Ten minute pizza (gluten free)

On weekday evenings, when I go straight to a gym class after work, I often get in quite late.  On these days a super speedy dinner is in order.

I have to admit, I often resort to a big bowl of oats with their endless variations of toppings. Other times I might opt for a defrosted portion of one of my soups, (this one is my current favourite), or a bowl of cous-cous and veg.

Earlier this week I made pizza…the fasted pizza I’ve ever made! 10 minutes from first having the idea the pizza was on my plate ready to eat (ok, I had to allow for a 5 minutes photo shoot first!)

The pizza base is also gluten free as it is made using my flatbread dough, I simple made a larger flatbread to act as a pizza base. The original recipe made 4 small flatbreads but I doubled them up to make 2 larger pizza bases (in actual fact I halved the recipe to make a single serving).

I obviously haven’t used ‘cheese’ here, as I really don’t think it needs it. The tomato-hummous base is full of flavoursome. You could add some cheese/vegan cheese if you fancied when you pile the veg on top of the bases.

Recipe: Ten minute pizza (gluten free)

Serves 2 

Ingredients:

1 batch of flatbread dough (formed into two large rounds)

2 tbs tomato puree

2 tbs hummous

Mix of vegetables for roasting (chopped small)- I used peppers, tomatoes, courgette, onion

1 tsp olive oil plus ½ tsp seasonings of choice

Handful of sweetcorn and/or canned beans (defrost sweetcorn if frozen)

Method: 

Prepare the pizza base dough according to the flatbread recipe- form into two larger pizza sized rounds.

Place the pizza bases on a lightly floured baking sheet under a pre-heated grill.  Grill for 3-4 mins each side until lightly golden.

Prepare the vegetable for roasting and coat in the oil and seasoning mix. Spread it n a baking sheet and place in the oven for 5- 10  minutes (depending on size of pieces) and roast until just cooked.

Briefly remove the pizza bases from the grill and spread with 1 tbs each of the tomato puree and hummous. Top with the roasted veg and add the sweetcorn/beans. Place back under the grill for 2-3 minutes to finish cooking.

Serve with a salad if you like.

Did that take 10 mins?....ok well maybe 15 tops!

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

A quick dip

Hummous is great, and I eat a lot of it… I mean a lot!!

A dip for raw veggies, a quick and easy base for my roasted vegetable tart, a simple spread for sandwiches or tortilla wraps… the list goes on. It’s strange as I never used to like raw carrot but since discovering hummous I can devour carrot stick after carrot stick and not get bored, it’s just something about the combination of those favours that really gets me going.

But, sometimes I fancy something slightly different.

This quick and simple dip takes literally a couple of minutes to put together and is super cheap and healthy. Great as a basic dip or spread, but also as a sauce for pasta- it makes a great alternative to tomato based sauces!  If you do use it as a sauce be sure to thin it out slightly with some soy milk (or any other non dairy milk or water ) as it coats the pasta so much better and the texture is much nicer.  The first time I used it this way I didn’t thin it out and it just didn’t do it for me, the ‘sauce’ was too thick and lost the silky coating I was after.

I have included jalapeno peppers to add a bit of a kick as I like a bit of heat, but feel free to omit these or adjust the amount to taste.

                                                      

                                                                 

Recipe: pea and black bean dip

Makes one small bowl

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves (or 1tsp garlic paste)

1 ½ cups frozen peas (thawed)

1 cup cooked/canned black beans

A few green jalapeno pepper slices

2 tbs fresh lemon juice

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp ground garamasala spice (or ground cumin)

½ red onion chopped

Small handful fresh coriander (dried if no fresh available)

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Blend all ingredients in food processor until smooth. Store in the fridge. Best used within two days.