Monday, October 24, 2011

Supreme beetroot pizza

October 19, 2011
This meal was pure folly. The first sunny, truly hot day of the season; Michael and I meet in the city for a rooftop cocktail before heading home for dinner. And what have I picked for dinner? Pizza. From scratch. In the oven. With these marinated things you're meant to bake first. On a school night. Like I said, pure folly. But worth it!

We'd received a couple of little beetroots in our vege box, y'see, and I had my heart set on turning them into beetroot pepperoni - seen on In The Mood For Noodles and sourced from Diet, Dessert and Dogs. It starts off very much like the bacon marinade recipes we're familiar with but brings more ground spices into the mix  (and I'd encourage you to up the paprika and add some cayenne if you like it spicy). Thankfully the thin-as-you-can beetroot slices don't need any pre-marinating - it all just goes straight in the oven, to cook down to sticky deliciousness.

With these little gems on our pizza, we kept the rest pretty simple - just tomato paste, sliced mushrooms (another fading vege box item) and a little cheese. It was a supreme pizza.

It would a smarter pizza, of course, if I'd pre-baked the beetroot. This stuff would surely double or triple and store well in the fridge for days. I can imagine adding it to all manner of things - sandwiches, pasta, salads, burgers, bakes, tarts, muffins, ...

Thankfully we were able to get our teeth into another pizza while the beetroot was baking. This one was topped with a vegan pesto kindly given to me by a friend, pre-baked pumpkin slices (a vege box advance-planning win!), pine nuts and rocket.


Supreme beetroot
(adapted slightly from In The Mood For Noodles,
where it's credited to Diet, Dessert and Dogs)

3-4 very small beetroots
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons tamari
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon beef-style stock powder
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
1/8 teaspoon ground sage leaves
1/4 teaspoon paprika
I'd recommend: more paprika and cayenne for extra spice


Preheat an oven to 170°C.

Peel the beetroots and slice them as thinly as you can. In a baking tray or casserole dish, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Add the beetroot slices, coating them thoroughly in the marinade then spreading them out as best you can.

Bake the beetroot slices, first for 20 minutes and then in 10 minute intervals. Flip the slices over and keep basting them in the marinade each time you retrieve them from the oven. When they've absorbed most of the marinade and are starting to dry out and curl up around the edges (this took mine a bit over an hour) they're done!

14 comments:

  1. The beetroot alone looks amazing, let alone having it on a pizza. I've read about that liquid smoke stuff on US websites, but have never seen it over here. Where did you get yours?

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  2. Hi Kathryn! We are lucky enough to have a deli just 'round the corner that sells liquid smoke. I think the main source of it in Melbourne is USA Foods and you could mail-order some from them if you're keen. :-)

    We use it a LOT in marinades for tofu, tempeh (and now beetroot!). It's also great in home-baked beans and casseroles.

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  3. I really should make more, once mofo is over of course!

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  4. When i was seasoning my beetroot slices to become beet rawvioli in Raw Culinary School I couldn't help thinking how much it looked like pepperoni, and now you've confirmed that you can do something with it to resemble it. Thanks for the idea.

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  5. That looks so amazing! I will have to try this beetroot recipe and a pizza sounds like the perfect partner. Thanks for the cayenne tip too. :D

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  6. I've wanted to try that recipe - but I think I get put off by the time it takes to bake - I should really just think quick and slow pizzas - that is what we usually do anyway - one for sylvia that is quick that we have a taste of and then one for us with more toppings.

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  7. Oh yuuum so many great flavours in one dish! A lot of which I never thought of combining if I hadn't read this recipe, nice one! Btw I had to google what tamari and liquid smoke was because I've never used it before hehe. Really intrigued by them especially the liquid smoke. Hope to see you use more of it so I have more ideas for them =)

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  8. Your pizza looks great! Beetroot on pizza is surprisingly delicious, especially with smoky/sweet/caramelish BBQ sauce. A place on the Gold Coast here often puts it on, and surprisingly, it's always delicious. Have never cooked beetroot myself at home, find the non-canned stuff a little spooky.. But will give it a go one of these days!

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  9. I'd forgotten all about beetroot peperoni! I've been meaning to make this for ages! Maybe now that semester is nearly over I'll have some time again.

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  10. K - the only problem now that it's getting warmer is using the oven! Maybe we need to workshop a raw adaptation...

    Girl On Raw - you're welcome! I love raw beetroot and imagine this would still be interesting if not baked.

    Mel - it comes highly recommended. :-)

    Johanna - exactly! Quick and slow pizzas is the way to go.

    Winston - you can always sub plain soy sauce for the tamari. As for liquid smoke, it is brilliant! We've got another recipe using it coming up soon. If you type it into our search box, you'll find about 8 recipes we've previously used it in too! Our favourites are probably the tempeh bacon, tofu chicharrones, fake chorizo, and tempeh lasagne.

    Mattheworbit - oh yeah, I can definitely imagine this working with barbecue sauce! Great idea.

    gretelgettingfatter - put it on the end-of-semester to-do list, for sure. :-)

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  11. I'm always on the look-out for vegetarian recipes outside Indian cuisine, for the sake of variety! You have a wonderful space and your blog will be of great help to me :) Glad to have found your site and happy to follow you...

    Do visit my tiny space when you have some time..

    -Divya
    http://tastyvegcooking.blogspot.com

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  12. I got some Vegusto melty a few weeks ago at Aunt Maggie's, so good! I haven't spotted any since though! I really want to try some on pizza..

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    1. Hiya, littleveganbear! We bought our Vegusto melty from the Cruelty Free shop last weekend. Isn't it great? A bit of a pain to grate for pizza, but I'm looking forward to using it in toasted sandwiches.

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