Friday nights are perfect for a whole-wheat pizza in the Caribbean. Trinidadians are quick to embrace other cultures from the music to the styles and most importantly the cuisine. And when we Trinis embrace, we really embrace and put our own twist to whatever foreign food we are cooking. In fact our society is such one big “callaloo “of people from all over the world it is not that hard to mix and match. I remember my wife telling me once that she went to a Chinese restaurant and besides the Chinese cuisine, they also had provision and callaloo, and stew chicken. See what I mean! Even some of the dishes we have invented have evolved into something totally different.
Anyhow, I’m saying all this to show how a flat bread like this one became part of our culture. Back in the day we had Marios Pizza and Pizza Boys. Going to Marios was like going to a restaurant and soon enough, well a few years, Pizza caught on and is now official liming food along with the rest of our favourites. Pizza Hut and Papa John’s Pizza are in Trinidad now, trying to get in on the “pizza action” in the country, but I think the local boys are giving them a run for their money. I have no favourites because I find they’re all expensive since the price of flour has sky rocketed.
So you won’t find me at a pizzeria too often, though you may find me at Pizza Hut ( all you can eat ) liming with a few select friends at the end of semester. When I do feel pizza-ish we make pizza at home, with all our favourite ingredients like tomatoes, salami or pepperoni, sweet peppers, carrots, cheese ( lots of cheese ) and my personal favourite, drumroll please, pineapple. I just love pineapple on my pizza….. Ok…
Ok, on with the post. I will be posting two pizza recipes so today you will be getting the whole wheat crust ,tomorrow …well we would have to wait and see. We made this one with vegetarians in mind but the next one we will be going to “meat country”. I was a little adventurous and added some zaboca to the toppings. It was a really different taste I have never experienced before. Actually I was watching Guy Fieri on Food Network doing some recipes with avocado (zaboca) that looked real tasty so inspired by that, so I decided to give it a try as well.
You can prepare your whole-wheat pizza with or without avocado. Some readers can also add the avocado after the pizza is baked. It is all up to you. So here is Trinistyle whole-wheat pizza.
TRINI WHOLE-WHEAT PIZZA CRUST
Whole-wheat Pizza Crust
Ingredients:
1 pack (2 tablespoons) dry yeast
3/4 cup water
1 cup of whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
3 tablespoons oil (olive or coconut)
salt
Directions:
Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour the mixed liquids.
Mix and gradually knead into a smooth ball.
Rest the dough for about 15 minutes. The raised dough.
Roll the dough out. This recipe could make 2 medium sized pizzas.
Pizza Toppings
Ingredients:
Pizza Sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup tomato ketchup
1/2 tsp. of each thyme leaves, basil leaves, parsley leaves, celery leaves
1 grated garlic
1 tsp. grated onion.
Pizza Toppings:
1 large tomatoes, sliced and chopped
1 green and red sweet pepper, chopped or slice
1/2 cup corn
6-8 green olives
1 onion, thinly sliced
slices of avocado (optional)
1 1/2 cups grated cheese
Direction:
Prepare the pizza sauce. Mix the following ingredients together in a small bowl: tomato paste, tomato ketchup, thyme leaves, basil leaves, parsley leaves, celery leaves, grated garlic, and grated onion. Spread the pizza sauce on the pizza.
Spread your favorite tomato paste or pizza sauce onto the pizza(or see my own below) and sprinkle ingredients of your choice over the pizza. Here, we sprinkled corn, chopped sweet pepper, grated carrots, chopped tomatoes and avocado.Sprinkle grated cheese over the ingredients and bake for 25-35 minutes in a preheated oven 230 degrees or until golden brown. Remove from the pan, slice and serve. Recipe can yields one large pizza or two thin flat breads.
Trini Whole-wheat Pizza.
Look out for the other pizza tomorrow evening, I assure you it is worth the while. Until then, bye!
Trini Wholewheat Pizza
Ingredients
- PIZZA DOUGH
- 1 pk 2 tbsp. dry yeast
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 cup of wholewheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp. oil olive or coconut
- Salt
- PIZZA SAUCE:
- 1/4 cup tomato paste no salt added variety
- 1/2 cup tomato ketchup
- 1 tsp. of each thyme leaves
- 1 grated garlic
- 1 tsp. grated onion
- 1-3 tsp. of each: basil leaves parsley leaves, celery leaves
- SUGGESTED TOPPINGS FOR THIS VEGE PIZZA:
- 1 cup yellow sweet corn whole kernel
- 1 cup chopped sweet pepper red and green
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1 cup chopped tomatoes
- 78 g mushrooms
- 8 stuffed olives
- 2 cups grated cheese
Instructions
- Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour the mixed liquids. Mix and gradually knead into a smooth ball. Rest the dough for about 15 minutes.
- Roll the dough out. Spread your favorite tomato paste or pizza sauce onto the pizza sprinkle the basic ingredients mentioned above or ingredients of your choice over the pizza.
- In the step by step recipe: We sprinkled corn, chopped sweet pepper, grated carrots, chopped tomatoes and avocado.
- Sprinkle grated cheese over the ingredients. Bake for 25-35 minutes in a preheated oven 230 degrees or until golden brown. Remove from the pan, slice and serve.
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ah, zaboca is great on pizza, the first time I had it was in this great little place in Massachusetts, which did a version with tortilla chips and guacamole on pizza!! Lilandra has recreated that a bit – during her pizza making extravaganza