Gluten Free Lentil Pizza Bases

Today I thought, why not share one of my favourite frugal and gluten free recipes? Eating gluten free can sure hurt the hip pocket with many gluten free alternatives costing twice the price of the non-gluten free version (or sometimes even more). This is evident in bread, pasta, cereal, flour and of course pizza bases. Essentially all your basic carbohydrate staples are far more costly when they are gluten free. And to be perfectly honest, just because I’m allergic to gluten it doesn’t mean that I just want to eat vegetables and meat. I still want to be able to enjoy things like bread, pizza and pasta at affordable prices.

In the past I’ve purchased expensive pre-made gluten free pizza bases from supermarkets if I ever wanted to make pizza at home. I’ve always found these however to either be really expensive or they taste terrible. I’d never really tried making my own gluten free pizza base, as I’ve attempted pasta (which is A LOT of work) and I just couldn’t face it. That was until, a work colleague of mine told me about a recipe that is super cheap, relatively quick and easy. My partner and I have now made these so many times we’ve altered the recipe slightly to give the bases a bit more flavour.

Lentil Pizza Bases (makes approx 2 bases)

Ingredients

1 x cup dried red lentils

1 x cup water

1 x clove garlic

Pinch dried oregano

Pinch dried basil

Pinch salt

Method

1. In a blender combine all ingredients and blend until consistency is smooth (should be like a thick pancake batter and not too runny)
2. Heat oil in a pan (approx 30cm in size) and once the pan is hot pour some of the mixture onto the pan as thin as possible but still thick enough so it doesn’t fall apart. Use a cake scraper to spread the mixture evenly.
3. Cook the pizza bases on each side until they start to brown.
4. Once cooked, top with desired bases and bake in oven until edges crisp or cheese melts (if you are adding cheese).

These bases are super cheap and easy to make once you get the hang of it. The texture is obviously different to a standard pizza base, but these are a great low carb alternative to normal pizza bases.

How do you eat gluten free for less?