Cast your senses back to that perfect European holiday with this Rustic Pizzeria style Chargrilled Vegetable Pizza. A hearty wholemeal base topped with a fragrant tomato sauce and layers of chargrilled veg. A perfect weekend treat as well as for the midweek!
During our recent few holidays in Europe, we’d eaten plenty of pizzas. All varying a little by taste but they all had one thing in common – loaded with fresh flavours and that rustic look of the pizzas. Something that is so hard to find from takeaway pizza places in the UK.
For us, the best kind of souvenir is food related. From our holiday to the French Riviera – and visiting local markets, we had so much fun buying all sorts of dried herbs and foods. Now each time we use them, we reminisce on our wonderful trip.
Armed with a large bag of lavender and herbs de Provence, I wanted to recreate the same style of pizza back home.
PIZZA FOR WEEKEND AND MIDWEEK DINNER
We love to make pizza over the weekend, so everyone at home can enjoy hot pizza and each others company, also a little help comes around for me when I start assembling the pizza. A nice way to bring the family together in the kitchen. The dough can be frozen to use at a later date, so a pizza for you for a midweek dinner too. Just don’t forget to bring out the dough from the freezer in the morning!
BUDGET AND STUDENT FRIENDLY
All you young people at uni, no need to call to your local pizza joints as this easy, delicious and budget-friendly pizza is so much healthier and fun for you too make. Prepare it over the weekend, make some extra dough and sauce for a midweek meal.
INGREDIENTS
The base is made from a mix of wholemeal bread flour and white bread flour, dried active yeast, sugar and salt. ( One can use plain flour and chapatti flour if bread flour is not available)
The sauce is passata with added herbs de Provence, lavender, garlic powder, red chilli flakes, salt and sugar
You can use whichever veggies you have lying around. We used red and yellow capsicum, courgette, artichokes, black and green olives, sundried tomatoes, red onion. You could also use aubergine, mushrooms, capers. The best pizza will have vegetables that have been freshly bought and used the same day or just a day after.
Oil to drizzle – extra virgin olive oil infused with garlic, red chilli, black pepper, rosemary, dried herbs
HOW TO MAKE PIZZA FROM SCRATCH
Making your own pizza at home is the ultimate cooking experience. Although it is a slightly lengthy process, it is the most rewarding one.
First procedure for this recipe is to make a dough and to prepare a perfect pizza dough you will need yeast. In warm water add yeast, sugar and leave it for five to ten minutes. In a big bowl, place flour and salt add frothy yeast mixture little by little until a sticky dough is formed. Not too worry if the dough is very sticky this time.
Knead the dough for another ten minutes then transfer to an oiled bowl, cover the dough with the cling film and let it sit in a warmer place in the house. It will take around 45 to 60 minutes to prove the dough.
Meanwhile, prepare the pizza sauce. We have played it safe here. We just bought good quality passata from the supermarket and added our own touch by adding garlic powder, herbs de Provence, lavender, red chilli flakes, salt and sugar. Just mix it all together – you don’t need to cook.
Now prepare the chargrilled vegetables, cut all the veggies and chargrilled them on high heat on a griddle pan with little olive oil.
Once the dough is ready to use, preheat the oven to the highest setting. Divide the dough into equal (approximately 200g) portions and shape it into a ball. Cover with the damp cloth and let it rise again for 15 minutes. Roll out the dough on a dusted (with semolina) worktop in the shape you want. Place the base onto a baking tray that has been dusted with a little fine semolina. Spread on the pizza sauce and cook for around 5 minutes.
Remove the base from the heat and layer on the toppings. Drizzle on the prepared oil. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until the base is turning golden brown and cheese bubbling.
Serve with plenty of rocket salad either on top or on the side.
Chargrilled Vegetable Pizza
ingredients
2x7g sachet dried yeast
2 TSP sugar
2 TSP salt
350g strong bread flour
350g wholemeal bread flour
Oil for greasing
360ml warm water
350g passata or thick tomato puree
salt to taste
1 TBSPSugar
1TBSP Chilli flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder or granules
1 TBSP Herb de Provence or Italian seasoning or dried mixed herbs
1/2 TSP dried lavender
250g light mozzarella cheese
1 yellow bell pepper sliced
1 red bell pepper sliced
250g courgette sliced
1 big red onion sliced
1 small bottle of artichokes
1 small bottle of sun-dried tomatoes
Black and green olives
2 TBSP olive oil
20g fresh basil leaves
instructions
Pour the warm water into a big bowl and sprinkle over the yeast and sugar. Stir and mix and leave it aside for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is a little foamy over the surface.
In a big bowl mix both flours and salt, pour the yeast mixture and make a sticky dough.
Transfer the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead it for 8-10 minutes until the dough is soft and elastic.
Put the dough in a clean oiled bowl, cover it with the cling film and leave it aside for 45-60 minutes ( in cooler weather it may take more time) or until doubled in size.
Once the dough has risen, knock back the dough, knead it a little and divide into the equal portions and make balls.
Cover it with the damp cloth and leave it aside for 15 minutes.
Combine all the ingredients in a big bowl and leave it aside for later use.
On a high flame, heat the griddle pan. Chargrilled all the vegetables in olive oil except cheese, olives and sundried tomatoes. Leave it aside.
Preheat the oven to the highest setting around gas mark 7-8.
Roll out the dough balls into a thin circle, roughly 25-30 cm wide and 1.5 cm thick.
Transfer it to lightly floured baking sheets.
Evenly spread the passata sauce over the base leaving a 1-2 cm border.
Put it in the oven for 5 minutes.
Remove it from the oven and scatter the chargrilled toppings, cheese, olives and sundried tomatoes.
Back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes until the base is golden brown and cooked through.
Scatter over the basil leaves and flavoured olive oil before serving.
Serve with a rocket salad on the side and soft drink of your choice.
Put your Mexican meal kits at the back of your cupboard and have a go at m aking Espresso Black Bean Tacos at home. Invite all your espresso crazy friends for a Taco Tuesday night and impress them with these vegetarian tacos, which are packed with smoky rich flavours, seasoned with a homemade taco seasoning and a hint of coffee. The coffee lends an earthy flavour to the taco sauce taking your feast to new flavourful heights.
Sometimes my family crave dishes other than traditional curries for dinner, so I am always on the lookout for nutritious recipes from different cuisines. Over the past few years, we have grown very fond of Mexican food and have tried many recipes at home. These tacos are packed with protein and you can make them even healthier by topping or eating aside with plenty of salad. I have not used wholemeal wraps here but that would be another way of adding extra fibre to the meal.
WHAT ARE TACOS?
Tacos are a traditional Mexican recipe whereby tortillas made from wheat or corn are either folded or wrapped around a filling. The filling is usually then topped with cheese, guacamole, coriander and salsa. The toppings can be made from various vegetables, pulses, seafood and meat.
HOW TO MAKE TACO SEASONING AT HOME?
Rather than buying a small sachet of taco seasoning at a high price, I just whip up fresh taco seasoning at home, which can be made in less than a couple of minutes. I believe that homemade spices, masalas and mix are far better than shop bought. For taco seasoning, you will need these ingredients.
Red Chilli powder Cumin powder Dried chilli flakes Cayenne powder Smoked paprika Black pepper powder Garlic powder Onion powder Dried oregano
Mix it and store in an airtight jar.
INGREDIENTS FOR ESPRESSO BLACK BEAN TACO
The secret ingredient in this recipe is coffee. Usually, we always use some cocoa powder in our sauces but saw a recipe that uses coffee and thought we would try this instead!
Roasted red peppers from a jar – to blend into the black bean and pepper sauce
Black beans – we soaked black beans overnight and then cooked in the pressure cooker. But you can also use tinned black beans
Homemade taco/Mexican seasoning – a blend of various Mexican spices and herbs.
TO TOP
Grated cheese – we used a medium cheddar but you can use other cheeses too
Pickled onions – we added some pomegranate and pinch of sugar to the pickling vinegar for better colour and to add flavour
Fresh Coriander leaves –
HOW TO MAKE ESPRESSO BLACK BEAN TACO
To get the right taco recipe, you need flavourful chilli. For this particular recipe the espresso black bean filling sauce is the highlight, so we are going to give all the attention to the sauce, which will take most of our time in making flavourful and tasty tacos.
In a blender make a fine puree of roasted red peppers, tomato puree, vinegar, half of the black beans and water. In a pan heat olive oil and add the chopped onion, cook for 5-7 minutes then add taco seasoning and cook further for a minute or so. . Stir the pepper sauce, sugar and coffee into the onion mixture, add the vegetable stock and simmer gently for 18-20 minutes.
Once the sauce starts getting thicker add remainder of the black beans and diced peppers. Cook further for 10 minutes and stir in some freshly ground black pepper.
Once ready to serve, warm up the tortilla wrap. Spoon the aromatic chilli into the warm tortilla, sprinkle coriander leaves, some cheese and pomegranate pickled onion slices.
Other Mexican Recipes
Low-fat Sweet Potato and Black bean Quesadilla
Fresas Con Crema
Espresso Black Bean Tacos
ingredients
1 TBSP coffee powder
600g boiled black beans
1 big red onion roughly chopped
2 TBSP olive oil
3 -4 TBSP taco seasoning
2 TBSP sugar
400g roasted red peppers
3 TBSP tomato puree
400 ml vegetable stock
2 TBSP red wine vinegar
1 packet tortilla wrap packet
Pickled onion with pomegranate
Coriander leaves
Grated cheese
instructions
Place half of the black beans, 2/3 of roasted red peppers, vinegar and tomato puree with 200ml water in a blender and blend until you have a fine puree.
Finely chop the leftover roasted red peppers and leave it aside.
In a saucepan heat olive oil, add chopped onion and saute for a few minutes, add taco seasoning and saute for a minute or so.
Add pureed black bean paste, sugar and coffee powder.
Then add vegetable stock and let it simmer for 20 minutes on a gentle heat.
Once the sauce starts to thicken add remaining black beans and chopped red pepper.
Cook further for 10 minutes.
Turn off the heat and transfer it into the serving bowl.
Once ready to serve, warm up the tortilla wrap, spoon the chilli into the wrap and top it up with the pickled onion, cheese and coriander.
Buen Provecho!
NOTES:
I have used bottled roasted red peppers.
Don't have red wine vinegar? use normal vinegar.
You can use shop bought stock cube, just add one cube in 400 ml hot water and stir well and use it.
The bean chilli can be freeze for up to 3 months.
