quinoa pizza crust – revisited
I have been making this crust occasionally for nearly 10 years now (originally posted July 10, 2014), and I admit, it’s not one that I’ve particularly perfected, but one I do keep coming back to. I originally started making it as part of avoiding carbs after bariatric surgery. I mean, nobody is going to be fooled into thinking this is a “pizza crust”. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing either.
This one is adapted from a recipe I originally found over on A Sweet Life, and while it’s super easy to make it does take a bit of planning, not something you will be able to put together at the last minute. It all starts with the quinoa, but instead of cooking it, you soak it. For at least four hours, but preferably about 8 hours or so. If you plan for it, you can just start the soaking in the morning before leaving for work, then it is ready for dinner that night.
To prep, you blend up the quinoa with some seasonings and water until it’s about the consistency of nice pancake batter, bake up the crust, top it, bake it some more, and bada-bing, you’ve got pizza.
This recipe makes a filling meal for one, or add a nice salad on the side and it will easily feed two. Top it with whatever you want. It’s a great way to use up left over bits of chicken, little bit of fresh veggies, and your sauce can be anything from some fresh tomato slices to some olive oil to left over pasta sauce or pesto. It’s your pizza, you do you.
One of the things I’ve discovered, if you do a watery sauce, like a tomato sauce, make sure the top side of the crust is well done. Otherwise, it will absorb a lot of the water and get a bit soggy.
I did a “thin crust” version of this on a recent twitch stream, pouring enough batter to make less like a pita and more like a thick tortilla. I really like how it turned out, I could have gotten it a bit more done before saucing it, but it ended up with it being slightly crisp around the edges and a nice soft crust in the middle.
I like to use my cast iron pans for this, my 10-inch gives me just the right size for a personal pizza. You can go larger, if you don’t have a cast iron pan maybe try a round cake pan or even some sort of casserole dish. As long as it’s oven safe. Next time I might try this in a way similar to how I do a tortilla pizza (something for another post I suppose), where I start the cooking on the stove top and finish in the oven. I’ll continue to update this post as I keep tweeking it here and there.
In the mean time, if you try this out, let me know how you topped yours and how it turned out by leaving a comment below.
quinoa pizza crust
ingredients
1/2 cup quinoa
2 cups water – divided
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1/4 tsp salt
directions
- Put the quinoa in a bowl or other container with about 1.5 cups water and let soak for 4-8 hours.
- Brush a 9″ cast-iron skillet with oil or use no-stick spray. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet use a cake pan or pie plate. Place in oven on middle rack and turn it on to 450°F to pre-heat.
- Drain the quinoa, rinse and put in a blender or food processor. Add 1/4 cup water and process until the consistency of pancake batter, adding more water if needed. Add seasoning and salt and mix.
- When oven is heated, carefully pour batter in to preheated pan and quickly spread around to an even thickness.
- Bake for about 10 minutes, carefully flip and bake for another 10 minutes until browned.
Remove from oven and add toppings, return to oven and bake for about another 5-7 minutes until heated and cheese has melted as desired.
