As soon as we received beetroot in our food co op box last week, I thought here is my chance to make the beetroot pepperoni, I've been intrigued by the idea since I saw it on diet dessert and dogs.
Beetroot Pepperoni from diet dessert and dogs
3-4 very small fresh beets, peeled and sliced extremely thin
1 Tbsp (15 ml) extra virgin olive oil, preferably organic
2 Tbsp (30 ml) Bragg’s liquid aminos OR tamari OR soy sauce
1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable broth
1/4-1/2 tsp (1-2.5 ml) liquid smoke, to your taste*
1 tsp (5 ml) apple cider vinegar
2-3 drops plain stevia liquid or 1/4 tsp (1 ml) sugar
1/4 tsp (1 ml) garlic powder
1/4 tsp (1 ml) onion powder
1/4 tsp (1 ml) ground mustard
1/4 tsp (1 ml) fennel (ground is preferred)
1/8 tsp (.5 ml) sage
1/4 tsp (1 ml) smoked or regular paprika
Preheat oven to 325F (170 C).
Place everything except the beets in the bottom of a 9-inch (22.5 cm) square glass pan or a casserole dish and combine well. Add the beet slices and toss to coat them all; spread them out as well as you can (overlapping slices is okay).
Bake the slices, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and flip them over and around to re-coat them with marinade and switch the bottom slices to the top and top to the bottom as much as possible. Continue to bake and stir them up every 10-15 minutes until they have absorbed most of the marinade, are very soft, and begin to curl and crisp at the edges. Remove from oven and set aside until you need them for the pizza.
It was a bit time consuming to make, cooking for at least 60 minutes in total before it was ready and didn't taste exactly taste like pepperoni but had a lovely salty/smokey flavour.
We used half of it on our cream cheese pasta leftovers and then I had to make pizza. We both preferred it on pizza as it become slightly crispy. I purchased two ready made crusts to make the pizza. The Dovedail rice chia pizza bases from the health food store and the simply wise pizza crust from coles. The dovedail package contained 2 bases and the simply wise packet contained 3.
Here is the simply wise ones, which are smaller than the dovedail ones. I put the same topping on each pizza- Leggo's pizza sauce, cheddar cheezly, beetroot pepperoni slices, smoked tofu, pineapple pieces and capsicum. The toppings were a surprisingly good combination. The instructions said to bake the bases for 7-10 minutes but I ended up baking them for about 20 minutes. These pizza bases are made from mostly rice flour, tapioca and potato starch. They also contain herbs in the actual base which we couldn't really taste.
They are thinner and kind of crunchy and Toby I agreed that we preferred this option as he said 'it's not bad for gluten free pizza'. Although it still kind of still felt like it was slightly under cooked in the middle.
I've used the same size plate so you can see the slightly bigger size difference with the dovedail bases. There are not as many ingredients in these as they mostly consist of rice flour and chia seeds so they appear to be the healthier option.
And here's an inside shot. The instructions didn't say how long to cook for, but I cooked these for about 20 minutes. These were fine, but in comparison they were quite doughy and kind of felt like we eating pizza on top of warm bread.
The simply wize bases were $6.45 from coles and I think the dovedail bases were a similar price if not slightly more. While the dovedail bases were slightly larger in circumference and thicker there was only 2, so the 3 simply wize ones work out to be better value. In our mind the simply wize were superior in terms of texture and they are also more convenient too since most coles seem to stock them in the health food section. We will definitely make them again. I'm embarrassed to say that we ate all 5 pizzas on Friday night but were extremely full. I think that 3 would be fine served with some salad and/or garlic bread for 2 regular eaters. Since Toby doesn't count :P
