I figure if I’m going to eat pizza, I better load it up with antioxidant goodness.
Wednesday is my Grant Family Farms CSA pick-up day, so Tuesday nights are often spent making pizza or rice bowls out of the leftover odds and ends in my crisper drawer. It forces me to explore the dark corners of my fridge and make room for the new arrivals. Never one to color inside the lines, I’ve come up with some creative ways to use the tail-end of my farm-fresh food deliveries.
Beet or corn ice cream, anyone? Sweet potato tacos?
How about radicchio, mixed squash and beet pizza?
Radicchio?
Radicchio (see above) is a leafy chicory plant. Most people use it in salads, although I find it bitter. But guess what? If you cook it, the bitter taste disappears and it becomes mellow and slightly sweet. It’s wonderful stuff and according to The Journal of Nutrition, it’s also very high in antioxidants. Right up there with Swiss chard, spinach and broccoli.
Last Tuesday night I dug around in my fridge and found some radicchio, a piece of already cooked corn-on-the-cob, a beet, a small grilling onion, two roasted green chiles, and a few big chunks of delicata, crookneck and zucchini squash. I also had several garden-fresh tomatoes, all from the farm.
Radicchio on pizza? I’ll give it a try. And, how about roasted green chile, black olive, onion, corn and tomato pizza?
All super-healthy ingredients. Every veggie on this list is filled with high-quality antioxidants. That’s a good thing. Our bazillions of hard-working little cells need all the help they can get.
gluten-free antioxidant veggie pizza #1 (see above, top left corner)
what you need
1 gluten-free Udi’s thin pizza crust *
1 & 1/2 tablespoons butter (I prefer organic, pastured, full-tilt butter)
2 cloves garlic, minced
squeeze of honey (1-2 teaspoons)
1 cup thinly sliced ridacchio
1 cup mixed squash chunks (3/4 inch squares)
1 beet, washed and cut into chunks, no need to peel (3/4 inch squares)
cheese (I used a mix of 3 different kinds)
gluten-free antioxidant veggie pizza #2 (above, bottom right corner)
what you need
1 gluten-free Udi’s thin pizza crust *
1 & 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
squeeze of honey (1-2 teaspoons)
2 roasted green chiles, peeled, de-seeded and chopped
2 tomatoes chopped *
1 can sliced black olives
1/4 cup corn
1/4 cup diced onion
cheese
what you do
1. Because the beets and squash take longer to cook than the pizza itself, I like to roast them first. It also adds a nice taste to the pizza. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the prepared beets and zucchini in a medium-sized bowl and drizzle with a small amount of olive oil. Gently mix to cover with oil. Spread out the veggies on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast on center rack of the oven for about 15 minutes. Watch closely and flip using a spatula to make sure they’re roasted evenly. Remove from oven and set aside.
2. While the veggies are roasting, melt the butter over low heat, add the garlic and honey and stir until blended.
3. Brush the melted butter-garlic-honey blend over the pizza crust. Add the ingredients, sprinkle shredded cheese over the top and cook in 375 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cheese is lightly browned. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes.
4. Cut into 4 slices and enjoy! Serves 1 or 2, depending on how hungry you are.
Melissa’s cooking notes (if you dare):
* Udi’s is a local gluten-free product company. These crusts are thin, delicious and store well in the freezer. This is one of the few pre-made, gluten-free products that I buy. I love them!
* Put the ridacchio on first so it doesn’t burn (that goes for ingredients like kale as well, they tend to cook faster than the big chunky ingredients).
* When I use tomatoes for cooking and don’t want the extra liquid, I chop them and spin them in my salad spinner to get rid of the excess moisture. Then I save the juice and use it in my homemade salad dressings.
* Photos above are the “before” versions. I dislike messing with my camera when it’s time to sit down and enjoy dinner.
Peace, love and antioxidant goodness!
Melissa
Tags: farm fresh, gluten-free, gluten-free pizza, Grant Family Farms, radicchio, vegetarian
Um, Mom, this is when I really wished I still lived at home 🙂
Hey Tev — London, Glasgow, Paris, Chicago, NYC or Guatemala? There’s no place like home (especially the Rocky Mountains). =) We miss you. Homemade GF food is waiting.
xo
Those look WONDERFUL Melissa!! Fresh veggie pizzas are SO good and you don’t feel guilty for eating them!! These are really beautiful!!
GLG — thank you! I agree, veggie pizzas are the best and you absolutely can’t go wrong if you start with good, farm-fresh ingredients, no matter what they are. Plus, it’s so much fun to play with your food.
Oh, I think these look absolutely scrumptious, Meliss! Even the before versions. Just to clarify per your notes, putting the raddichio on first keeps it from burning? Is that because it’s covered by other goodies, which slows its cooking time. BTW, I had no idea that cooking it would reduce its bitterness. Antioxidant goodness … I’m all for it. Drinking a great antioxidant smoothie as we speak. 🙂
I just watched the Fuzz video a little while ago, so I’m off to comment on that post next. I had to immedately go de-fuzz after watching it!
xo,
Shirley
This makes me really hungry!
Recently tried a Redbrick Pizza Gluten-Free pizza in Ventura on my way home from a trip. I live in Orange County, CA but, the Redbricks here said they don’t have it yet. So far, it’s the best G-Free pizza I’ve tasted. Unfortunately, the only choices around here right now are Z-Pizza and BJ’s which are OK but, not great. I really must say, the Redbrick pizza was the best I’ve had so far that I’ve been craving it ever since. Now I don’t want to eat any other pizzas anymore. UGHHHH.
Melissa, I do not know which of the two sounds better! They both sound so so awesome! I am also the queen of using up all the leftover veggies for random pizza concoctions! And we LOVE those Udi’s crusts. Because more nights than not, I do not feel like making my own hand-made crusts! I will have to use some of these ideas. Beets on a pizza sound perfect!
Shirley,
Yes, those “leafy” type ingredients burn quickly, so I always put them on the bottom to protect them a bit.
Yes, isn’t the FUZZ video wonderful. I love that guy (Gil Hedley). His book is entertaining as well. Good stuff and an important reminder to de-fuzz daily.
=)
Alta,
Hey, every time I visit your blog, I get hungry! So, we’re even.
=)
Kim,
I’d really rather make everything from scratch myself, but sometimes life makes that difficult! During those times, I do like to pull out an Udi’s from the freezer and load it up with veggie goodness.
And beets are perfect on pizza. Of course, I’ve been a beet girl from birth so I eat them on everything!
Thanks for the comment, Kim. I appreciate it.
Wow. These look so, so yummy. And healthy. Can’t WAIT to try (and I will, for sure — can’t resist a good gluten-free pizza recipe).
Here’s a recipe I found (and modified slightly). I’ve been GF for a year, and am still learning. Baking with GF flours is always an experiment, and it certainly helps to keep xanthan gum on hand (helps mimic gluten in some things, and reduce the unavoidable crumbliness of it all).3c Gluten Free Flour (I use Bette Hagman’s recipe for Gluten Free Mix)4 tsp Dried Yeast1/2 tsp sugar1 tsp salt1 1/2 tbsp canola or olive oil1 egg (this I added as the dough was very crumbly otherwise you might want to try 1-2tsp of xanthan gum if you have it)Combine yeast, sugar and 3 tablespoons of warm water in a small bowl and set aside until foaming. Sift the flour and slat into a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together 1c warm water and the oil, then pour into a well in the dry ingredients along with yeast mixture. Mix together with wooden spoon until all combined. [This is where we realized it needed a little more fluid, so we added a splash of water and an egg].Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Cover and set aside in a warm place for about 1hr, until doubled in size.Punch down dough, knead lightly. Divide dough into 2 portions, and form onto 2 10 3/4inch pizza trays.Add toppings and all that yummy stuff. Bake at 425F for approximately 20min.The crust came out thin (which we really enjoyed) it wasn’t your traditional pizza dough consistency, though the xanthan gum may help add a little chewiness to it.Hope this works out for you!
Wow, thank you for this recipe. I (and everyone else, I’m sure) appreciate you taking the time to write it out. It sounds great. I much prefer thin crusts, so I’ll give this a try!