Homemade Vegetarian Pizza with Chickpea & Spelt Crust

Pizza is one of those foods that, when done right, can be enjoyed with zero guilt. This homemade vegetarian pizza with chickpea and spelt crust is the perfect example of a well-balanced meal that’s also calorie-conscious. For a thin, high-protein and high-fiber crust, use a mix of spelt and chickpea flour. For the sauce, make our lycopene-rich tomato sauce. It’s simple, made with fresh ingredients and low in calories. Top the pizza with your favorite in-season veggies and a calorie-conscious amount of fresh mozzarella cheese. Each 11-inch (28cm) pizza has approximately 550 calories, so if you exercise regularly and have a healthy weight, you can safely eat one pizza for lunch or dinner. If you’re trying to cut down calories and lose weight, eat half the pizza with a big veggie salad for lunch and eat the other half with a veggie soup for dinner. Don’t be scared, there’s nothing wrong about eating this kind of pizza!

Homemade Vegetarian Pizza with Chickpea & Spelt Crust Recipe

Prep Time: 90 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Serves: 2 11-inch (28cm) pizzas

Ingredients

Chickpea & Spelt Dough:
+ 1/3 cup (85 g) warm water
+ 1 tbsp olive oil
+ 1/4 tsp sea salt
+ 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
+ 2/3 cup (75 g) chickpea flour
+ 2/3 cup (75 g) splet flour + more for dusting
+ 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Pizza:
+ 6 tbsp homemade tomato sauce
+ 1/2 small red bell pepper, cut into cubes
+ 1/2 small red onion, cut into slices
+ 2-3 mushrooms, thinly sliced
+ 10 cherry tomatoes, cut in quarters
+ 4 oz (115 g) mozzarella cheese, shredded
+ a handful basil leaves, roughly chopped

Directions

Pour 1/3 cup warm water into a small bowl, add olive oil, sea salt, garlic, flours, and yeast. Mix well with your hands until dough forms a sticky ball. Transfer to another bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. While you wait for the dough to rise, prepare the tomato sauce and chop the veggies.
Once the dough has doubled in size, preheat oven to 480ºF / 250ºC, place the dough on a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out. Divide the dough into 2 small balls and roll them with a rolling pin into thin rough circles. Spoon 3 tbsp of tomato sauce into the center of each pizza and use the back of a spoon to spread it out to the edges. Add the pepper, onion, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella cheese on top, place in the oven, reduce the heat to 430ºF / 220ºC and let bake for about 15 minutes until the crust is golden-brown.
Remove the pizza from the oven, let cool for about 5 minutes, sprinkle with basil leaves, slice and serve. Enjoy!