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.

Chili veg pitta pockets

Sometimes a meal comes together very haphazardly and not at all how it had been planned. This is one such example….

I will admit I am solely to blame for this scenario since labelling the leftovers to go into my freezer is not always my strong point. I often make the mistake of thinking ‘well it will be obvious what it is, I won’t need to write a label on the bag’.   Hmmm, once frozen solid with ice fuzzing up the outside it isn’t always quite that obvious!

You see, I had thought that I had taken out a portion of soup from the freezer and the plan was to serve this along with a salad and homemade bread rolls, however upon investigation it turned out to be a portion of vegetable chilli… quick rethink, so instead we have an alternative meal for two:

A dish of vegetable chilli

A dish of roasted veg (in this case parsnip, pepper and carrots)

A serving of toasted pittas cut into pockets

A quick and easy DIY fill-your-pittas experience…. the soup can wait for another day!

Recipe: Vegetable chili

Serves 4 

Ingredients

Large glug of olive oil

1 onion- diced

2 peppers- cut into chunks

1tsp mild chilli powder, 1tsp cumin seeds, 2 cloves of garlic

2 medium sweet potatoes- peeled and cut into chunks

1 large carrot- peeled and cut up

400g tinned tomatoes

150g red lentils (pre-soaked)

200ml hot vegetable stock

400g can red kidney beans

50g green beans

1 courgette- cut into chunks

100g frozen peas

Tomato puree and hot water- if needed

(Other vegetables can be added or substituted)

Method

Pre-soak red lentils in hot water for approx. 20 mins. Fry onion in oil for 5 mins, add the peppers, garlic and spices and cook for 2 mins. Stir in the carrot and sweet potato then add the tomatoes, lentils, and vegetable stock. Simmer for 15 mins. Add remaining ingredients- kidney beans, green beans, courgette and frozen peas, and simmer for approx. 10 mins until all vegetable are tender. Add  tomato puree with extra water if more sauce is needed. Serve with wholegrain rice or pasta if desired. 

Note- in this recipe I served one portion size of chilli with some extra roasted veggies- I simple cut the veg into batons drizzled over a little olive oil and some salt and pepper then roasted for approx. 20 mins. Warm the pittas in the oven right at the end.

Freeze left over portions in individual bags- label them up (don’t say I didn’t warn you!)

Roasted vegetable tart

One of the winning dishes (other than the sweet potato curry) served to my colleagues when I cooked them lunch earlier in the week was this roasted vegetable tart. Soooo simply and sooooo delicious, this was also a requested recipe that they wanted me to write up for them and so I wanted to share it here also.  Ok, before I start-  I know puff pastry is not typically healthy- BUT- this is topped with loads of healthy veggies and the proportion of pastry to veg is really not too naughty (particularly if you team this up with a quinoa salad or similar as I did when I cooked for my colleagues).

This is another really versatile recipe and you can use whatever veg is in season. Asparagus worked really well here as it looks so pretty laid out across the tart. Strangely enough, the first comments from my colleagues were ‘wow, a pizza’, obvious this is not pizza at all although I guess visually it’s 

not so far off… and I reckon it tastes so much better!

Note, I was pushed for time when I made this tart (with so many other dishes to create) and I cheated a little and bought ready-made puff pastry which happens to be vegan anyway (check the packet when buying). Feel free to make your own puff pastry (and make me feel guilty in the process!)

Recipe: Roasted Vegetable Tart

Serves 4 (or more if serving with other dishes)

Ingredients:

1  pack of ready-made puff pastry (I used Jus-rol available in most UK supermarkets)

Paste- 1tbs tomato puree, 1tsp lemon juice, handful of tomatoes, small onion, 2 cloves garlic, ½ a pepper, 1tsp oil. (or could simply use 2-3 tbs tomato puree)

2 tbs hummous

Veg for roasting- 1 onion, 1 or 2 peppers, cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn, approx. 10 asparagus stalks (or other combinations)

Olive oil

Vegan pesto or other herb and garlic seasoning

Method:

Prepare veg topping for roasting- cut all veg into chunks but keep asparagus whole (break off woody ends). Coat in oil and pesto or other seasonings and roast in oven for 10 minutes. Meanwhile blend paste ingredients in food processor and set aside (or omit this and use tomato puree). Roll out the puff pastry until thin (approx. 3-5mm thick). Spread hummous in centre leaving a 1” space from the edge of the pastry. Spread tomato paste on top of this. Pile the roasted veg on top of the paste laying the asparagus across and putting the other vegetable pieces on the gaps. Lightly coat the 1” space around the edge in olive oil. Bake in the oven at 220 C for 10-15 minutes until pastry is puffed and golden.

Aw, almost too pretty to cut up and eat…. Oh well dig in!