Cast Iron Chickpea Flour Pizza

Matt and I really love pizza and could EASILY down an entire large pizza all by ourselves.  What can I say?  I have a rather large appetite for my size.  Most pizzas are greasy and made with processed, nutritionally deficient ingredients.  To conquer this travesty, the hubs and I set about to make pizza crust out of chickpea flour.  But...we failed miserably.  We had a stiff and sticky dough, but decided to roll it out and bake the dough anyway and it came out as a flatbread of sorts.  It tasted delicious so we just dipped in some olive oil and herbs.  Yum!  Not so much of a fail, I suppose.  Anyhow, we started over and added more liquid to the flour and it came out wonderfully and resulted in a nice crust.  We decided to enact Friday nights as the official pizza night and have since made a mushroom, cheese, and grass-fed beef pizza, as well as a Thai inspired pizza.  I will tell you that the crust doesn't taste typical, but is much more filling, and has a nice hearty flavor about it.  I think I actually enjoy it more.

So here is a recipe for our Thai inspired pizza, but you can change the ingredients however you like!  Also, I made mine in a ridged cast iron, but you can use a different pan that is suitable for the stove top and to go in the oven under broil (Not a nonstick or plastic handle).

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/3 cup garbanzo flour
2/3 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup water
1 tsp rosemary (We used Bragg's Sprinkle)
Coconut oil (or pasture-raised butter) to coat the pan

Sauce:

 Crushed tomatoes, or organic tomato sauce
1 Tbs almond butter (optional)2 Tbs EVOO
Garlic, salt, and pepper

Toppings: (Do whatever you want.  We eyeballed everything so it was loaded to our contentment.)
Raw or Sheep/Goat cheese of your choice grated (we used a combination of raw cheddar and pecorino)
1-2 grated carrots (we used a food processor)
a handful of spinach
a handful of bean sprouts
cilantro
cashews
various spices of choice (red pepper flakes, srirachi sauce)

Directions:

Sift the chickpea flour and salt together in a medium bowl.  Slowly add in the water while whisking to incorporate.  Refrigerate for a half hour.  In a sauce pan, combine tomato sauce and almond butter until combined and warm.  Take it off the heat.  Preheat the broiler and stir the rosemary into the batter.  Heat up a cast iron skillet (or a different pan) and coat it with a small amount of coconut oil.  Once heated, pour the batter into the pan and spread it out to form your crust.  Cook the crust over medium high heat until the crust is set, about 2-3 minutes.  Next, add the tomato sauce mixture on top of the crust.  Then add the spinach, cheese, carrots, beansprouts (spinach on bottom so it doesn't burn).  Put the skillet into the oven under the broiler for 4 to 5 minutes.  Take it out, top off with nuts, cilantro and spices to taste.  Serve and eat! 

Note:  As far as the amount for toppings, you can just add the toppings according your personal preference.  Be creative! :)

I'm a happy girl...

What toppings are you going to try it with?