Gluten free buckwheat pizza with herbal flowers
I have never been such a big fan of pizza in general. But since I created this recipe, I have just fallen in love with this pizza. It's not just about using the exotic dandelion blossoms as a special ingredient, but also about using buckwheat flour for the crust.
The thinly rolled, nutty flavored buckwheat crust is simply tempting and deliciously crispy. This crust does not contain any yeast. But don't worry the result will be wonderful. For your information, buckwheat is a type of nut and absolutely gluten free flour.
Using dandelion blossom could sound unusual, but I can assure you that you won't even realize that you are eating this flowers, they just blend well with the rest of the veggies you will be using in this recipe.
WHEN COLLECTING THE DANDELION BLOSSOM PLEASE BE SURE TO CARE FOR THE THINGS BELOW:
1. The first thing you need to make sure is to pick dandelion blossoms where no pesticide is sprayed.
2. Secondly, we must not pick all the flowers in one spot at a time, as this will not be ethical for other living creatures who also want to feed themselves from this blossoms. I'm talking about the cute bumblebees and honey bees. These guys pretty much depend on wild flowers such as dandelion for food and their survival. So let us be kind to them.
3. The third thing is, once you collected the blossoms, set them aside in a basket or a plate to give some time for the tiny bugs to make their way out of the flowers, otherwise you might end up roasting them in the oven. Take a look at the pictures below, a small bug finding his way out.
Did you found the bug?
NOW LETS JUMP INTO THE RECIPE:
Crust Ingredients:
225 g buckwheat flour
3 tbs olive oil
75 ml water
2 tsp pink Himalayan salt
Topping Ingredients:
5 tbs tomato paste (flat)
4 cherry tomatoes (thinly sliced)
Half medium size fennel (cut into long strips)
4 brown mushrooms (thinly sliced)
1 handful sunflower seeds (lightly roasted)
2 tsp pickled caper
1 big red onion (thickly sliced)
2 handful of dandelion blossom (fresh)
2 tbs olive oil (for sprinkling)
Oregano dried or fresh as per your liking (for sprinkling)
Pink Himalayan salt
Vegan cheese (optional)
Mix all the crust ingredients into a bowl, knead well and keep aside for 20 minutes. This dough does not contain yeast and will not rise, but yet keeping aside for 20 minutes would make it easier to roll. You also can add some spelt bran for more fibers as I did here in these pictures.
Roll the dough evenly thin about 2-3 mm. Poke with fork all over the dough. Spread the tomato paste on top.
Arrange all the topping ingredients starting from tomatoes, sunflower seeds, capers, dandelion blossom onions, mushrooms, fennel and vegan cheese. This order of arrangement is meant for having the tougher items, such as mushroom and fennel, at the top to expose them to the heat most. Finally sprinkle some salt & oregano on top and drizzle with olive oil all over.
Place the pizza on a baking tray. Turn on the oven at 200° Celsius, choosing both top & bottom heat. First place the pizza to the most bottom level and bake for 10 minutes, and then move it to the mid level and bake for another 10 minutes or till it is as crispy as you want.
Enjoy your first dandelion pizza. Guten Appetit. My mouth is already watery now after writing this post. Can't wait to make another one soon.