I love pizza. But, I don’t love how eating traditional pizza, with the crust made with refined white flour, makes me feel. This version of a vegan, gluten-free, pizza is made with chickpea flour. Chickpea flour is gluten-free and high in protein, iron and fiber. It’s basically ground up chickpeas. It’s a versatile ingredient that has become a pantry staple for me. And, it’s delicious – with a sweet, nutty flavor.

This recipe for a chickpea flatbread pizza is not only more nutritious than your standard pizza, its actually easier to make! More importantly, it’s so tasty you won’t even miss your traditional pizza crust.

Gather:

For the flatbread crust:
1 cup chickpea flour (aka, garbanzo bean or besan flour)
1 cup water
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

For the sauce:
1 12 oz jar or can of organic diced tomatoes (or approx 1.5 cups fresh diced tomato)
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Toppings:
2 large handfuls organic spinach
3 green onions, sliced
12 black olives, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper chopped.
*Use whatever you have on hand that would make a good pizza topping!

Also: coconut oil – to grease pans and use as cooking oil.

Make:

Mix all of the ingredients for the crust, then let sit for at least one hour. It will be of a thick batter consistency.

While you’re waiting, prep your sauce and toppings. For the sauce, dump all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse a few times. You still want the tomatoes chunky. Season to taste with the sea salt and black pepper.

For the toppings, heat a saute pan over medium heat with about 1 tsp coconut oil. Saute the onion and bell pepper until the onion is translucent, about 5-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the spinach and black olives. You want the spinach to wilt

Preheat oven to 425.

Grease a small baking pan or cast iron pan with coconut oil, liberally. Pour the chickpea batter into the pan, and bake for about 8-10 minutes, until the edges are turning brown.

Remove the flatbread from the oven. Spoon on your tomato sauce (you will have leftovers) and add your topping. Put the flatbread back into the oven and bake for another 5 minutes. You are just heating up your toppings here.

Slice & enjoy!