Asparagus, Broccoli and Courgette Pizza with a Spinach Powder Crust (vegan)

I never really need an excuse to make pizza but this time I chose pizza for dinner because I wanted to use my spinach powder again! I really liked the spinach crusted tofu I made before because it didn’t have a hugely strong spinach flavour and I felt it would work nicely to add interest to dough.

The uncooked dough had a very green colour but once cooked it looked paler and simply whole meal which I thought was nice and rustic, bright green pizza dough may be a bit off putting! I wanted to keep it as a “green pizza” so I replaced the traditional tomato base with a tofutti cream cheese base (good way to use up what was left over in the tub!) and I topped it all off with my fave vegetables – asparagus, broccoli and courgette!

I absolutely love asparagus on pizzas, you don’t have to pre cook them as they cook perfectly in the oven but if you have particularly large stalks then I would suggest peeling and slicing them like I have! Similar with the broccoli, little bit of common sense but chop the florets into small pieces so that they cook all the way through.

What’s your favourite pizza topping?

I have a fail safe pizza dough recipe that I use as a base every time before adding any twists such as seeds or herbs, so I used that again for this recipe but I added a few tablespoons of the spinach powder. This made it a little dry so I reduced the amount of flour and that worked perfectly. I felt the dough needed more kneading than usual but once fully kneaded and risen it was lovely and soft, once cooked it was crispy.

I felt the tofutti cream cheese base added a nice twist so I would recommend trying it instead of using tomato purée! As usual I added some chilli flakes and fresh herbs after cooking to add depth. I love mixing cooked and raw ingredients in a dish just for a bit of variety.

Makes 1 pizza

Pizza Dough:
110g Strong White Bread Flour
1 Packet of Easy Blend Dried Yeast
2-3 tablespoons Spinach Powder
1 tblspn Olive Oil
Pinch Salt
55ml Luke Warm Water

Topping:
2-3 spoonfuls of Garlic and Herb Tofutti Cream Cheese
1 Large tomato – thinly sliced
1/2 Yellow or Green Courgette – thinly sliced
4-6 Asparagus Spears – sliced in half if large
4 Broccoli Florets – chopped into smaller florets
2 Spring Onions – finely sliced
Black Pepper
Dried Chilli Flakes
Fresh Basil Leaves – roughly torn

To make the bread dough sift the bread flour into a large mixing bowl and add the yeast, spinach powder and a pinch of salt. Make a well in the flour and into that add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the luke warm water. Mix it with a wooden spoon combining all the flour and spinach powder until it has come together as a green dough (add a little more water if needed but only 1 tablespoon at a time). Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 8-10 minutes then shape it into a ball, coat it very lightly in oil to keep it moist and place in a bowl covered in cling film for an hour or so to let it rise.

Pre heat the oven to 180c

Roll the dough out until it is to the desired thickness, I like mine really thin! Place the rolled out dough onto the tray you will cook it on then spread over the tofutti cream cheese and assemble the toppings except the chilli flakes, pepper and fresh basil evenly on top.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables on top are cooked and the crust is golden and crispy. Once cooked sprinkle with chilli flakes, black pepper and freshly torn basil.

Kale and Onion Pizza – River Cottage Rocks: Bread

When I saw that the theme for this month’s River Cottage rocks was bread I started to panic…I don’t have a good track record with bread!! Then as I flicked through my rivercottage veg book I found his section on pizzas and well I LOVE PIZZA so I took this as an opportunity to try out a few of his pizza recipes. The River Cottage Rocks challenge is set by Jo over on her blog Jos Kitchen, there you can find the challenges, round ups and also other food blogger related topics such as recipes and product reviews.

The recipe can be found online here. This is a recipe which I have ignored for ages, mainly because I just saw the words “Kale” and “Onion” and thought hmm not very exciting! But looking at it with fresh eyes I noticed that Hugh describes the kale as going “crispy like the seaweed you order at a Chinese” and I instantly knew I had to make this! That “seaweed” (actually just deep-fried thin strips of cabbage I imagine) is so delicious and easily one of my favourite things to munch on from the takeaway, so I suddenly had a new-found excitement to try this.

A simple topping of kale, garlic, onion and cheese (vegan cheese can be used!)

Ok so since this challenge was focused on Bread I will start by talking about the pizza dough before moving on to the very interesting toppings. I have a favourite go to pizza dough recipe which I use every time and Hugh’s didn’t look too different but once mixed it definitely felt different. I made 1/3 of the mixture because his makes 3 pizza bases although he does urge you not to do this because it is easily freezable (sorry!).  It was very soft (almost like a little dough cloud) and although easy to work with, it was very delicate. Hugh mentions in his instructions that you should try not to add too much flour so I followed this. I left the dough to rise for a few hours whilst I go on with other jobs and in that time it doubled in size nicely.

Once cooked the dough was wonderfully crisp but not too hard and it was delicious. Perfect contrast to the crispy kale topping – which was DELICIOUS!! Soft onions, tangy garlic and crispy kale were a perfect balance of pizza topping. You pre cook the toppings to wilt the kale and soften the onions which gives a nice mellow flavour.

A good vegan style cheddar would work well with the kale, I think a parmesan etc would be too strong however. I think next time I make it (and there will definitely be a next time very soon) I will add double the amount of toppings because I found some of it to be a bit bare. Although I didn’t follow Hugh’s recipe for the toppings I just chucked a handful of this and that on so that serves me right!

He suggests you could also add mushrooms which I think would be nice, I’m tempted to do my own version of this with red onion, olives, mushrooms and chilli flakes.

Vegan Four Seasons Pizza: Meat Free Monday

Four Seasons Pizza

I’ve been making pizza again…I’ve decided that my pizza’s must be fine to eat fairly regularly because the base is so thin and crispy and there is no cheese! You’d never miss the cheese on this pizza though, the variety of fresh and interesting flavours would be destroyed by the greasy cheese! In fact I simply ban you to even think about adding cheese to this pizza (in a friendly veghotpot way of course)

I haven’t ever really had a 4 seasons pizza which excited me before, which may not be fair to 4 seasons pizzas because I’ve only ever eaten a few. I wanted each section to excite me and send me back to the flavours of that season…fresh spring and summer, cosy autumn and comforting winter.

You could of course pick your favourite flavour and make a whole pizza of it, or four big pizzas with each flavour

Spring (Asparagus), Summer (Tomatoes and Pesto), Autumn (Mushrooms), Winter (Carrots)

I made this a sort of rectangle pizza and made each section very separate from each other, each season is its own pizza in a way. This pizza takes a little bit of prep but I kept each season as simple as I could with one main tomato sauce and only 2 main flavours per season which speak for themselves. We have the following flavours:

Spring – Asparagus, Lemon Zest and Chilli Flakes

Summer – Basil and Tomato

Autumn – Mushroom, Thyme and Truffle Oil

Winter – Carrots, Mustard Seeds and Coriander

Who needs cheese with you’ve got so much flavour!

I did find that if you are only making one pizza then you only need half a carrot and a handful of mushrooms etc so I have written this recipe as if it would make two pizzas. If like me you don’t mind having half a carrot in the fridge for another recipe or to be juiced then just half it to make one. All of the “extra flavours” are ingredients I have in my store cupboard but below I have suggested some alternatives if you don’t have everything already and you don’t want this pizza to cost a lot.

Spring – Asparagus with lemon zest and chilli flakes

Asparagus season runs from May to June. I think it adds a gorgeous freshness to the pizza and contrasts really nicely to the crisp pizza base. If you can’t get Asparagus then swap it with artichokes, green beans or even some softened leeks, I wouldn’t suggest the canned asparagus it’s like mush! Fresh Asparagus is really good for you and for me it sums up the season of Spring. If you don’t have chilli flakes then you could use a fresh chilli or a good grind of black pepper will give you the kick it needs.

Summer – Pesto, Fresh Tomatoes and Basil

Tomatoes and Basil are classic summer ingredients. tomatoes season runs from July to October and they are a pretty basic pizza ingredient. I added pesto (you can make your own vegan pesto or buy vegan pesto from the shops) to add another level of flavour and I only add the fresh basil after cooking so that it remains that gorgeous bright green colour. If you don’t have pesto you could add a crushed garlic clove and some basil leaves. If you don’t have tomatoes then a nice red pepper sliced up would add a lovely sweetness to contrast the slightly peppery basil.

Autumn – Mushrooms, dried thyme and a good drizzle of Truffle oil!

Although you can get mushrooms all year around I picked them for Autumn because for me they sum up the sorts of foods I start to eat when the weather gets colder, Mushrooms are at their best between October and November. Mushrooms and Thyme are a classic combination and work perfectly on a pizza. I added truffle oil for an intense warming flavour but if you don’t have truffle oil then a good quality Walnut oil or even just an extra virgin olive oil will be nice drizzled over. If you don’t have thyme you could add rosemary or dried sage. If you don’t have mushrooms then go to the shops…..I really can’t think of an alternative for the cheap and cheerful mushroom

Winter – Carrots spiced with ground coriander and mustard seeds with fresh coriander

Carrots season run from January to April but again you can easily buy carrots all year around. I had never seen carrot on a pizza so it took me a while to decide how I was going to present it. I first thought a carrot puree would be nice but visually I didn’t think it would look appealing so I decided to go with a very finely Julienne carrot. This worked really well, the carrot softened enough to make it enjoyable to eat but still with a bit of texture and bite. The spices are not over whelming they just lift the dish. If you don’t have Mustard Seeds or ground coriander then some ground ginger or even just a small amount of cumin seeds would be nice. If you don’t have carrots then add some very thin julienne of parsnip? (question mark because I haven’t tried this but imagine it’d be nice!)

A platter of different flavours

Makes 2 Pizzas

Pizza Dough:
210g Strong White Bread Flour
1 1/2 tspn Dried Yeast
1 tblspn Olive Oil
Pinch Salt
110ml Luke Warm Water

To make the bread dough sift the bread flour into a large mixing bowl and add the yeast and a pinch of salt. Make a well in the flour and into that add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the luke warm water. Mix it with a wooden spoon combining all the flour untill it has come together as a dough (add a little more water if needed). Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes then shape it into a ball, coat it very lightly in oil to keep it moist and place in a bowl covered in cling film for an hour or so to let it rise.

Tomato Sauce:
1 Garlic Clove – crushed
1 tblspn Tomato Puree
1 Can Chopped Tomatoes
Drizzle Olive oil for frying

In a small saucepan heat some oil and fry the garlic and tomato paste for 1 minute then add the canned tomatoes, turn down the heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes until reduced, thick and spreadable.

Pizza Toppings:
Bunch Asparagus (Around 16 spears)
1 Lemon
Pinch Chilli Flakes
2 tblespoon Pesto (1 per pizza)
2 Tomatoes (1 per pizza)
Basil Leaves garnish
Large Handful Mushrooms – sliced
Sprinkle Dried Thyme
Drizzle Truffle Oil
1 Carrot
tblspn Sunflower Oil
Ground Coriander
Mustard Seeds
Fresh Coriander garnish

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Roll the dough out into two rectangles, it will be quite thin. Place onto a pizza tray or some baking paper so that it is easy to pick up once the toppings are on. Spread some tomato sauce on to each quarter of the pizzas leaving a gap down the middle.

Blanch the asparagus for 1 minute then drain and line up in rows in the Spring corner (see photo), sprinkle on 1/2 lemon zest on to each pizza and sprinkle a small amount of chilli flakes on to each pizza.

On the Summer corner spread some pesto over the tomato sauce. Thinly slice the tomatoes and layer up over the pesto (fresh basil doesn’t get added untill after it’s cooked)

Slice the mushrooms and pile on to the Autumn corner. Mushrooms shrink when cooked so add plenty and don’t be afraid to over lap (look at my before and after cooking photo and you will see what I mean). Sprinkle over the dried thyme but do not add the truffle oil until after it’s cooked.

Julienne the carrot and in a small bowl mix with the oil and spices then add to the winter corner. Again the coriander leaves don’t get added untill the end.

Place the pizzas into the oven fo 12 minutes. Once out add the fresh basil to the summer sections, fresh coriander to the winter sections and a good drizzle of truffle oil to the autumn section. slice and serve hot!

Tricolour Pitta Pizzas

This is a recipe for those times when you just fancy having something quick and easy like a pizza but you don’t want the calories of a takeaway pizza and you don’t have the time to make a pizza base yourself. Pitta breads are perfect because they are flat and round almost like a pizza base although you can use any kind of flat bread even naan bread and add some chillis!

Delicious fresh tomatoes are used as the base of the pizza

No sauce required, this pizza just has fresh slices of tomato and mozarella (or a vegan alternative of your choice) layered onto the pitta bread then grilled untill the cheese is melted and the pitta toasted. Then you can pile all sorts of salad items on top, I have chosen avacado, basil and sprouted alfafa seeds.

Layer tomato and mozarella onto the pitta breads and place under the grill

I actually first tried this recipe as a pie with filo pastry however the pastry became too soggy with the juices of the tomatoes so then I decided to use a pitta bread as it is much more sturdy. I kept the principal the same though – hot base topped with raw salads. I’m really excited about my alfafa sprouts because these are my first attempt at ever sprouting seeds and it was much easier than I thought.

A Platter of Pitta Pizzas

Together with the avacado these pizzas are deceptively healthy! I made a dressing to compliment the tomatoes, it is based on the dressing I made for my Butterbean Nicoise Salad but I swapped the mint for basil and it worked very nicely.

These could be a great party snack for the kids too!

Serves 4

2 Tomatoes
1 Mozarella Ball (Or a vegan cheese)
4 Pitta Breads

1 Avacado – peeled and sliced
Basil Leaves
Sprouted Seeds/ Cress or even small salad leaves

Dressing:
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
1 tablespoon Caper
Juice half a Lemon
6 Basil Leaves

Thickly slice the tomatoes and thinly slice the cheese. Place two slices of each onto each pitta bread alternating each slice of tomato with a piece of cheese (see photo above). Place under the grill for around 5-6 minutes untill the cheese has melted and the pitta breads have begun to brown.

Make the dressing by blending all of the dressing ingredients together and put to one side.

Take the pitta breads out from under the grill and top with a few pieces of avacado, some basil leaves, a few drizzles of the dressing and then some sprouted seeds.

Serve hot by themselves or with your choice of side dish (Salad/ garlic bread etc).

Vibrant Colours make this pizza look so appealing!

Sunshine Pizza: Meat Free Bank Holiday Monday!

My fingers and toes are crossed hoping that today is a sunny day for this post…but do you know what, if it’s not then this pizza will definitely bring a little sunshine into your life!

Maybe with the Queen’s Jubilee being celebrated in the UK I should have done a more quintessentially British recipe for today however I have wanted to make this pizza again for ages so I decided now was as good a time as any! The idea for this pizza started quite differently, as many of my recipes do, and it has been some what toned down from the original feisty Jerk Chicken inspired pizza that it started off as. I still plan to conquer that pizza but for now this is a perfectly acceptable substitute when you are wanting something sweet yet savoury and with a kick!

I have made a BBQ Sauce inspired pizza sauce, my usual BBQ sauce marinade would not have a can of tomatoes in it but I felt this worked well with the pizza, also I did actually use this for some Chicken for Scott as a marinade and he really liked it so keep any leftovers and slap it on some tofu or chicken and get grilling!

You can vary the type of chilli you want to use, if you love it spicy then add a Scotch Bonnet into the BBQ sauce and if you prefer things mild then you can omit the chillis all together (although personally I think this would be a shame!). If you don’t have any rum and don’t want to buy a bottle just for a pizza then you can also leave this out of the recipe.

For the BBQ Sauce you will need the following:

1 Can Chopped Tomatoes (roughly 400g)
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Red Chilli
1 tblspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 tblspoon Dark Rum
a Splash of Tobasco
1 tspoon Ketchup

Crush the Garlic and chop the chilli. Place all of the ingredients into a sauce pan on a medium-low heat and reduce down untill the sauce is thickened. Then blend. This will make more sauce than you need but you can freeze it, make more pizzas, use it as a marinade etc.

For the Pizza Dough you will need:

170g Strong White Bread Flour
1 Sachet Easy Blend Yeast (7g)
1 tblspoon Good Quality Apple Juice
Pinch Salt
85 ml Luke Warm Water – possibly a little extra if your dough looks too dry but only add any extra a table spoon at a time.

I got the idea to use apple juice instead of olive oil from the amazing Annie at An Unrefined Vegan. I asked her what would be a good substitute for oil in baking and she said fruit juices, I was very intrigued to see what difference it would make and it turned out perfectly. I don’t know if this was because of the change but I noticed that the base was much crisper which was fantastic.

To make the bread dough sift the bread flour into a large mixing bowl and add the yeast and a pinch of salt. Make a well in the flour and into that add the apple juice and luke warm water. Mix it with a wooden spoon combining all the flour untill it has come together as a dough (add a little more water if needed). Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes then shape it into a ball, and place in a bowl covered in cling film for an hour or so to let it rise to double its size.
Once risen knock the dough back and then roll it out into a thin pizza base, I can’t really remember the diameter but I liked mine quite thin so it gets pretty big!

The Toppings you’ll need to bring Sunshine to the pizza: Amounts will vary – just fill the pizza up.

Handful Cheese
1/2 Green Pepper
1/2 Yellow/ Orange or Red Pepper
Large Handful Mushrooms
1 small can Pineapple Chunks (or a fresh pineapple if your feeling ultra exotic)
4 or 5 slices of Red Jalapenos from a jar
Spring Onions
Pinch Dried Chilli Flakes

Spread some of the BBQ Pizza Sauce onto the pizza base, then grate some cheese on top (vegan cheese if you prefer) and finally top with all of your sliced, chopped and diced veggies and sprinkle with a pinch of chilli flakes. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180c for approx 15 minutes. Serve hot with a rum cocktail and some loud music.

I’ve used different types of chillis, ie Jalapenos from a Jar (sweet), Dried Chillis (hot), Tabasco Sauce (savoury) to try and bring a real balance of heat to the pizza which is complimented perfectly by the juicy pineapple.

Vegan Apple, Spinach and Asparagus Pizza: Meat Free Monday

When I started becoming more conscious of my health and diet I knew about low fats and high fats and kind of knew about calories and I would just look at the labels and try to make an informed decision about what to buy and eat. But I’m less about labels now and more about using my eyes! Fats in food are still important however I’ve adopted more of “a little bit of everything in moderation” is better than having a naughty high fat day followed by a few low fat days. Instead I try to vary each day as much as possible and incorporate different vegetables and grains and colours and flavours into my meals to make even the healthy meals exciting.

My idea for this pizza came about when I started making my own pizza for me and Scott as a weekend treat and I thought that actually I LOVE pizza and don’t necessarily like the cheese so why not make a cheeseless pizza which doesn’t have to be just for a treat. A few years ago I would have thought this was insane but now I just think it’s normal. Instead of cheese I added fresh tomatoes and apples which gives it such a sweetness, then for some colour I added spinach and asparagus, and finally for that extra push of pure healthiness I added some raw sprouted beans. The combination of flavours is so much more complex and exciting than any cheese could ever deliver and the amount of vitamins you are getting balances out the fact that it’s a pizza

Oh and just because I felt I might as well take this pizza as far as it can go in the health terms I have also made a wholemeal base packed with seeds to add nutritional fiber and natural oils which your body loves. I tried using different quantities of the whole meal flour and for me this was the best as I didn’t like it when it was more heavy – 100% wholemeal flour was like eating a brick!

Serves 2 … if you want to share!

Pizza base -

100g Plain Bread Flour
40g Wholemeal Bread Flour
1 teaspoon Fast Action Dried Yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons Seed Mix
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
75ml Water
pinch Salt

Add the flours, yeast and seeds into a large mixing bowl and combine together. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the water, oil and a pinch of salt then mix the liquid (using a wooden spoon) into the flour starting from the inside of the well, slowly bringing more flour in untill you have a soft dough. You may need to add a little bit more water but only add 1 tablespoon at a time untill it has come together.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes then roll into a ball and lightly coat with oil. Put it in a bowl and cover with cling film then leave somewhere warm for around an hour untill the dough has risen.

Once risen knock some of the air out of it with your hands then roll out into a circle using a floured rolling-pin. Some of the larger seeds will crack under the rolling-pin but that’s ok.

Preheat the oven to 180c

Pizza Topping-

Tomato puree (or a tomato pizza sauce of your choice)
8 Asparagus Spears
1 Tomato
1 Small apple
Large Handful Spinach
A handful of sprouted beans (I used organic)

Spread a thin layer of tomato puree onto the pizza base, leave a border around the edge for the crust. Then layer on the thinly sliced tomato and apple. Top with some wilted spinach and finally place the asparagus around the pizza.

Place the pizza on a pizza tray in the oven and cook for 12-14 minutes untill the base is cooked through.

Sprinkle the sprouts over the top, slice up and enjoy!

Ratatouille Calzone: Meat Free Monday

I Love making Calzone, you can fill it full of any veggies you like and it always turns out lovely and juicy in the middle! I also love ratatouille as it’s so fresh and vibrant and very healthy so I thought it would be a great idea to combine the two! Don’t be put off by making your own pizza dough, out of all the baking recipes I think pizza dough is the easiest. Plus it means you can see exactly what has gone into it and you can roll it out to the thickness you prefer- for me it’s always thin and crusty! My husband isn’t a massive fan of lots of vegetables but he enjoyed this recipe so that’s the ultimate test for me!

Makes 2 Calzones (This would serve us one each but if you’re more reserved you could have half each to serve 4)

280g Strong Bread Flour
2 teaspoon Easy Blend Yeast
1 pinch of Salt
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
150ml Water

1 Red Pepper
1/2 Yellow Pepper
1 Courgette (smallish sized)
1/2 Onion
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 Garlic cloves
1 teaspoon Dried Basil
Fresh Basil
Salt and Pepper
50g Cheddar Cheese
50g Parmesan Cheese

To make your pizza dough – Sift the flour into a large bowl with the yeast and the salt. Make a well in the middle and add the oil and water then stir using a wooden spoon untill it has formed a dough (to stir you start mixing the flour from the middle of the bowl with the water and oil and slowly incorporate the rest of the flour working outwards untill all the flour is combined. I find once it is mixed it’s good to get your hands in there and mix it with your hands for the last bit. Don’t be afraid if you think there isn’t enough water, as you mix it all it will come together – you can always add more water 1 tablespoon at a time if you feel you need it but don’t add too much!)

Knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes then shape it into a ball and coat lightly with oil, put it in a bowl, cover it with cling film and leave it somewhere warm to rise (around 1 hour or untill doubled in size).

To make the sauce pour the chopped tomatoes in a sauce pan and add the crushed garlic and dried basil. Cook this over a medium heat untill the tomatoes have reduced down a bit and become thicker. This will take around 10 minutes. Season and put to one side.

Slice your peppers, onion and courgette finely and put to one side ready to use when the dough has risen.

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Once your pizza dough is ready, cut it in half and roll out each half into a circle on a floured surface (to stop it sticking). Don’t roll it out too thin as it will break when you try to fold it. Around 5mm thick is fine.

Place the rolled out circles of dough onto a pizza try (or baking tray) and spread the tomato sauce all over each circle. Then layer the onion, courgette and peppers just on one side, season with a little black pepper and salt if you want. You can layer it up so you use up all the veg you have chopped. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the vegetables and finally top with a few fresh basil leaves.

Fold the side with no vegetables over to encase the filling and seal the edges. Do the same with the second calzone.

Make sure you assemble the pizzas on the tray as if you assemble them on the side they will be too heavy to lift (I made this mistake my first attempt!)

Put the calzones in the oven for 20-25minutes untill golden brown and crispy on the top and the bottom! They will be easy to lift and cut up now too.

Serve with Salad.

Photo of my uncooked calzones – I fit them both on one pizza tray by making and folding one on the tray and then doing the other one next to it

Fig, Goats Cheese and Rocket Pizza

Serves 2

140g Strong Bread Flour
1 teaspoon Easy Blend Yeast
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
Salt

1/4 Can Tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon Tomato Puree
4 sprigs Fresh Thyme (dried also ok)
3 Figs
25g Goats Cheese
25g Feta Cheese
Large handful Spinach
Rocket leaves

To make the bread dough sift the bread flour into a large mixing bowl and add the yeast and a pinch of salt. Make a well in the flour and into that add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 75ml of luke warm water. Mix it with a wooden spoon combining all the flour untill it has come together as a dough (add a little more water if needed). Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes then shape it into a ball, coat it very lightly in oil to keep it moist and place in a bowl covered in cling film for an hour or so to let it rise.

In a pan add the tomatoes, tomato puree, thyme and a little salt and pepper and reduce the tomatoes down slightly. Take off the heat and put it to one side. At this point you should also wilt your spinach.

Roll out your pizza base so it is really thin but not translucent and spread your tomato mix onto the base. Top the base with some sliced goats cheese, crumbled feta, wilted spinach and 1 fig which has been thinly sliced.

Bake in the oven for 10 mins at 190c or untill cooked. Top with wedges of fresh fig, a little more crumbled feta and some rocket leaves and serve big wedges with some salad.

I have made this pizza quite a few times now using all sorts of different cheeses and I think this is the best combination! Figs are in season so they’re not overly expensive at the moment (I bought 4 for £1) and if worried about budget then you can use 2 for this recipe if you’d prefer or if your feeling lavish you could even add some more to the top.
You could also make double portion of pizza dough to either freeze for another time or if you have friends over why not make two pizzas with a selection of toppings, this fig pizza goes perfectly with some parma ham if you wanted to do one vegetarian pizza and one meat pizza.

The other nice thing about pizza is that whilst it may seem like a lot of effort to make the dough it means you have the ingredients in your cupboard ready to make more pizza or rolls or bread etc.

So I hope you enjoy this recipe! x x