Basil & Almond Pesto, Red Onion, Courgette and Plum Tomato Topped Pizza on Ella's Quinoa Crust (vegan & GF)

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Beth Hart ~ I'll Take Care Of You
Bodyrockers ~ You Got Me Singing 
Gary Moore ~ With Love (Remember)
Jones & Holland ~ Slow Down
Bryan Adams ~ Please Forgive Me
Joss Stone ~ Some Kind Of Wonderful 
Joan Jett ~ Bad Reputation
Beth Hart ~ Keep On Going
The Beach Boys ~ Kokomo 
Beth Hart ~ Them There Eyes
Portishead ~ Strangers
Gregory Porter ~ Work Song
Nelly Furtado ~ Glow
Soundgarden ~ Tighter & Tighter 

I have been jonesing for a pizza since the weekend. Do you ever get cravings that bad? It got so bad that I just decided to make a pizza and be damned. lol. My gluten free pizza base of choice was once again Deliciously Ellas quinoa base. After testing it out last week I was wanting to try it with a pesto based sauce and used my simple pesto recipe of basil, ground almonds and garlic oil. I wanted to keep my toppings simple so turned to three of my favourite pizza veggies..red onion, courgette and fresh plum tomatoes.

Making the base was fun as I had the help of the littlest niece who ended up covered in the batter and had great fun pressing the processor buttons. lol. However she didn't approve of the pesto so lost interest at that point and came back only to arrange the onion rings for me before scooting off to catch up on her Dora addiction. The pizza smelt so good as it baked and my tender tum was actually looking forward to food for the first time this week. Shame I wasn't eating it until that evening after another hospital visit...ah well..I had something to look forward to...

I wasn't disappointed because the first taste of the warmed up pizza sent my taste buds dancing. The base held the flavour of the pesto perfectly and the veggies were a great addition. I admit it..I ate the whole thing and my tum loved me for it. lol. Once again thanks to Ella over at Deliciously Ella blog for creating a good pizza base...

Basil & Almond Pesto, Red Onion, Courgette and Plum Tomato Topped Pizza

Basil & Almond Pesto, Red Onion, Courgette & Plum Tomato Topped Pizza    Makes 1 8" Pizza

1 Deliciously Ella Quinoa Pizza Base

4 tbsp pesto of your choice
(to make mine...3 handfuls of basil, 3 tbsp ground almonds, 5 tbsp garlic oil..BLEND)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
12 slices of courgette
2 slices of plum tomato
few leaves of fresh basil to garnish
abundance of freshly cracked black pepper

Take your pre-cooked pizza base and smear the pesto evenly across it and be sure to take it to the very edge of the crust. Place your onion slices on top, followed by the courgette and finishing with the tomato slices. Liberally grate the pepper over the veggies. Place the pizza in a hot oven and bake for 10 minutes. Scatter with torn basil leaves...and serve

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Thursday is a great one....

~Red~

NB: The idea and creation of the quinoa pizza base is not mine and therefore I take no credit for it. It is the hard work and creation of DeliciouslyElla. Thank you to her for such a great recipe ~R~

Rocket & Rose's Black Olive Pate with Deliciously Ella's Superfood Bread (vegan, gluten & yeast free!)

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Madonna ~ Erotica 
The Gossip ~ Keeping You Alive
Bon Jovi ~ You Give Love A Bad Name
Keith Urban ~ She's Gotta Be
ZZ Top ~ Gimme All Your Lovin'
John Lennon ~ (Just Like) Starting Over
Suzi Quatro ~ I've Never Been In Love
KORN ~ Burn The Obedient 
Joan Jett ~ Fetish
Jack Johnson ~ Fortunate Fool
Sara Sant'Ambrogio ~ Sonata Op 65: 1. Allegro Moderto
Depeche Mode ~ Higher Love
Queen ~ We Will Rock You
P!nk ~ Funhouse

*doing my happy dance from the kitchen, around the house and then finally crashing onto my office chair...but keeping my intensely large grin*  

The reason for this sudden burst of rampant happy filled dancing? Quite simply the gluten free, yeast free bread recipe I made this morning from DeliciouslyElla's blog. This goddesslike woman has created the most amazing gluten free recipes and earlier in the week I tested out the quinoa pizza crust and it was so good that it inspired me to keep testing the other recipes I had printed off of her site. Today was the turn of the Superfood Bread...

...now I admit I had begun to give up on ever enjoying a bread based food item again. I have tried many gluten free recipes both oven baked and in our bread machine and all were...awful. I dislike the sandy texture you get with many of the offerings out there. For the same reasons I dislike most shop bought gluten free products or they have eggs added to them..or a ton of junk that when reading through them I felt like my head was going to explode. Then I found out that I had an intolerance to yeast too...*sighs*...I then stopped trying to find a product as all vegan gluten free bread recipes seemed to rely heavily on yeast. Then I found Ella's blog....

I like Ella's recipes because they are simple recipes, with good healthy ingredients and they.....WORK! lol. The quinoa pizza was very much enjoyed and I can't begin to put into words just how much I enjoyed the Superfood Bread and for Ella's recipe click here! The bread is a good mix of nuts and seeds and I chose to use the buckwheat flour option although you could use brown rice flour instead. I also used psyllium husk powder for the first time. This loaf is laughingly simple to make and then after an hour of 'sitting' its goes into a moderate oven and 40 minutes later you have a great seedy loaf. The flavour is so good and almost reminiscent of my beloved wholemeal/granary loaves from the past. I loved it! Thank you once again Ella! (Update: It appears I forgot to add the herbs to my loaf but I didn't miss them until I was re-reading the recipe after writing this post...so just so you know..no herbs works fantastically as well)

Now as it is forever since I enjoyed a sandwich I knew I needed to create a new pate to spread on top of my slice. For some reason images of a creamy olive pate came to mind topped with a slice of a vine ripened tomato and some rocket leaves. Yes, my topping for my pizza also had a similar assembly but what can I say..I am a black olive, tomato and rocket addict. lol. That's why I chose the name of my blog...my love of Rocket leaves and white roses..lol. I digress...

This pate isn't as heady as full on olive tapenade and that is exactly what I wanted. I love olives but can find myself olived out with the tapenades. I chose to use a bean to add the creamy texture and my bean of choice is the humble Butterbean because I believe it gives a creaminess that the other white beans don't. However I suspect any white bean would work ok in this pate..choices is yours as ever folks. I also used garlic infused olive oil as I wanted subtle garlic rather than the raw hit. But if you need to reduce the oil...try using a small garlic clove..remove the centre core and then micro grate it into the processor. I also used the store cupboard ready-ground black pepper because I wanted the depth of flavour in this pate. After I had finished blending this pate together I made my final testing and was smiling all over the place...its been a good recipe day today. I love those days...lol. 

I've been creating in the kitchen whilst ML and our nephew Myles have been waging an epic war via Starwars...lol. The little guy came to stay over again last night after we share a great day out adventuring with him and his sisters. I love that he is still excited to stay over...

Ella's Superfood Bread open sandwiches, spread with R & R Black Olive Pate

Rocket & Roses Black Olive Pate    Makes 1 generous cup
(Original Recipe from the Rocket & Roses Vegan Kitchen) 

1 14oz tin of butter beans, rinsed and drained
15 large black olives 
2 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
1/2 of lemon juice 
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
a good sprinkle of Himalayan salt (optional)

In the bowl of a food processor, place the beans and olives and pulse until they have broken down a lot. Then drizzle the oil and lemon juice and pulse quickly once again. Then sprinkle in the black pepper and Him/salt if using and then...be patient! Start to blend on a high speed and when necessary push it down from the sides. Process until a creamy texture has been reached. Sadly in my processor that takes about 15 minutes but hopefully it won't be as long for you. Then store in a container with an airtight lid in the fridge until ready to use. 

Assembly: 

Cut two slices from your Superfood Bread loaf....

Look at that seedy yummy goodness...

 
Slather your slices with the Black Olive Pate and then top with a slice of a vine-ripened tomato and some small rocket leaves. Then serve....

Enjoy! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Saturday is as fulfilling as mine has been so far....not to mention I hope you get the chance to do your happy dance too! lol

~Red~ 

NB: The Superfood Bread is not my creation and therefore I take no credit for it whatsoever. It is the hard work and creation of Ella@ DeliciouslyElla and hers alone. But thankyou once again Ella for a fantastic recipe...~R~

Rocket & Olive Pizza with Ella's Quinoa Pizza Base (vegan, gluten & yeast free)

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Missy Higgins ~ Nightminds 
NIN ~ I Do Not Want This
Richie Kotzen ~ Feed My Head
Roy Orbison ~ Too Soon To Know
Elgar: Variations on an original theme "Enigma"
NIN ~ Heresy
The Union ~ Holy Roller
Bach: Cello Suite #5 in C Minor Gavotte
Keith Urban ~ Kiss A Girl 
The Cranberries ~ Electric Blue
Lady Antebellum ~ Need You Now
Heart ~ Black on Black 
The Animals ~ How You've Changed
Brandi Carlile ~ Until I Die 

Since going completely gluten free I have missed certain foods..badly. One of them being my monthly treat of tomato and olive pizza. I was never a deep pan pizza person and if that was the only pizza on offer I would always refuse. I liked the thinner stone baked bases and finding a good vegan, gluten free, yeast free pizza base has been a challenge and so far I have been unsuccessful. It was during a desperate search online that I found DeliciouslyElla's blog. What a revelation! Her blog is light and cheery but also filled with great recipes. I was lost in there for a good hour and came away with a pizza base, superfood bread and seeded bread roll recipe. The woman is a genius..the kind that makes you question your own work and feel like..."What's the point in trying?.." Then I got a grip...lol 

Yesterday I set about making the pizza. It was different and intriguing because it didn't contain any flour either wheat or gluten free...or yeast. It was a simple crust made from soaked quinoa, apple cider vinegar, dried herbs and chilli flakes. And for Ella's recipe simply click here.  So the night before ML put the required amount of quinoa into soak and then in morning I set about making the crust. It really is a very simple recipe IF you have a blender with some guts which I don't and so after half an hour of blending I was beginning to lose the will to live and my blender was screaming an SOS. I assume that Ella is fortunate to have a Vitamix or the like. Lucky lady. However, much later I finally had a consistency that wasn't just whole quinoa seeds and looked a little like the batter Ella had hoped I would have. I carefully smoothed it over an 8" pizza pan and then left it to cook in the oven. 

I don't miss cheese at all and I must admit the thought of a thick layer of fatty, globby cheese on a pizza makes me feel sick these days. Took a while for my 'cheese tooth' to die away but I am very happy it has. And that goes as far as using the vegan cheezes...be them homemade or store bought. For a long time now I've enjoyed a specific pizza topping so I knew that would be the tester topping for this pizza base. A rich garlicky tomato sauce, fresh tomato slices, intensely salty black olives and almost bitter rocket leaves. Oooh and oregano...and I'm not precious about it being fresh..just a healthy dose of the dried stuff in my tomato sauce. Once my base was cooked and it cooked very quickly and looked delicious. (Photo below) I set about making my toppings and then sat patiently whilst it baked in the oven. The smell almost made me tearful...hey! I said almost...lol It's been a while..

The results...were simply delicious. There is no convincing anyone that this is a 'regular' pizza base because it is clearly not. The quinoa base is dense in texture but carries the toppings well. I enjoyed every mouthful and felt very satisfied afterwards and didn't feel 'cheated' of my old wheat based crusts. Maybe it's because I recognise how ill they made me and have no desire or inclination of going back to them...or maybe I just enjoyed the intense flavours of my favourite toppings and really enjoyed the quinoa crust too. I will be making this when those pizza cravings hit. Thank you Ella..now I can't wait to try your bread recipe and the rolls. 

Rocket & Olive Pizza with Ella's Quinoa Pizza Base

Rocket & Olive Pizza with Ella's Quinoa Pizza Base  Makes 1 8" pizza

1 8" Quinoa Pizza Base 

Deliciously Ella's Quinoa Pizza Base

3 tbsp tomato paste 
1 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 vine ripened tomato, thinly sliced
6 black olives, halved 
1 handful of rocket leaves

In a small bowl whisk the tomato paste, oil and oregano until it is well combined and quite fluffy and then spread evenly over the pizza base. Then place the tomato slices on the sauce followed by the olives and then scatter with the rocket leaves. Place back into the hot oven and bake for 10 minutes. Or you could leave off the rocket leaves and place them on after the baking time. Choice is yours...serve 

Enjoy! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Thursday is a splendid one....

~Red~ 

NB: The quinoa pizza base idea and recipe is not mine and therefore I take no credit for it whatsoever. It is the hard work and creation of Ella @ Deliciously Ella and hers alone. I thank her being an inspiration...~R~