Beet Crust Pizza

Beets are one of my favorite veggies. It is quite obvious if you look through the recipes I posted here.

This time I am going to use it for making pizza and not just as a topping but also in the crust itself. When preparing food it is also important for me to create something that is visually appealing and this magenta colored dough certainly is. It also tastes great, you can actually feel the earthy flavor of beets in the crust.

You’ll Need

For the beet puree:

1 mid - sized beet
1-2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

For the crust:

300 g flour (bread flour, preferably, but all purpose flour is fine as well)
140 g lukewarm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
180 g roasted and pureed beets
4-5 sprigs of oregano
1 tablespoon olive oil

To go on top (anything you like, I used):

¾ cup sour cream
120 g mozzarella
5 – 6 stalks green asparagus
3 mushrooms
1 red onion
½ fennel
8-10 cherry tomatoes
1 roasted beet
a small bunch of garlic chives
a few olives

To garnish: 1 handful of rocket and pea greens

Tools:

parchment paper
baking tray
tin foil
food processor
stand mixer
rolling pin

Beetroot Puree

You may use store - bought puree, but it is also very easy to make at home. Place a mid-sized beetroot on a piece of tin foil, lightly oiled, add one or two garlic cloves in their skins and wrap them. Wrap an pother one the same way, one will go into the puree, the other, on top of the pizza. Bake them in the oven at 180 - 200 Celsius for about 45 minutes util soft and tender.

Let it cool a bit, then peel the beet and the garlic and blend it with the food processor.

You can do this even 2-3 days prior to preparing the pizza when something else is cooking in the oven, you don't have to switch the oven on to bake a single beetroot. The puree is to be kept in the fridge until used.

Make The crust

Put the flour into a mixing bowl, make a well in the middle, add 3 tablespoons of water, yeast and sugar. sprinkle a bit of flour on top. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until you can see cracks on top of the flour (pic. 1-3.).

Add the beet puree and the oregano leaves and start combining it with the dough hook. Add the salt and then the water bit by bit until the dough comes together and starts to climb up the dough hook. Please note that the amount of water actually needed depends on the consistency (fluid content) of the beet puree you’re using so you may need 1-2 tablespoons less or more water (pic. 4-5).

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a ball. Oil a bowl and place the dough. Turn it around so that it is thinly covered with olive oil (to stop it from sticking to the side of the bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel, set aside and wait until it doubles in volume (pic. 6-7).

Prepare the Veggies

1. Asparagus: remove the white end of the stalk – you can either cut it or just break it, remove the small triangular leaves along the stalk but leave the top as it is and wash thoroughly

2. Mushrooms: cut 2-3 mms off the stalk, rinse quickly or clean with a wet paper towel and slice

3. red onion: peel and slice

4. tomatoes: cut in half or slice them

5. fennel: wash and slice it thinly

6. Greens: wash and dry them

Slice the second roasted beet and chop the mozzarella.

Preheat the oven to the highest temperature it can reach - around 250 Celsius.

Stretch the Dough

Once the dough doubled in size, transfer it onto a floured surface and roll it out (you may jut stretch the dough with your hands, but I feel safer to do it with the rolling pin).

You get a large or two regular sized circular pizza with not too thin crust. Though I like regular pizza with very thin crust, I prefer to leave this one a little thicker because of the beet taste.

Transfer it onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.