You are what you eat, so I’m a Pizza! That’s what my son says – he loves pizza and loves it with vegetables too! So this one is actually a pizza with loads and loads of garden vegetables topped with low fat Mexican three cheese on a whole wheat thin pizza base with basil pesto spread. The basil pesto sauce tastes just perfect with all the vegetables on top. You will like it if you a basil pesto lover. Pizza is not always about eating unhealthy and eating junk – it depends the way you make it. If I do not have pizza dough handy or I want to make a quick bite for him, I use a wholewheat/multigrain bread and it tastes great too!! Baking at home help you choose the right vegetables, right flour, right cheese and ofcourse the spread you want!
Pizza base is also a quick recipe, though you get it ready in market or use the one you like. This one here is homemade and rolled out to a thin base. I’ve used onion, fresh peppers and some spinach, chopped and mixed with some butter and olive oil and baked until crispy!
|Ingredients for pizza base|
▪ 2 cup wholewheat flour + for dusting and kneading if required
▪ 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
▪ 1 teaspoon salt
▪ 1 tablespoon olive oil
|Method|
▪ Activate dry yeast as per manufacturer’s directions
▪ Add salt to the wholewheat flour and mix
▪ Once the yeast is activated, mix it with flour and salt and add olive oil
▪ Made dough using warm water. The dough will be slightly sticky but should not be loose. Cover it for two hours or untill nearly doubled.
▪ Knead it again with little four and make it workable.
▪ Use as required for the recipe.
|For the basil pesto sauce|
https://indianspaghetti.wordpress.com/2015/05/23/basil-pesto/
|Ingredients for pizza|
▪ Pizza dough as prepared above/pizza base of your choice
▪ 1-1/2cups mixed peppers chopped
▪ 1/2 cup onion chopped
▪ 1/2 cup pesto sauce
▪ 1/2 cup low fat Mexican three cheese
▪ 2 teaspoon olives
▪ 2 teaspoon butter
▪ 1 teaspoon olive oil
▪ Salt to taste
|Method|
▪ Preheat oven to 400F/ 200 C.
▪ In a mirowave safe bowl, add vegetables, onion and mix butter and olive oil
▪ Microwave for 30 seconds so that butter melts and mixes well with other ingredients
▪ Roll out the pizza dough as thin as possible. Its better to focus on the thickness of pizza and not the shape, though I opted for an oval shape.
▪ Thinning out evenly would result in a perfectly baked crust.
▪ Line the baking sheet with baking paper and spray some oil.
▪ Dust some flour and transfer your pizza base on the baking tray. If you are using stone, transfer on to the stone.
▪ Spread pesto sauce generously on the base and then top it up with vegetables.
▪ Add some olives.
▪ Finally layer with cheese and cook in oven for about 20 minutes.
▪ Make sure you keep a check after 15 minutes as baking time differs from oven to oven.
▪ Once it’s nearly done, remove from the baking tray and cook on wire rack for another 5 minutes for a crispy crust.
▪ Let it stand for few minutes and serve hot!
Enjoy! ♡
Indianspaghetti 