Makes: 1 large pizza (serves 2 people)  

Prep time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 1 hr 15 mins  

Cooking at home is one of the best ways of eating healthier. Takeaways, fast food & restaurant meals are usually much higher in fat, sugar & salt, not to mention we normally end up eating a significant amount more than if we had made it ourselves at home. With this in mind, Australian Healthy Weight Week encourages you to roll up your sleeves and getting into your kitchen. 

I wanted to share a special dish that I really enjoy making on the weekends. It’s turns a regular pizza recipe completely on its head and is by no means traditional. That is the fun of it though! All of the brightly coloured vegetables make getting to your five serves per day much easier and the recipe can be adapted for those with gluten or lactose intolerances. 

Ingredients:

Base

•    500g butternut pumpkin

•    1.5 cups buckwheat flour

•    0.5 cup oat or quinoa flour

•    3 tbls extra virgin olive oil

•    2/3 cup low fat milk (substitute for lactose free if required) 

•    Dried turmeric

•    Curry powder

•    Salt

Hummous

·      1 can cooked chickpeas

·      1 tbls tahini

·      1 tbls salt reduced soy sauce

·      Juice of ½ lemon

·      1 clove garlic, crushed

Topping

1 punnet grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

4 red onions

2 red capsicums

100g rocket

What to do:

1  Preheat oven to 200°C and line a large flat baking tray with baking paper.

2  Place capsicums & tomatoes of a lined baking tray and slow roast for 45 minutes.

3  Boil kettle, steam pumpkin until soft, drain & puree with hand blender. Set aside to cool slightly.

4  Slice red onions into rings, place in a medium fry with 2 tsp olive oil & cook for 10- 15 minutes  caramelized.  

5  Combine 1 cup of pumpkin puree and all other base ingredients into a large bowl, season with salt & pepper.

6  Spread evenly onto the flat baking tray so that base is approx. 3cm thick. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

7  Meanwhile, combine all hummous ingredients into a small food processor and blend until well combined. Gradually add 1/2 cup water until it reaches a smooth & creamy consistency.

8  Once base has firmed and is golden around the outside, remove and place aside to cool slightly.

9  Remove the capsicum & cherry tomatoes from the oven and dice capsicum into bite size pieces.

10           Spread base with a generous amount of hummous, top with rocket, oven roasted vegetables & onions.