Chickpea and Kale Multigrain Pizza

I have shared before how making pizza on the BBQ is awesome. It gets the crust nice and crusty, which sometimes doesn't happen in the oven. Plus, it is the summer and I'd rather cook outside on the BBQ than assist in making this house of mine any hotter. I have been wanting to make my own pizza dough for a while now, so I finally did. I made a batch of this recipe by Eat, Live, Run. The only change I made to Jenna's recipe was substituting a 12 grain flour instead of the whole wheat. This substitution made the dough a little more tough and it didn't rise quite as much, but it was still delicious.

I divided the dough after rising into 4 balls and put them in the freezer. Each one makes a small pizza which serves two.  With the doughs I have made 3 different kinds of pizza. I brought along some dough to the cottage and made classic veggie pizzas with tomato sauce, cheese, peppers, and mushrooms. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

The next was a veggie heavy pizza. I topped it with some mozzarella, cooked spinach (previously frozen in nuggets), and tomato slices. It was actually REALLY good. I have never put spinach on my own pizza before, but I loved the mozzarella and spinach combination.

The next pizza I made without having quite as many ingredients on hand. I had some leftover sauce still, but that was about the only "normal" pizza topping I used. After the sauce I plopped on some cottage cheese, chickpeas, dukkah, and kale. I could have gone without the dukkah truthfully, but chickpeas and dukkah go hand in hand. 

The first time I had kale on pizza was at Earth to Table Bread Bar on Locke St. in Hamilton. The pizza also had olives on it and it was a winning combination. The kale got really crispy, which was welcomed, but was lacking some moisture. I think the oven method would have gotten the desired effect in this case. Either way, still a good pizza, and definitely not ordinary.

The fact that I have no more dough left makes me sad. I will probably make some more soon because it makes for a pretty quick dinner. Even with nothing else on hand, simply olive oil and spices is really all it takes to make a good pizza. I wonder how it will compare to the pizza in Italy? Probably won't come close but I can't wait to find out!

Sweet Potato Enchilada Grain-Free Pizza

A while ago I made these enchiladas from Oh She Glows (without the cilantro avocado sauce). I brought them along to a Cinco de Mayo party, and then made them again a week later, substituting refried beans for the black beans, and adding some corn. It is a really fantastic recipe that I recommend you try. The second time I made them, I also attempted to make my own chickpea tortillas to use for the enchiladas. This turned out to be more of a chickpea crepe which I filled with the enchilada filling. Not quite an enchilada but still tasted good, in a different way.

I bought a huge bag of chickpea flour that was on sale after making the tortillas, as I saw a lot of potential in this high protein, gluten-free flour. My second venture with the chickpea flour was blueberry pancakes (omitting the sugar), which I was not a fan of. I think I will be sticking to the savoury flavours for chickpea flour. Next, I purposefully made chickpea crepes, which were delicious with avocado and scrambled eggs.

In order to escape the pancake/crepe rut I seemed to be in, I conducted a google search and found a recipe for Socca, similar to a pizza crust. Since I had enchilada filling in the freezer, I figured this would be a perfect topping for chickpea flour crust pizza. I followed the recipe on Food and Wine since it was more tailored to what I wanted to do.

It did not turn out so great. The first slice was kind of good, but after that, it was all downhill. I think the problem was that I didn't get it crispy enough. The middle was too mushy and had a bad texture. I think a good idea would be to actually make a crispy chickpea tortilla (like a flat hardshell taco shell) and then add the toppings and a quick broil. I think I also need to learn how to season the batter a bit better. All I have been doing is adding some cumin. I wonder if adding rosemary, pepper, basil and oregano would be a good bet? Of course, topping it with tomatoes, cheese, garlic, etc would work better instead of enchilada filling with that herb combination.

All I know is that I am not ready to give up on chickpea flour. I am discouraged, but I will not let that huge bag of flour go to waste. Anyone know of any good uses for chickpea flour? Anyone have any ideas? I almost refuse to believe that I have a distaste for chickpea flour, and must find a way that I will enjoy using it.

Before I close off this post I would like to draw your attention to the new look of the blog! If you are viewing this through email or a reader, I suggest you check out the site's new look. A friend of mine designed a logo for me and I think it looks great! It goes nice with the blog theme, and I think the sun is an excellent symbol for Food for Fuel. The sun is ultimately the energy source for the food that we eat, and since I feature mostly vegetarian recipes, these foods are as close as we can get to that source of energy. Kind of lovely when you think about it.

I'm Back!

A week since my last post, I made my way home from Montreal, only to travel to Toronto just a few days later for 4 days. Finally I am home and back to normalcy.

Montreal was fantastic! We had some interesting living arrangements but had a great time at the course. I love the city and want to visit again in the winter becuase I think old Montreal would be beautiful covered in snow. To save some money we took a trip to the grocery store upon arrival. I sustained most days off of hard boiled eggs, bread, cottage cheese, peanut butter, apples, bananas, and oatmeal (how exciting, haha). Can't say I came up with any novel recipes with that grocery list.

We did manage to have a few nights out for dinner. The highlight of our dining experiences was Gorgio's in Old Montreal.

Not only was the restaurant in a dungeon with an interesting history, but it was BYOW with no corking fee, and had a menu consisting of $10 pizza and pasta. I had pizza with pesto, provalone cheese, peppers, onions and sausage. The crust was thinner than I prefer but was delicious none-the-less.

The building was an old schoolhouse and then was used to store the firs for the Hudson's Bay Company. Pretty cool I'd say!

The wrestling that was on TV ruined the atmosphere a little bit

Down the street from our hostel was a restaurant O.NOIR which I have heard about but never seen. No one was daring enough to go with me but I DEFINITELY want to go to Toronto location sometime in the future. There was also a frozen yogurt shop down the street called Yeh! It was a great concept! They had tons of flavours to choose from and it was self serve. You could mix whatever flavours you wanted and then you paid by the weight. They had every topping you could ever want including fresh fruit! It was a nice change from our usual TCBY fare.

Clearly I didn't go for the fresh fruit

After a very long trip back from Montreal I had a few days to recover from the severe lack of sleep that resulted from staying up until 3 am and waking up at 7 am the last few days in Montreal. Then it was time to head to Toronto to attend a conference. Across the street from the conference there was a gourmet burrito place that we tried for lunch one day. It was called Z-Teca.

Now as you probably know, I LOVE burritos. This place had a really neat concept and tasted very fresh and somewhat healthier than your usual burrito. I had a vegetarian burrito with roasted tomatillo & jalapeno salsa which was delicious.

This photo is a little unappetizing. Burritos just don't photograph well (that's my excuse anyway)

There was something missing however and it is hard to put my finger on it. It probably was a combination of using regular black beans instead of refried beans and the slight under-grilling. I would have liked it to be a bit crisper. While not better than Burrito Boyz, still better than any burrito I have made (see rice paper burrito fail).

On our last night in Toronto we walked along Harbord St. in attempts to find some good pizza. We found it at a place called Pizza Gigi. Great price and fantastic pizza! We ordered a whole pizza but the pre-made slices looked to-die-for. I see this place being a great late-night stop after a night out. The man that made ALL the pizza's (we witnessed TONS of phone orders while waiting for our pizza; a very popular delivery place I suspect) was grumpy and Italian, which is probably how it should be.

With all the eating out the last couple weeks I was looking forward to cooking. I made a nice big pot of soup today which will last me all week I am sure. Keep an eye out for the recipe!

Pizza on the BBQ

For the past few days I have had a craving for pizza. Finally tonight, that craving was satisfied. I made a last minute decision to go home earlier than I had planned to spend more time with my family. When my Dad asked what I wanted to have for dinner, obviously I could not have said pizza fast enough. On the BBQ? Of course! It was such a beautiful day today which was perfect. While driving home up the escarpment in Hamilton this morning it sunk in that autumn was here, which even with a cool wind makes me feel warm inside. I have a soft spot for leaf senescence.

Now onto the pizza. I have yet to tackle making my own pizza dough. One day I will attempt it but for today Fortinos fresh whole-wheat pizza dough did the trick. Store bought pizza sauce would do as well.

1. Fire up the BBQ and let it get really hot!

2. Roll out the dough into preferred thickness and size.

3. Place onto hot grill.

Once the bottom is cooked, the outer edges are almost cooked and the middle is still soft, remove the crust from the grill, uncooked side down (rotate halfway through cooking time).

4. Place your toppings onto the grilled side. We added sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, veggies (green pepper, onion, mushrooms, hot peppers), then Romano cheese.

5. Put pizzas back on the grill and close the lid to allow the cheese melt while the bottom is cooking.

Once the cheese is melted and the bottom has the desired colour, it is done!

While the sauce was a little bland, the pizza was delicious and satisfied my desire for some cheesy pizza.

Since it is Thanksgiving weekend there is a whole lot of food fun going on. Tomorrow I am heading to my Aunts for Thanksgiving dinner and will definitely be a meal to write about. I am baking a special treat which I will be able to share with you as well (through pictures and words only unfortunately).