When my husband went vegetarian a few years ago, he missed cured meats, mostly pepperoni. There are a few vegetarian pepperonis on the market, but none that could come into our gluten-free kitchen. After many experiments, here’s our solution!
Big THANKS to Fat Free Vegan for this recipe and to Asparagus Thin for the Non-Wheat Meat recipe. (Asparagus Thin seems to have disappeared, let me know if you locate her. I’d love to link to the recipe.) Both of these recipes provided great inspiration for the final version of pepperoni shared below.
Pepperoni, without the meat and wheat!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
1/2 cup sweet white rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 t. salt
1 T. smoked paprika
1 t. fresh ground black pepper
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
3/4 t. mustard seeds
1 t. fennel seeds
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. onion powder
2 T. almond butter
1/3 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 t. liquid smoke
1/2 t. Bragg’s aminos
Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.
Mix almond butter and stock together in a small bowl until well incorporated. Add remaining liquid ingredients and mix.
Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet. Mix well. After a few turns of the spoon, you may find it easier to mix with your hands. Knead it a bit, making sure everything is well incorporated. Let rest for a few minutes.
Lay out two 8 x 10 pieces of foil. Oil each sheet with vegetable oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil….whatever works best for you and is handy in the cupboard. Split the mixture into two equal parts. Roll into a sausage shape with your hands and place in the center of foil. Wrap each log with foil, place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
We keep our pepperoni in the freezer and slice off a few pieces as needed. It keeps very well in the freezer and slices nicely when frozen. If you like the greasy look of real pepperoni, you can brush the slices with a tiny bit of oil before placing on top of pizza. Without the oil, they will have a very dull appearance but still be packed with amazing flavor!
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| Pepperoni on the left brushed with oil, on the right not. Pizza on Udi’s Gluten Free Crust with Daiya cheese. |
YAY!! My daughter-in-law and granddaughter can eat this, and it keeps in the freezer. Going to have to make this. Thanks!
Can I use regular white rice flour instead of sweet rice flour? Can I also sub peanut butter for the almond butter?
Thanks for your question! Yes, you can sub peanut butter. I think the flavor may be more detectable in the finished product than with almond butter, but it would work just fine. You can also use regular white rice flour but (and it’s a big but), the pepperoni won’t hold together quite as well. Sweet rice flour has a stickiness to it that regular white rice flour does not. The difference is noticeable when I’ve made this with regular white rice flour, but it still worked. Just not quite as easy to slice. I would love to hear how it turns out for you!
Awesome – thanks! I might just get some sweet rice flour and almond butter 🙂