Google+

Friday, August 31, 2007

Hummus & Heirloom Tomato Pizza


So, who's afraid of a vegan hummus pizza?

One of the things I love about blogging is how we play off each other's thoughts and ideas. I was psyched to see that Susan of Fat-Free Vegan was inspired to try Portobellos Stuffed with Red Pepper Hummus after seeing my post on Tempeh Bacon -Wrapped Portobello with Baba Ghanoush, a very juicy, sexy mouthful:


Anyway, thanks to Susan for her inspiration for this post. In her post Susan recalls a hummus pizza that sounded really good, but was actually dry and tasteless. Well, you know, I love pizza, and this sounded like a challenge!

Obviously, you don't want to "cook" hummus very long, so this pita-based pizza was prepared in 3 minutes under a hot broiler. The juicy and pretty heirloom tomatoes made this pizza quite succulent and it was a snap to prepare. Of course, if I wasn't thinking vegan, I would have added feta cheese. Did I miss it? Nope. As I didn't have to worry about the fat in the cheese, I topped the tomatoes with basil pesto and salt and pepper and "oh, golly, geez, damn"....(can you name the movie this line is from?)

I used a lot of pre-prepared foods like the hummus, pesto, and Affi's smoky eggplant pesto, which made this the kinda satisfying meal you could whip up in 15 minutes. The pine nuts made this completely satisfying. Here's the incredibly simple recipe:

Hummus & Heirloom Tomato Pizza (one serving):

1 pita bread
1 tsp olive oil
4 generous pinches zahtar
1 tsp smoky eggplant pesto (or sub baba ghanoush)
1 tbsp hummus (your fav!)
1 pretty heirloom tomato, sliced
1 tsp pesto
S & P
2 tbsp pine nuts

Preheat the broiler and wait until it's hot.

Place a pita bread on a foil-covered baking sheet and brush lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with 2 pinches of zahtar. Place under the broiler for 1 minute.

Top pita with eggplant pesto, hummus and slices of tomato. Top tomato with two pinches of zahtar, pesto, and S & P. Sprinkle with pine nuts.

Place under the broiler again for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes.

Cut into quarters and serve!

6 Comments:

Blogger winedeb said...

Great little "quick" pizza and sounds great using humus! Humus is a wonderful item and this sounds like a new way for me to use it. Using the pita for fast little pizza is a great idea. One can whip up a plate of warm appetizers quickly. I do one with refried beans, salsa and top with cheese. Simple but tasty! I will be trying one with the humus!

4:37 AM  
Blogger Susan Voisin said...

This looks so good--much better than the hummus pizza I had. I like your use of the tomatoes and the pesto. Yum!

And that tempeh bacon-wrapped portobello just keeps making me hungry!

7:30 AM  
Blogger Marcie said...

The pizza looks just great! I'm going to try this soon. All the store bought (yet healthy!) ingredients will come in handy on a busy evening, I'm sure!

I've been making a carmalized onion pizza this summer, with a chunky tomato pizza sauce, carmalized onions, and lots of purple leafed basil. I've kind of abandoned my food blog for the summer, but will be blogging again soon and will include this pizza.

BTW, what is zahtar? I'm not familiar with that.

7:49 AM  
Blogger Catherine said...

Windeb - I've done a refried bean pizza too (http://albioncooks.blogspot.com/2007/03/mexican-pizza.html). Yum!

Susan - it's hard to imagine a hummus pizza not being dry unless it has some juicy vegetables with it! Glad this one looks better!



Hi Aisling,
Zahtar is an aromatic mixture of sumac, thyme, sesame seed and salt that is popular in Middle Eastern cooking. I have definitely dropped off on posting over the summer. Mostly because I'm working and eating a lot of light salads! And the've been so good and just can't stop eating them. Purple leafed basil sounds pretty - I must find some!

10:25 AM  
Blogger Kalyn Denny said...

Catherine, very fun seeing how you two creative vegetarian cooks are inspiring each other.

11:11 AM  
Blogger Marcie said...

Catherine, Thank you for the information on zahtar. I have an exchange student from Turkey living here for a few months. I wonder if zahtar would be a familiar flavor for her. I'll have to look up more about it on line.

My purple basil is called Purple Ruffles, and I've seen other varieties but can't remember the other cultivar names. It is tasty and very pretty!

5:52 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home