Tuesday 11 October 2011

Cheese and Vegetable Pizza


Vegetarian Pizza


Pizza is certainly not a regular at home. I have probably made it a couple of times in the last 3 years and they have been with the mix that I just need to knead a bit and roll. This time however I had some cheese to use up and for some reason wanted to try pizza. I must also mention that I did get a request for vegetarian pizza recipe from a reader when I posted the baked pasta recipe. Unfortunately, it has taken so much time to get around to making one. This is a very simple recipe and turned out absolutely fabulous. My husband’s feedback (I must say he is quite critical usually) was that it was even better than Domino’s or Pizza corner/Hut’s vegetarian ones. I thought so too and definitely wanted to share this recipe with you. I have read in the past that pizza could actually make a healthy meal because it has carbohydrates from the dough, calcium and protein from cheese (ofcourse from meat if you add any), vitamins and minerals from the vegetables and thus could be a wholesome meal if portion size is watched. I would like to add that I will not call this a healthy version yet because it uses refined flour. With this success, I will work on more wholesome pizza base recipes while you enjoy this one. I have suggested some quantities for cheese but it really is up to you. Certainly pizza with no cheese would not be for me but some cheese will be good enough. I used low fat mozzarella and low fat cheddar. Here is how I prepared it...

For dough:
2 ½ cups white flour (maida)
1 teaspoon yeast (1 sachet)
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon sugar
1 to 1 ½ cups warm water
¼ cup olive oil

For the sauce:
1 tin chopped tomato
½ teaspoon black pepper powder
½ teaspoon oregano
Salt to taste
¼ to ½ teaspoon onion ganules
3 garlic pods, finely chopped
Some olive oil

For topping:
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Few slices of mozzarella
Handful of chopped green pepper
Handful of sliced baby corn
Handful of sliced red onions

To make the dough:

Put the sugar in a glass of warm water and add the yeast to it and allow it to froth (about 10 minutes). In the meantime, combine the flour, salt and a portion of the oil and then pour the water with yeast and make a soft dough. Depending on the flour, you may need about half cup more water. Apply olive oil to the sides of the bowl and leave the dough covered until it doubles in size (about 1-2 hours depending on ambient temperature). Rub the remaining oil on the surface of the dough.




To make the sauce:
Heat some olive oil and fry the garlic until it begins to brown

Add the chopped tomatoes from the tin along with black pepper powder,oreganos, onion granules and salt. Add some water as well

Simmer until the sauce thickens



To assemble the pizza:

Take the dough and roll it to desired shape and thickness. I do not like it too thick and tried to keep the shape round. If you like, you could divide the dough to make two small pizzas. I did not dust using flour as the oil was enough to help me roll without being sticky

Roll up the edges of the dough to form the crust so you can fill the rest of it with the sauce and topping

Spread the sauce uniformly everywhere but the raised area that you created around the circumference

Add the grated cheddar cheese and spread evenly

Spread the vegetables – onion, babycorn, capsicum etc. uniformly and spread the mozzarella on top. Sprinkle more oregano

Bake in a preheated oven at 220degC for about 15-25 minutes. You know it is done when the edges look cooked and topping browns.

2 comments:

  1. Thats a beautiful and soo tempting pizza, feel like grabbing a slice..

    ReplyDelete