Wednesday, June 30, 2010

30 Days Gluten Free Quick & Easy Meals: Day 24 - Diane's Mexican Pizza

Welcome to 30 Days Gluten Free Quick & Easy Meals!

Today's post is written by Diane Eblin author of the newly published ebook, The Gluten Free Diner Cookbook , and the blog: "The W.H.O.L.E. Gang."

Day 24 - Diane's Mexican Pizza

There is nothing our family likes more than pizza. Living gluten and dairy free has not slowed us down. It has however made me a lot more creative and we are eating amazing pizzas now, not just cheese and pepperoni.

Now that its summer and the farmer’s markets are full of amazing fresh produce, I am having even more fun with my food. Our family loves to eat many different ethnic cuisines, but I think our two favorites are Mexican and Italian. So I thought, why not combine both. On a recent trip to the farmers market I gathered some jalapeno peppers, red onion and tomatoes. That is how it all started, my Mexican Pizza. I also had tomatillos and mushrooms hanging out in the refrigerator. Why not put them all together?

I really loved how the sweetness of the tomatillos played with the spiciness of the chipotle and jalapenos. It was a party in my mouth and I can’t wait to have it again.

The great thing about this pizza and any pizza is you can literally clean out the refrigerator and prep this pizza in the time it takes for the oven to warm up.

So keep this in mind as you create your pizza, use what ingredients you like and have on hand. That’s the key to fun, fresh new pizza ideas. The fastest pizza I ever made was a Za’atar Pizza and the thickest most stuffed pizza was my Spinach and Artichoke Dip Pizza.



Diane’s Mexican Pizza
vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free, soy free
Makes 8 slices unless you cut them really small, then you get 16.


Ingredients:
Your favorite pizza crust or mix. (I used Chebe all purpose mix.)
1 package of sliced mushrooms (sliced and whole costs the same)
½ red onion diced
4-6 tomatillos sliced, depending on size and pizza size
2-4 jalapenos seeded and sliced
1 large tomato diced
Daiya Cheese- cheddar and mozzarella (gluten, dairy, and soy free)
2 tsp butter (Earth Balance dairy, gluten and soy free)
Garlic powder
Olive oil
Adobo (I use Penzeys which contains-garlic, onion, Tellicherry black pepper, Mexican oregano, cumin and cayenne red pepper.)
Cilantro- dried or handful of fresh chopped
Chipotle chili powder
Ancho chili powder
Large crystal sea salt
Fresh cracked black pepper

Directions:
  1. Pre-heat your oven
  2. While the oven is heating up dice your onion and toss it and the mushrooms into a large skillet with the butter and a little splash of olive oil on medium to medium high.
  3. While that is cooking mix your pizza dough, roll it out and put it onto your pan. Prick the surface with a fork so it don’t get one of those large bubbles. Give that skillet a little toss.
  4. Slice your tomatillos, chop your tomato and seed and slice your jalapeno. I like to use one large cutting board for it all. It goes much faster that way. Give that skillet one more toss, sprinkle with a little sea salt and pepper and turn off.
  5. Assemble your pizza!
  6. Sprinkle the dough with some olive oil and then use the back of a spoon or your fingers (best kitchen tool) to spread it around. Sprinkle the dough with garlic powder making sure to get it all the way to the edges. Don’t use too much or it will be too over powering. Also sprinkle the dough with the Adobo, but not to the edges.
  7. Add your sliced tomatillos and chopped tomatoes around the pizza. Now sprinkle with the cheeses. I don’t like a lot of cheese on my pizza and with Daiya I would not use as much as I would have it were regular dairy cheese. Remember, you can always add more the next time or even after you’ve tasted it just pop it back into the oven.
  8. Now distribute the mushroom onion mixture and sliced jalapeno peppers. Sprinkle with the ancho and cilantro. The last thing I add are the chipotle and sea salt all the way to the edges. I really like to have a good seasoning on the edges of my pizza.
  9. Bake according to your dough directions and enjoy!
Don’t be afraid to swap out ingredients when making this pizza. The whole idea is to make it fresh, fast and simple. If you want to add meat or seafood to this a little chorizo would be great, chicken or even shrimp would make great toppings. I also love to take leftovers from the grill to use on my pizza.

About Diane
Diane is the author of The Gluten-Free Diner cookbook just released in e-book format. It contains 48 diner inspired recipes complete with photos, index, notes area and a menu on how to combine the recipes into meals. She also authors the blog The W.H.O.L.E. Gang. Her blog and cookbook focus on eating gluten and dairy free but never sacrificing taste. Her motto Good Food No Matter What!™ runs through everything she creates. “I love to cook and I love getting others excited about it too. Let’s get into the kitchen, have fun and create great food with real ingredients.”
Diane also held the very successful event, 30 Days to a Food Revolution which was inspired by Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. It was very well received and even re-tweeted by Jamie himself. On a weekly basis she organizes a blog carnival called Friday Foodie Fix. Each week there is a different Secret Ingredient. Everyone then shares their recipes that contain that ingredient. Stop by and share yours.

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Stay tuned for Day 25 of 30 Days Gluten Free Quick & Easy Meals. Tomorrow will feature another fabulous recipe from Brooke "Ness" author of Gluten Free... Who? Me?



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