Being confined over the winter months has led a lot of us to re-examine our pantry and explore other ingredients outside our regular weekly shopping bag. As a result many of us have been experimenting with all sorts of flours which, like toilet paper, became very scarce at one point!
Chickpea flour with its high protein and fibre content is one of those superfoods that hits the low carbohydrate spot and tastes deliciously crispy on the outside with a nutty chewiness on the inside.
As some of you know, I am a hopeless pizza-holic and as the summer heat subsides we can now switch back into oven and stove cooking without wilting in the process.
Broccoli & Cheddar Skillet Pizza
Topping
Makes 1 thick-crust pizza (serves 2-4)
Notes: If you want a thin crust, use a larger pan or make two pizzas using half the chickpea batter for each pizza. In this case, you may need to adjust the amount of toppings. The recipe calls for tomato sauce. Use your favourite one here. Some have been cooked down with olive oil, herbs, garlic and onion. But if you use plain tomato sauce I suggest stirring through a crushed clove of garlic, salt, and pepper along with the lemon zest called for in the recipe. Please don´t use my pet hate ingredient: tomate frito – or if you do, don´t tell me about it.
Chickpea flatbread (recipe below)
3/4 cup (180 ml) tomato sauce
Zest 1/2 lemon
1 small head of broccoli
Large handful sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
½ red onion, thinly sliced
Red pepper flakes, to taste (optional for some, essential for me)
Make chickpea crust following recipe below.
Preheat oven to 425F/220C. Chop broccoli head and tender stem into bite size pieces. Place on foil baking tray and toss with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and drizzle of oil. Roast in oven for 10 minutes, or until broccoli is crisp tender and browning around the edges.
Stir lemon zest into tomato sauce.
Once chickpea crust is cooked, layer over tomato sauce, spreading evenly to the edges. Scatter around roasted broccoli, cheese, and onion if using.
Set oven back to broil and return skillet to top third section of oven to melt cheese (for 4-6 minutes).
Slice pizza into quarters and serve immediately.
Chickpea Flatbread
- 1 cup (164 gr) chickpea flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) warm water
- 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (plus 1 Tbsp for coating pan)
- In a medium bowl whisk chickpea flour, salt, and cumin. Add warm water and 2 Tbsp. oil and whisk well until very smooth (it should be the consistency of pancake batter). Set aside on counter for 30 minutes so flour has time to absorb the water. Alternatively make batter 6-10 hours in advance and leave on the counter, covered with a clean kitchen towel, until ready to use.
- Turn oven to broil, set oven rack in the upper third section of the oven, and place a 10-in (25 cm) cast-iron skillet (or other heavy non-stick pan) in oven to preheat for 10 minutes.
- Remove skillet, pour in 1 Tbsp oil, tilting the pan so the entire surface has a generous coating.
- Give the batter one last good whisk and pour into the pan, tilting pan so entire surface is evenly coated with batter. Place in oven and cook 7-9 minutes, or until edges are golden brown and curl up slightly.
- Loosen flatbread by running a thin spatula around the sides and underneath. Proceed with pizza
