I really fancied a BBQ pizza one day and wondered what I would need to use for toppings.
Having made some vegan BBQ sauce that was really successful a while previously, I wanted to use that and decided to use it as the base sauce instead of a tomato one. Well, wow, it was sensational!
Pizza Base
To make the base, mix 250g flour with 1.5 tsps of fast action yeast, half a tsp of salt, a splash of olive oil for flavour and enough water to make a loose dough.
There is no need to knead the dough. It will rise and develop the gluten all on its own if just left in a warm place for a while. I like to mix up the dough in the morning to use in the evening, so it has all day to develop flavour.
Once the dough has developed, knock it back by bashing it around a bit. Then shape into a pizza shape and put onto the tray you will be baking it on.
Pizza Toppings
I used the BBQ sauce I made as the base, instead of the more usual tomato sauce. Be generous with it. You can easily substitute a shop bought BBQ sauce if you don’t want to make one.
Then, pile on top, a big handful of sweetcorn; some onion, peeled and separated into petals; half a pepper, chopped into squares.
I like to use mushrooms on a pizza, but if you do, be sure to cook them off first, or they will release their water on the pizza itself and make it soggy.
On top of all that, put a chopped up mozzarella ball and 40g grated cheddar.
Then the whole lot goes into the oven until the outside of the base looks cooked through, 25-30 minutes usually.
Alternative Pizza Toppings
Use anything you like on pizza. I have used:-
- tomato sauce / tomato puree
- a few peas
- slices of roasted red pepper from a jar
- artichokes from a jar
- roasted carrot pieces
- small cauliflower florets
- medallions of potato
- aubergine (egg plant)
- courgette (zucchini)
- pineapple (controversial!)
- black or green olives
- a little, thawed, frozen spinach
- caramelised onion chutney
- chilli
- pieces of cooked chicken
- small pieces of crispy bacon
- roundels of chorizo
- ham
- gorgonzola
- roquefort
- leftover bolognese
- pulled pork
- anchovies
- sardines
- prawns
- flaked salmon
Ingredients
Pizza base
- 250 g flour
- 1½ tsps yeast
- 50 ml warm water
- ½ tsp salt
Base
- 200 g BBQ sauce
Topping
- 1 medium brown onion
- ½ red pepper
- 50 g sweetcorn
- 100 g mushrooms
- 125 g mozzarella
- 40 g cheddar
Instructions
Pizza base
- Mix the pizza base ingredients together with enough warm water to make a dough. Leave it to rise for as long as you can, the longer you can leave it, the more it improves the flavour. Maybe mix it up in the morning and leave it all day, or at any rate, leave it until risen.
Pizza toppings
- Slice and chop all the topping ingredients and mix together.
- If you are using mushrooms, fry them off to remove the water, otherwise they make the pizza soggy
Assemble the pizza
- When you are ready, bash the dough back and spread out onto a baking tray and leave to bounce back a little.
- Spread the bbq sauce evenly over the base and top with the remaining topping ingredients
- Top with the remaining topping ingredients distributed evenly
Bake the pizza
- Bake in a hot oven for about 25 minutes. Bake at 200°C Fan / 220°C / 425°F / Gas Mark 7 for about 30 minutes until the base is looking golden and cooked through and the the toppings looked cooked - about 25-30 minutes
Serve the pizza
- Best served immediately, although I'm sure we've all enjoyed a slice of cold pizza!
Equipment Needed
Notes
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