Pumpkin & Pomegranate

I have been mulling over pizza crust ideas for some time now. I love pizza. I love it for dinner, but I think I might like even more for breakfast. I have tried various other pizza crusts and none of them really hit the spot. I did the almond flour crust, which was good but a bit on the soggy side…likewise with the coconut flour crust. Recently I have been going to Flying Apron and having my rareish grain exception meal, and their pizzas are usually part of my order. They are gorgeous and very good. I wanted to make a similar pizza at home, but without the rice flour. This idea has been sitting in my brain for a bit and yesterday Farty Girl reminded me about my pizza craving with her post on Socca. Happy Birthday to you FG! From another woman who is full of too much information!

So, around dinner time my mind went to work. I mixed up ingredients and prayed it would taste good. I even Facebooked about how the pizza was in the oven, and how I hoped it would work. It smelled so good while it was baking that I would have been severely disappointed if it tasted like mulch after all of that. Luckily for me it was heaven. My mother even proclaimed it to be the best recipe yet. Then again she loves everything I make, even if she does feel the need to sprinkle stevia on most of my baked goods after they are done baking.

Here it is pre-bake:

I topped the crust with some “pesto” which was really just a puree of fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. I made that “pesto” last summer when I had an abundance of fresh basil. I then froze it in an ice cube tray and made little green pesto cubes. Last night I defrosted a few and spread them on the dough. Then I added chopped beet greens (which are delicious), chopped, seeded Roma tomatoes, sliced baby onions, red pepper slices and a sprinkling of sea salt. I then topped the baked pizza with some vegan Parmesan. You could put anything you want on this crust. I did pesto because I had it and I didn’t have enough tomatoes to make sauce. It really hit the spot though, and the fresh veggies were delicious! Here it is after coming out of the oven:

Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

• 1.5 C. Quinoa Flour
• 3/4 C. Garbanzo bean Flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking Soda
• 3/4 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1/2 C. Pine Nuts, finely chopped in food processor
• 1.5 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 2 T. Chopped Sun Dried Tomatoes
• 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 C. Water
• 3 T. olive Oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, and sea salt.
3. Stir in the pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, and minced garlic.
4. Add the water and the olive oil, mixing until completely combined. It should be a slightly sticky dough. If it isn’t thick enough, add more quinoa flour until you reach a consistence that you can easily form into a ball.
5. Lightly grease a cookie sheer or use a silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet (you might want to sprinkle some quinoa flour down on it as well).
6. Place the ball of cough into the center of the cookie sheet and press out until it is roughly 1/4 inch thick. You might need to add more quinoa flour on top to do this, or get your hands a little damp with some water first.
7. Cover your pizza with toppings and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the outer edges begin to brown.
8. Top with Vegan Parmesan and serve!

By the way, the pizza from Flying Apron looks like this:

I think mine is just as pretty, and I like it even more because it has a little less crust! You could add more flour to the recipe and create little crusts like this as well, but I personally don’t need a deep dish.