Tag Archives: pizza

Potato Pizza

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I have been thinking about this making recipe for a long time – a cauliflower based pizza with potato on top. It’s kind of opposite from a normal pizza, no dough, no tomato sauce but this doesn’t make it in any way inferior, in fact it’s probably nutritionally superior and it’s quicker to make. Total comfort food. It definitely got the thumbs up as it was eaten in a flash.

Here’s the recipe

1 small cauliflower

2 eggs

3 tbs polenta

1 tsp dried oregano

1 level tsp salt

4-5 potatoes

100ml olive oil

100g cheese – I used cheddar

3 cloves garlic

a few sprigs thyme

Pre-heat the oven 200c

Rinse the cauliflower and break into florets. Blitz in a food processor until the consistency of breadcrumbs.

Tip the cauliflower into a bowl and mix in the eggs. Stir in the salt, oregano and polenta. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper and tip the mix onto the tray. Press down and smooth out with your hands to form a rectangle about 1cm thick- you could make it round if you prefer . Tidy up the sides and bake for 15 minutes or until the base becomes firm and lightly golden around the edge.

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Peel the potatoes and garlic and slice very thinly. Put them into a bowl and drizzle over enough olive oil to coat them. Add some salt and crumble in the thyme. Toss well together. Finely grate the cheese and toss again.

Arrange the potatoes in a thin layer, overlapping on top.

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Bake for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and slightly crispy at the edge

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Courgette Pizza

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This is a courgette on the bottom, not on the top type pizza. No yeast or flour involved just grated courgettes stuck together with polenta and egg. It works very well and although the base doesn’t taste like a regular pizza it behaves like one and will carry whatever your personal pizza topping fantasy is, without collapsing on the way, from your plate to your mouth.

Our courgette patch was producing a bucket of courgettes a day last week and even though we picked them each day there were always one or two elusive ones. This recipe is the perfect home for the slightly large courgettes.

Grate 3-4  courgettes on the coarse side of the grater.IMG_1647

 

Put them into a bowl, toss them with a scant tsp of salt and mix well. Tip the courgettes into a colander, set it over a bowl  and leave for half an hour . Quite a lot of water will come off.  Next tip the courgettes onto a clean t-towel.

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Pre heat the oven 180c

Gather the four corners together and squeeze. You will be surprised how much more water comes out.

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Tip the grated courgettes into bowl, Crack in 2 eggs, a tsp dried oregano and a little salt and pepper. Mix well then stir in 2 heaped tbs of polenta

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Line a baking tray with some parchment paper and spread the courgette mix out evenly. You can make the pizzas round, square or rectangle – whatever you fancy. Tidy up the edges.

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Bake the base for about 20minutes, turn the tray halfway if your oven has a hot spot.

Bake until the base is lightly golden.

When the base has been pre baked spread with a little tomato sauce then whatever else you fancy (sliced very thinly) and some grated mozzarella and pop it back in the oven until golden and bubbling at the edges, about another 15-20minutes.

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Warning! This makes a very large pizza – I made it at the shop!


The Cauliflower Pizza Experiment

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I came across this odd sounding recipe for cauliflower pizza in my new cookbook, The Green Kitchen.

We just so happened to have a cauliflower in the house which had been destined for pakoras but this sounded so curious I had to try it

The recipe is very simple, just four ingredients – cauliflower, ground almonds, oregano and eggs. The cauliflower is blitzed to a fine crumb – raw – and then mixed with beaten eggs, ground almonds and oregano and squished onto a baking tray. My mix behaved very well and squished out nicely .

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I baked it in the oven for about fifteen minutes.Then I filled it with sauteed  red onions and sweet little courgettes, mint and chevre (creamy goats cheese)and finished it off under the grill.

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When it was ready I headed off to the Cultural Brunch In Clonakilty which is a gathering of people who all bring a dish from the country they come from to share. I’m not sure where that put me countrywise but everyone that was there was a very good guinea pig.

The pizza was sliced, could be picked up and eaten like any normal slice of pizza and it tasted delicious!

Funny thing was, when I got home I found the ground almonds still sitting in the weighing scales!!