Monday 26 January 2015

Broccoli crust pizza

Well, I have been dying to share this recipe with you for such a long time as I was so so pleased with it when I tried it so I’m sure you will all love it too! It’s another pizza recipe this time made using broccoli rather than cauliflower as the base and the reason I love it so much is firstly it’s lots easier because you don’t have to squeeze all the water out like you do with the cauliflower - definitely the worst part! Also there’s no cheese in the base which means you can add even more as a topping without feeling guilty because you’ve already used so much in the base! Just like the cauliflower one, you will not taste the broccoli in the base, especially if you overpower it with lots of herbs, like I did!

You will need the slightly unusual ingredient psylium husk which can be hard to get hold of, I found it in a local health food shop, but you can get it online easily. This ingredient is so good as it soaks all the moisture out of the mixture up, and changes it from being a gooey wet mess to a dough!

Without further ado, here’s how you do it:

You will need:

The florets from 1 small head of broccoli

1 onion

3-4 cloves of garlic, more if you like it really garlicky…

3 eggs

2 tablespoons of Psylium husk

A good handful of fresh basil leaves- optional but will add lots of flavour

Method:

Start by preheating the oven to 200°C / 400°F.

Put the, broccoli, onions, basil and garlic in a food processor until it’s finely chopped and roughly a uniform consistency. Add the eggs, psyllium husk, some salty, pepper and dried mixed herbs and pulse again until all well combined. Leave it to stand while you prepare your toppings. At this stage it will seem a very wet mixture but while it stands it will start to thicken and hold together.

Prepare your toppings, I sliced the tomatoes, and courgettes (zucchini), crumbled the goats cheese and sliced some peppers. I then put the peppers into the oven for 15 minutes to roast to bring out their flavour even more.

Pour the broccoli mixture onto a pizza stone, or baking tray lined with parchment/ grease proof paper. Use the back of a large spoon, or a spatula to spread it out until it’s even. Make the edges slightly thicker so they don’t burn. Pop into the oven for 15 minutes.

Remove the crust from the oven. I always turn it upside down at this point by putting a plate on top of the crust then quickly flipping them both upside down and peeling the greaseproof paper off, this is just to make sure the base cooks well on both sides but is optional.

Start adding your toppings. I use sundried tomato purée as it has far fewer carbs than normal tomato purée and spread it all the way to the edges of the crust. I then add the courgettes, sliced tomatoes, the peppers and then the goats cheese then a sprinkling of Parmesan.