Friday, June 1, 2012

Tomato Potato Pizza w/ Pesto and Tahini "Cheese" Sauce

A pizza is a rare thing when you're vegan and gluten-free. It only comes up once and a while, but when it does, it's appreciation all around. My favourite part about this pizza is the crust, it's actually very thick, cooked all the way through and chewy like a pizza crust should be, I think because of the cooked quinoa in there.

The pesto is rich with cheesy flavour and creamy because of the almonds, making a perfect sauce base.
We didn't have many fancy toppings so we went with potato and tomato, weird combo right? But it sufficed. On top of the cheesy pesto was an even more cheesy tahini sauce which went really well with the potatoes. If I made this again, I would have pre-roasted the tomatoes and potatoes instead of boiling the potatoes and just putting on fresh tomatoes. A very cheesy pizza indeed!

Pesto Pizzi


After baked

Baked up





GREENS PESTO:

2/3 cup packed greens (I used spring mix, minus the red leaves)
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp water, or to blend
1/4 cup almonds
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 clove garlic

Combine all ingredients in a food processor, process until throughly combined and uniform and until well, it looks like a pesto. (We had enough of this leftover for one full serving of pasta, so if you don't want extra, halve this recipe).

QUINOA CHICKPEA CRUST:

1/2 cup chickpea flour
3/4 cup cooked quinoa
Water to form a sticky dough (we had to spread our crust with a spoon on parchment)
Pinch of salt

Mix ingredients together, you may not have to add water depending on the wetness of your quinoa. Spread onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake on 350F for 20-25 minutes or until thoroughly cooked through. (We have to mention, we don't know the exact measurements in the crust, we just made it by eyeballing, hopefully these are right though! Let us know if you make it if it turned out).

TAHINI "CHEESE" SAUCE:

2 tbsp tahini
1/4 cup water (or enough to form a thick sauce)
1 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients until a sauce emerges! Spoon into ziploc bag and pipe onto pizza before baking.

Once crust is baked, spread on pesto sauce, add tomatoes (halved) and potatoes (pre boiled and sliced) and then add on cheese sauce. Bake pizza for another 15-20 minutes or until cooked. Makes enough for two people.


6 comments:

  1. yum! that looks great! i loveeee pesto pizza! and the crust is so creative! thanks for sharing!

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  2. That looks phenomenal! Soo good and pretty!

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  3. I love your tempeh pizza, so I will be making this soon!

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  4. i don't think i've had pizza in ages!!! i've been looking for a decent gluten free pizza crust. i want to try this recipe! love the tahini cheeze recipe too :D.

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  5. this looks amazing! love the idea of using quinoa in the crust.

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