soggy in the middle, but brown on the top and bottom. Any ideas what I may have done wrong? Is it maybe too thick?
I’m still going to eat. It’s really tasty, especially with everything I put on top.
Hi Nicole, thank you for your feedback on this one. It is possibly too thick, however another issue I do have occasionally with this crust myself is that the water content of pumpkin tends to be a bit variable, and sometimes I find that the dough is a bit too soggy (and then of course frustratingly, other times not!) and then it stays wet in the centre. The dryness can be improved by adding a little extra coconut flour to balance out the pumpkin – it is super absorbent so you won’t need to add much. I might update the recipe and add this as a note, it’s something I should have put on there as a tip from the beginning. 🙂
Can this dough be frozen for later use? If so how long?
I’ve never tried to freeze the dough, I’m sorry! I think you should be able to freeze it, but it might get a little more moist because the mashed pumpkin will retain water. I would only freeze for 1-2 months to avoid it getting too much freezer burn and deteriorating 🙂