grill fired pizza

We are not huge pizza fans in the traditional sense (it’s the red sauce I think… we’re just not big marinara people). But we do LOVE pizzas fired in wood ovens, made with fresh basil, mozzarella (or goat cheese) and tomatoes with just olive oil for sauce. So this recipe for pizza on the grill was quite the find!

Dough (we used megan’s recipe and made it in the breadmaker) 2 1/4 teaspoons fast rising yeast
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons italian seasoning
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 1/2 cups flour

Toppings
1 lb fresh mozzarella or goat cheese
3 tomatoes, thinly sliced
Fresh basil (the amount you use will depend on how much you like basil… we used almost a whole bunch from our produce market)
Olive oil

1. Prepare all of your ingredients before hand. Set aside (you’ll want these next to the grill when you need them in about 15 minutes).
2. After stretching out the dough into a large, thin rectangle (about the size of the cookie sheet), slide it onto the hot grill.
3. Let one side cook for about 10-15 minutes (it’ll get hot, bubbly and a little crispy).
4. Using a flat cookie sheet as a tool (and perhaps two sets of hands), flip the crust over.
5. Baste with olive oil; let cook for about five minutes.
6. Add mozzarella, tomatoes and basil.
7. Let cook for another 10-15 minutes.
Enjoy!

PRICE CALCULATIONS: This pizza serves about 4 people and the cost for us was $5.50 total or $1.37 per serving ($3.50 for the mozzarella [costco], $1.00 for the toppings [middleeastern market] and $1.00 for the crust).

from our test kitchen

Adam loves food. He loves trying out new recipes, he loves really good meat, he loves cooking with fresh herbs and spices and he loves finding fabulous restaurants. Which means that our “budget bootcamp” monthly food allotment reductions will be a little rough for him.

So for the last month or so, we’ve turned our stove, oven, breadmaker and grill into a mini test kitchen. Three or four times a week, we’ve been trying out dinner recipes that we’ve found online (or modified from our stash) that are less than $1.25 per serving. Cheap healthy good has been a terrific resource for us (she breaks down the cost-per-serving for all her recipes) and we’ve made some amazingly delicious discoveries! Even if you’re not needing to stick to such a stringent dinner budget, I thought y’all might like to share in some of our findings.

TEST KITCHEN RECIPE REVIEW

Recipe: Falafel in pitas with yogurt sauce

Source: Cheap healthy good

Rating (out of 5): 5!

Price per serving: About $0.82 (falafel and yogurt sauce= $.56 per serving, pitas from the middleeastern market= $0.26 each)

Comments: This recipe made about 30 falafel balls for us… we used about 5 per pita and made about 6 servings total. If you like Middleeastern/Mediterranean dishes, you should definitely try this one out!

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 large onion, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)

2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp red pepper flakes

4 cloves of garlic

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp baking powder

4 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp vegetable oil for frying

1 tomato, chopped for garnish

Romaine lettuce, for garnish

Eating Well’s Tahini sauce (listed below)

1 pita per serving

1) Place onion, garlic and pepper flakes in food processor. Pulse until they’re about 1/8-in. big.

2) Add beans, parsley, and cilantro and chop until “pieces are about the size of a large pinhead.” You don’t want a puree here.

3) Dump the items from the food processor into a bowl. Stir in salt, cumin, baking powder and flour until well-mixed., but not really a dough.

4) Stick it in the fridge, covered, for anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours. The longer the better. (the first time, we only put it in the fridge for 15 minutes, and the second time we left it for a few hours, which were both fine).

5) With your hands, make small falafel hockey pucks about 1 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter and ¾ of an inch high. (The flat surface will help with the frying.)

6) Turn oven to 400ºF.

7) Heat 2 Tbsp vegetable oil in a huge ovenproof skillet on medium-high. Fry the pucks for about 3 minutes on the first side, and 2 minutes on the second, until they’re golden brown.

8) When finished, stick skillet in oven (or transfer pucks to a Pam-ed aluminum foil lined cookie sheet) and bake for 10-12 minutes.

9) Stick four balls in half a pita with tomatoes and lettuce. Drizzle with yogurt sauce (recipe below).

Eating Well Yogurt sauce

1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt

2 Tbsp tahini

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

1/4 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in bowl. That’s it.