Kale Pizza - Naan Pizza with Kale and Queso Blanco Cheese

I am not sure what is with pizza but the kids love it and slowly but reluctantly I have come around to liking it. Not really, I just don't like greasy pizza. That's all. Anyway I use the kids as excuse but I like these easy to make but tasty pizzas.

Whenever you get some good quality kale, chard or collard you should save the excess. Wash, cut, remove the excess moisture and freeze them for later use. Having frozen ready to use greens makes dinner or lunch that much easier. This recipe came about with just such an arrangement. I had some frozen kale and a pack of store bought naan ready to be used. I also had a pack of Queso Blanco cheese which I wanted to use and in hindsight this was a great cheese to use on a pizza. It is non aged cheese just like paneer and is very mild and creamy.

Kale Pizza
Preparation Time:5 minutes
Cooking Time:15-20 minutes
Ingredients

For the Kale
1. 3-4 cups of kale
2. 1/4 cup of chopped onions
3. 3-4 broken green chilies
4. salt to taste
5. 1 tsp of oil
For the Pizza
6. 5-6 Naan
7. 1 block of Queso Blanco Cheese (or any cheese of your choice)
8. Jalapeno pickles (optional)

Method

1. In a wide mouthed pan heat oil and when hot add the onions and red chilies, saute the onions till they turn translucent.
2. Add the kale leaves and salt and saute for a few minutes till the kale is wilted.
3. Set aside and pick the red chilies out.
4. Cut the block of cheese into smaller pieces.
5. Take the naan, spread the kale in a single layer over the naan. Sprinkle as much or as little cheese as you want.
6. Place a few jalapeno pieces on the cheese.
7. Heat for 5-8 minutes in a toaster oven at 400F till the cheese melts or longer if desired.

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Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Crust - Vegetable Pizza with Homemade Pizza Sauce

"Gut Bacteria" is all the rage now! Just kidding guys. In the last couple of weeks I have read and heard 2 articles regarding gut bacteria. We all know that good bacteria are necessary for our intestinal health. The reason we are advised to eat yogurt(curd) after a course of antibiotics.

But wait that is not all, gut bacteria might explain why some people are depressed and the others not so much. The gut bacteria might be doing good work or not. Read/Listen to learn more - Gut Bacteria Might Guide The Workings Of Our Minds. Who knew that bacteria played such an important role. All of us know that bacteria cause nasty diseases to be banished with a heavy dose of antibiotics. Of course, Of course there is good bacteria and bad bacteria but we don't pay too much attention to the good kind. Don't forget to eat your yogurt and the good bacteria is made by good diet.

And then in a recent article in the Washington Post - Gut Check. I read that these very same microbes maybe the reason why someone is fat or thin. Interesting isn't?

Moreover how does one get the desired microbes rather than the ones that you don't want? Diet of course. Now that we have learned more than we ever want to know about bacteria in the gut let us move on to some tasty fare.

Who doesn't like pizza? Raise your hands! I knew it not that many. I do not go looking for pizza but if I come across one I don't have the self control to reject it. Eat it and feel bloated and miserable. The problem is the cheese and the oily nature of store bought pizzas. The kids behave like I never feed them any food at all once they look at a pizza gobbling them up like nobody's business.

(1) Flour along with the oil, salt and yogurt. (2) Yeast after 10 minutes of sitting in sugar and water solution.
(1)Prepared dough, apply oil and cover with a moist kitchen towel and place in a warm place. (2)After an hour in the oven.
Roll out the dough and arrange the desired toppings.

It was time to conquer my fear of yeast and make some pizza at home. On hindsight I should have done it much earlier. It was kind of too easy. The only problem when I made the pizza was to add the water recommended in the recipe and that was not such a great idea. It is good to use the liquids measurements as a guideline and go with what the texture of the dough is saying to your hands.

I followed this recipe for whole wheat pizza on a website called Tablespoon. I made one small change and added yogurt to the mix. I double the recipe and made naans with the leftover dough so make more than what you need and refrigerate the rest for some bonus treats the next day.

When you are making pizza it is also good to decide what toppings you are going to use and have those ready. We used mushrooms, pickled jalapenos, roasted red peppers and mozzarella cheese. I made a very simple pizza sauce at home since I forgot about that entirely. But as luck would have it I had a container of leftover Pomi tomatoes and that my dear friends is the best tomato for sauces. Period. If you only have fresh tomatoes on hand never you mind, puree them and use. But seriously you should have a few of those in your pantry. I am not a big fan of canned anything and rarely if ever buy canned stuff but these tomatoes they are something else altogether.


I doubled the recipe and made 3 pizzas and save the leftover dough. Recipe coming up next. These pizzas were one of the lightest, airy and crunchy pizzas we have ever tasted.

Whole Wheat Pizza
Preparation Time:1-2 hours
Cooking Time:45 minutes
For 2 Medium sized pizzas

Ingredients - For the Crust

1. 2 1/2 cups of Whole Wheat Flour - I used a combination of unbleached Whole Wheat Flour and White Whole Wheat Flour and some Chapati flour
2. 1 packets of pizza yeast or 2 1/4 tsp of active yeast
3. 1 heaped tbsp of yogurt (optional)
4. 1/2 tsp of salt
5. 1 tbsp of sugar
6. 1 tbsp of olive oil
7. 1/2 cup of warm water - this is only a guideline (use enough to make a slight loose but pliable dough good enough for rolling out)

Method

1. Combine the yeast, sugar and about 2 tbsp of water and let it sit for 5 minutes or so.
2. Heat the water and let it get warm (not hot) enough to the touch.
3. Combine the rest of the sugar, flour,salt, yogurt and the olive oil in a mixing bowl.
4. Add in the yeast and slowly add the water so the dough becomes soft and pliable. The dough should be slightly loose but pliable and ready to roll, so don't add too much water. If you do don't worry but you have to do some extra work. (see Note:)
5. Apply some oil over the ball of dough and set it in a warm place for an hour. The dough should rise with all the yeast action. Punch it down knead a bit and separate into 2 balls.
6. Roll them out using a roller into a thin crust or grease a pizza pan and pat them out with your fingers into a thin crust into any shape that emerges.Let sit for at least 10 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 500 F. While the oven is heating arrange the desired toppings(see below). Brush the sides of the crust with olive oil.
8. Bake for 15 minutes till the crust is golden on the sides. Let sit for 5-10 minutes and then slice and serve.
   
9. Note:If your dough is too loose after it rises you have to add more flour. On a clean surface add more flour(I used chapati flour for this but whole wheat flour is fine too) and knead the dough, bring the dough together with dry flour so it gets pliable and is not sticky and loose to the touch. I had to add about 1/2 cup extra flour because I added a bit too much water.



10. Refrigerate the extra dough after applying some oil on the surface. Cover it with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel.



11. I used the pizza pan with holes for the baking.

For the Pizza Sauce

1. 1 cup of thick tomato Puree (I used POMI brand chopped tomatoes)
2. 3 cloves of garlic chopped fine
3. 1 tbsp olive oil
4. salt to taste
5. 2-3 tsp of red chili powder (black pepper will work too, we wanted this on the spicy side)
6. In a pan heat the olive oil add the garlic saute for a minute and then add the tomato puree, along with salt and chili powder.
7. Let cook for about 15-20 minutes on medium low till the tomatoes are cooked and slightly thick and the oil leaves the sides. Set Aside.

Toppings - Making the Pizza

1. Bell Pepper, Mushrooms, Jalapenos, Mozarella Cheese
2. Cut the Bell Pepper into strips, drizzle with olive oil/grape seed oil and roast for about 10 minutes. Set aside
3. Slice the mushrooms into slices and set aside.
4. Cut the mozarella cheese into slices
5. On the rolled out pizza dough, spread the pizza sauce on top, I like only a meagre amount but feel free to add as much as you want.
6. Arrange the vegetables first, top with the mozarella cheese and slide into the oven for baking.

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A "Green" Pizza

Hope all the mothers out there had a great Mother's Day. We are not much into the Hallmark holidays and other than the hand drawn/made gifts that DDs bring from school there is usually no gift giving. DH is of the belief that the bank account is joint so it is easy to buy ourselves the things we need rather than an elaborate gift exchange. This eases the pressure on me and I have bought into this cool idea big time. Very romantic household don't you think?

Things changed a little bit this Mother's Day. There was a lot of activity and secrecy Saturday evening and on Sunday the little darlings gave me the wrapped gift. Beautiful platters and bowl for my blog. There will be on display in this space very soon. I have been asked several times already if I am cooking something that can be plated on the new crockery. Now I am under pressure to come through for Father's Day hmmm.

During the day we went of on a picnic with a large group of friends. while we (the adults) were busy socializing and playing volleyball DD2 spend the whole day under the sun playing in the sand building castles and making mud cakes thoroughly enjoying herself. She did not drink water and I was too busy to remind her and the result, when we came home DD2 was burning up with fever. She started sleeping right after we came home and woke up around midnight and I lay awake unable to fall sleep thinking of the three letter word that has so scared us the past few weeks - FLU. The temperature is down this morning and fortunately I have eliminated the most obvious symptoms. The mommy police must be tsk tsking about not being on my toes as a parent all the time and thus ended our Mother's Day.

The gift sure sealed the deal that the family would continue to see dishes like this "Green Pizza" on the table. On the weekends while breakfast and lunches are easy the dinner is usually not an easy affair. This is perfect for a relaxed Saturday dinner.

The name attribution goes to Vani of Mysoorean from her comment on the Tibetan Flatbread and it suited the Pizza perfectly. As I had mentioned in the post this bread made a perfect pizza base. I doubled the recipe to make a slightly thicker crust.

Thick Crust Pepper and Mushroom Pizza
Ingredients
For the base: Based on the Tibetan Flat Bread
1. 2 Cups Whole Wheat flour (I used chapati flour)
2. 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
3. 2 tsp baking powder
4. 1 tsp salt
5. 2 tbsp olive oil
6. 2 1/2 Cups + 3 tbsp Water (I should have used slightly more water for the dough)

For the topping:
1. 1 Orange Bell Pepper
2. 1 Large Banana Pepper
3. 1 pack Baby Bella Mushrooms
4. Shredded Mozzarella cheese
5. 1 tsp chili powder + salt

Slice the veggies and set aside.

For the sauce:
1. 4 Roma tomatoes chopped fine
2. 2 tsp chili powder

Method
1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt with water to form a gooey dough. I should have added a bit more water because of the WW flour.
2. To a 12" slightly deep cold saute pan add the olive oil and then the dough and spread it around. Dip a rubber spatula in the oil and use it pat the dough around (my dough was slightly less gooey because of less water another 1/4 cup should have been enough)
3. Add the 2 tbsp of water around the dough to create steam. Cover the pan.
4. In medium high heat cook for 10 minutes.
5. Flip the bread over and cook for 5 more minutes.

6. While cooking the bread, in a pan saute the pepper first followed by the mushrooms. Sprinkle with the chili powder and salt and set aside.

7. Along side in a pan cook the tomatoes with some chili powder and salt to the desired consistency.

8. The bread should be done at this point, add the sauce, the veggies and the cheese. Put the lid back on, reduce the heat to below medium till the cheese melts.
Let it sit for a few minutes, cut and serve.

The kids showered praises like "this is the best pizza I ever tasted". The crust on this one was thick and solid. Adjust the crust thickness as per taste