Heart Healthy Pizza and ‘Resilience’

‘Resilience‘ is an autobiography by my cousin, Susan Wener—a message of hope and strength about enduring difficult circumstances. Susan confided in me that pizza is her favourite food and that she enjoyed the Jittery Cook Pizza 101 recipe. I’m dedicating this Heart Healthy Pizza recipe to Susan and her remarkable resilience.

Heart Healthy Pizza

Batter-Dough Base

• 1 c red lentils, ground into a flour in a powerful blender
• 1 t turmeric
• 1/2 t red pepper flakes (optional, for a spicy pizza)
• 1/2 t sea salt
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 c water

Topping

• 2/3 c pizza or thick tomato sauce (puttanesca sauce used here)
• 5-6 thinly sliced mushrooms
• 1/3 c finely sliced red onion
• 3/4 c grated mozzarella cheese
• 1 t fresh thyme leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking pan with parchment paper.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix all batter-dough ingredients and allow it to rest for 7 minutes. Mix, then spread the batter-dough in the pan, using a fork or a spatula to make it super thin. Bake 10 minutes, then cover with topping ingredients, starting with sauce and ending with cheese.

Bake for 10-12 minutes more until the cheese is melted.

Makes about 2 dozen small squares. Serves 6.

When reheating the pizza, or eating it cold, serve with slices of fresh tomato or a small dish of tomato sauce on the side.

Heart Healthy Pizza Print Ready Recipe

Final notes:

• The spicy goodness of this pizza cries out for a cold beer—or at least some kind of fizzy water.
• Did you realize that this Heart Healthy Pizza is gluten free?
• This is my fifth and final entry in the Canadian Lentils Recipe Contest. Go here  to ‘like‘ and comment on all 5 Jittery Cook lentil recipes: Heart Healthy Pizza, Spinach Lentil Wrap Salad, Asian Marinated Salmon on Lentil and Quinoa, Cacao Lentil Crunch and the Bloody Mary Lentil Soup. Thanks!
• “A good half of the art of living is resilience.” ― Alain de Botton.