Hummus & Roasted Veggie Pizza

Welcome to Week 1 of the Healthy Greek Eats blogger challenge!

Healthy Greek Eats is an Orlando-based brand with Mediterranean roots.  They utilize native Greek cooking methods and offer a selection of traditional Greek meze, including tzatziki, a variety of hummus flavors, spicy feta dip, grape leaves and authentic Greek yogurt.

All of their products are vegetarian and gluten-free (yay!) and many are vegan, too.

To purchase any of the Healthy Greek Eats products, you can visit The Meat House in Winter Park.  Or for more retail locations, visit healthygreekeats.com.

Healthy Greek Eats is sponsoring a blogger challenge for Orlando food bloggers, where they provide bloggers three of their delicious products: hummus, tzatziki and Greek yogurt. Each week is themed with one of the products and we have to create a recipe incorporating that product.  Week 1 challenge is hummus!  🙂

I love hummus.  I love making hummus, I love eating hummus, I love hummus on rice crackers, on salad, with cucumbers or carrots, or even with a spoon.

So needless to say, I was very excited to try the Healthy Greek Eats hummus!  It’s perfectly salty and nutty and has a neat texture.  When I make hummus at home, I blend it until it’s completely smooth, however their hummus still had a few “pieces” of chickpea in it which was awesome and added a nice, slightly chunky and rustic element.

Now… on to my delicious hummus creation!  I thought it would be fun to create a Greek-style pizza.

Remember when I said my phone was stolen a few weeks ago?  Well, this is one of the recipes that I lost all of my photos for, and I had to re-make and re-shoot this pizza last weekend.  To look on the positive side, I’ve now had the opportunity to make the pizza twice and have made it even better!

I experimented with two different gluten-free crusts.  The first go-around I used Chebe Gluten-Free Pizza Crust Mix.  The second I used Pillsbury refrigerated Gluten-Free Pizza Dough.

The Chebe dough was by far more flavorful, had some great herbs mixed in and tasted more authentic.  You start with a powder mix and I added oil, eggs, milk and freshly shredded Mediterranean cheddar.  The texture reminded me more of regular pizza dough and my non-gluten-free boyfriend really liked the taste.  The refrigerated Pillsbury dough was easier because it’s pre-made so it doesn’t require any mixing, and you just spread it out and add some oil to the top.  It tasted more like your average gluten-free dough, but it was still a good alternative.

For the toppings, I wanted some nice roasted vegetables that would complement the salty hummus, kalamata olives and feta cheese.  I decided to roast grape tomatoes, mushrooms and red onion to add some nice color and different textures to the pie.  They turned out absolutely delicious. I also added some meaty artichoke hearts as I was keeping this pizza vegetarian.  You could definitely add any of your favorite pizza toppings. Sliced chicken or gyro meat would be AWESOME on this, too!

This pizza was awesome.  The sweet flavors of the roasted veggies and balsamic glaze combined with the salty olives and hummus are wonderful, and the parsley adds the perfect freshness on top.  I can’t wait to make this again!

What other fun and unique things have you made with hummus?

What you’ll need: pizza dough, HGE hummus, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, red onion, grape tomatoes, mushrooms, feta cheese, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, balsamic glaze and parsley.

Start off by roasting your veggies.  Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  In a small baking dish, combine the grape tomatoes and minced garlic.  Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and mix to coat all of the tomatoes evenly.  Peel the red onion, cut it in half and slice into thin pieces.  On a baking sheet add the sliced mushrooms and onions, drizzle each with the extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and use your hands to make sure everything is evenly coated.  Roast the tomatoes, mushrooms and onions for 20-25 minutes until the tomatoes have burst and the skin starts to wrinkle, and the mushrooms and onions have shrunk down and start to brown on the edges.  Once they have cooled slightly dab with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture.

Prepare your pizza dough and using your palms spread out into an even circle on a pizza stone or baking sheet.  The Chebe dough didn’t require any par-baking but the Pillsbury dough did.  So if needed, reduce the heat on your oven and par-bake per the dough’s instructions.  When you’re ready to finish off your pizza, bump the heat back up to 425 or 450 depending on what your dough can handle per the package instructions.

For the base of your pizza, spread the entire container (1 cup) of hummus on top of your dough.

Next, layer the red onion and mushrooms in an even layer.  Sprinkle on your feta cheese.

Dice your artichoke hearts so they are in bite-sized pieces and add them to your pie.  I used these marinated artichoke hearts.

Now for the sliced kalamata olives.  I didn’t want the flavor to overpower the rest of the ingredients so I stuck with about two tablespoons, but you can use more or less depending on your love of olives.

Then, place the tomatoes on top in an even layer.  Make sure you get all of the roasted garlic bits on there, too! 😉

Pop your pizza in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is starting to soften and the tomatoes are blistering on top of the pizza.  Drizzle balsamic glaze over the top of your pizza and sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley.  (Click here for the balsamic glaze I like to use.)

Cut into slices and enjoy!

Gluten-Free Hummus & Roasted Veggie Pizza
Original Recipe by Lauren from Hugs ‘n Kitchen

Makes one 12″ pizza

Ingredients

• pizza crust of choice (I prefer Chebe Gluten-Free Pizza Mix)
• 1 cup Healthy Greek Eats hummus
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large red onion
• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• 1 pint sliced white mushrooms
• 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 Tablespoons sliced kalamata olives
• 1/4 cup quartered artichoke hearts
• fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish
• balsamic vinegar glaze, for garnish
• salt and pepper

Steps

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a small baking dish, combine the grape tomatoes and minced garlic.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and mix to coat all of the tomatoes evenly.
3. Start off by roasting your veggies.  Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
4. In a small baking dish, combine the grape tomatoes and minced garlic.  Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and mix to coat all of the tomatoes evenly.  Peel the red onion, cut it in half and slice into thin pieces.  On a baking sheet add the sliced mushrooms and onions, drizzle each with the extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and use your hands to make sure everything is evenly coated.
5. Roast the tomatoes, mushrooms and onions for 20-25 minutes until the tomatoes have burst and the skin starts to wrinkle, and the mushrooms and onions have shrunk down and start to brown on the edges.  Once they have cooled slightly dab with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture.
6. Prepare your pizza dough and using your palms spread out into an even circle on a pizza stone or baking sheet. (The Chebe dough didn’t require any par-baking but the Pillsbury dough did.  So if needed, reduce the heat on your oven and par-bake per the dough’s instructions.  When you’re ready to finish off your pizza, bump the heat back up to 425 or 450 degrees, depending on what your dough can handle per the package instructions.)
7. For the base of your pizza, spread the entire container (1 cup) of hummus on top of your dough.
8. Next, layer the red onion and mushrooms in an even layer.
9. Sprinkle on the feta cheese.
10. Dice your artichoke hearts so they are in bite-sized pieces and add them to your pie.
11. Now for the sliced kalamata olives.  (I didn’t want the flavor to overpower the rest of the ingredients so I stuck with about two tablespoons, but you can use more or less depending on your love of olives.)
12. Place the tomatoes on top in an even layer.  Make sure you get all of the roasted garlic bits on there, too!
13. Pop your pizza in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is starting to soften and the tomatoes are blistering on top of the pizza.
14. Drizzle balsamic glaze over the top of your pizza and sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley.  Cut into slices and enjoy!

Hugs, kisses & yummy dishes… xoxo
Lauren

Check back next Wednesday for the Week 2 Challenge: Tzatziki! 🙂