Curried Pumpkin & Chickpea Pizza Crust

It's been a long time since I tried a new veggie crust pizza. 

All you have to do is type "pizza" into the search bar in the upper corner of the screen and you'll see we really like our veggie crust pizzas. We have tried cauliflower, spinach, zucchini, carrot, spaghetti squash, black bean, beet, and others - Click HERE to get to the links to those versions. 

Seeing as how it is fall, I thought I would give some pumpkin a try. I basically took our spaghetti squash version and our black bean version and used that as my jumping off point to create this tasty curried pumpkin and chickpea version.

You are going to need to break out the forks for this one..... it is too fragile to pick up with your hands. If you like curry and all those delicious spices then you will probably be a fan of this creation.

So much fiber.

So much protein.

So little fat.

So incredibly filling.

According to Myfitnesspal the nutritional count for 1/4 of the pizza is:

460 calories, 66 carbs, 13 fat, 31 protein, and 26 fiber.

That's ONE QUARTER of the pizza people!! 

I ate a full quarter for lunch and just about exploded. 

Curried Pumpkin & Chickpea Pizza Crust

Ingredients

Crust

1 (540 ml) can chickpeas, rinsed & drained (Reserve 1/2 CUP for topping)

2 cloves garlic

1 can pumpkin 

1 egg

2 egg whites

1 Tbsp curry powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp tumeric

1/4 cup coconut flour

Sauce

1 large tomato

1 slice of onion

1 clove garlic

1 tsp coconut oil

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp ginger

salt & pepper

squeeze of lime juice

Toppings

1 small potato, diced

1/2 medium head of cauliflower, chopped

1/4 cup frozen peas

1/4 cup onion

1/2 cup chickpeas (reserved from can used in crust)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

1/2 cup partly skim mozzarella, shredded

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 Line a 12" pizza pan and a cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside.

Prepare crust - In a blender or food processor, pulse chickpeas and garlic until garlic is well chopped. Add in pumpkin, egg, egg whites, and spices and process until smooth, scraping sides as necessary.

When smooth, add in coconut flour and pulse until well combined. 

Scrape mixture onto prepared pizza pan and evenly spread out to edges of pan,

Bake in 400 oven for 20 minutes.

While crust is baking prepare sauce and toppings.

Prepare sauce - In the same blender or food processor you just used (no need to clean it), place the tomato, onion, garlic, coconut oil, spices, and lime juice. 

Process until smooth, scraping sides as necessary. Pour into small bowl and set aside.

Prepare toppings - Fill a medium saucepan halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add in diced potato and boil 10 minutes. Add in the cauliflower and continue to boil for another 5 - 10 minutes, until veggies are soft. Add in your frozen peas and remove pan from heat. Let sit about 5 minutes and then drain off water.

Add in onions and the reserved chickpeas.

Stir about 1/4 cup of the prepared sauce into the toppings.

Let sit on the burner you just shut off to keep warm.

When pizza crust has reached the 20 minute mark -- very carefully remove it from the oven and gently flip it onto the prepared cookies sheet. (I do this by holding the pizza pan on the bottom with one hand and placing the cookie sheet upside down on top of the pizza crust. Then I put my hand on top of the bottom of the cookie sheet and quickly flip the pans in my hand so the cookie sheet is now on the bottom. You can then remove the pizza pan and parchment paper.)

Smooth out any cracks that may appear. Place back in oven for another 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and spread with the sauce and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.

Top evenly with the cauliflower/chickpea mixture and then sprinkle with the Mozza cheese.

Return to oven to bake an additional 10 minutes - until cheese is bubbly.

I then like to turn on my broiler for 2 or 3 minutes just to brown things up.

Let sit 5 minutes before cutting.

As mentioned above, this crust is a little fragile. You will need to serve it with a flipper and eat it with a fork.

That being said - we think this is such a cool recipe. 

So different, so tasty, and pretty healthy to boot.

This will take about an hour and a half from start to finish as it takes a good 40 minutes or so in the oven with all the flipping and topping and what not. 

IMO - Totally worth the extra little bit of effort though.

Oh, yes, if you are wondering, this is gluten free too. 

Check out these fun linky parties - Cookin and Craftin, Feeding Big, Carole's Chatter