recipe: hummus pizza

Okay, I'm one of those strange people. Those strange people who don't really like pizza. At all. I think it has something to do with the sauce, and I really like everything else about it from what I can tell. There are a few atypical pizzas that I love, including Papa Murphy's Gourmet Chicken Pizza (sans chicken) and Ian's Mac and Cheese Pizza (oh, omnomnom)! I'm now adding our hummus pizza to the list.

You could make this whole recipe simpler if you bought hummus from the store and one of those pre-baked pizza crusts, but it wouldn't be as good. Store-bought hummus pails in comparison to home made, plus it is so easy to make and a lot cheaper if you do it yourself.



Hummus Pizza Recipe

Pizza Dough Ingredients:

3 c flour
.25 dry active yeast (one packet)
1 T sugar
1 t salt
2 T olive oil
1 c warm water (110 F)
Dried or fresh chopped basil, parsley, and oregano to taste.

Sauce (aka hummus) Ingredients:
*note: you will make more sauce than needed, you can freeze the extra or you can snack on it. or you could halve the ingredients listed here. you could also use another kind of hummus, this one is from allrecipes.com*

30 oz garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 c water
1/4 c tahini (found in ethnic foods aisle or by the peanut butter)
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
2 T olive oil
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce (they come in a can in the ethnic food section of well-stocked grocers, you don't need the whole can--just a single chile)
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 t cumin
7 oz roasted red peppers
6 sun-dried tomatoes (if dry, soak in water before using)
1/2 c chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Pizza Ingredients:
*note: you can really use whatever meats/veg you have in your fridge, this was scrumptious though. the quantities of these ingredients depends on your taste.

Shredded Mozzarella
Mushrooms
Red Bell Pepper
Spinach
Broccoli
Minced Garlic

Cooking Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

2. Mix dry ingredients for pizza dough in large bowl. Stir in water and oil. Roll/flatten dough onto a greased cookie sheet or pizza pan. Bake for 17 mins.

3. Once crust is out of the oven, turn heat up to 425 F.

4. Using a food processor, grind all the hummus ingredients togethere into a smooth paste.

5. Wash and cut toppings into bite sized pieces. Drizzle with olive oil and roast them on a George Foreman or saute them in a pan until just starting to become tender.

6. Toss cooked vegetables with a little garlic (to taste).

7. Spread a layer of hummus onto your crust. Top with mozzeralla. Distribute your vegetables evenly, top with another sprinkle of cheese.

8. Cook for 5 minutes at 425 F.

And that's all she wrote!

recipe: aloo phujia

Aloo Phujia is an Indian-esque potato dish, but isn't really curry-esque which is good for people like me who hate curry (tumeric is evil). The potatoes really mellow out all the spices and it tastes Indian without being overly powerful. This again was adapted from an allrecipes.com. Serve with basmati rice if desired, or if you are totally a culinary rebel, you can use instant long-grained white rice (it is what we had)!


Aloo Phujia
Serves 4 - 6

1 onion, chopped
2 tbs vegetable oil
3 Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes (1/4")
5 roma tomatoes or 2 regular tomatoes, diced
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/2 tsp cayenne peper
3/4 tsp tumeric
1/3 tsp cumin
1 cup frozen peas

1. Brown onion in oil over medium heat in medium saute pan.
2. Stir in all the seasonings (tumeric, pepper, salt, cumin).
3. Add the potatoes and cook on medium for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
4. Add tomatoes, cover pan and cook until potatoes are soft, about 10 minutes. Stir only a few times because the steam is really what gets the potatoes to soften up nicely. During the last two mintues, throw in the frozen peas.


I imagine you could add pretty much any vegetable to this, like carrots, or leave out the peas if you don't like them. Also, if you like a more saucy, curry like dish, diced canned tomatoes with some of the juice would probably achieve that for you. According to allrecipe.com reviews, it tastes better the next day, but I really didn't notice a difference!