I love Mexican food and we eat lots of it, but the idea to put beans on a pizza had never occurred to me until I had the super delicious San Clemente pizza at Pizza Port
in Solana Beach a few years ago (Solana Beach is a bit north of San Diego, CA – if you’re ever in that area, I highly recommend it – very laid back atmosphere, great pizzas and fantastic beer). I had the same pizza several times on that trip, and once we were back home, I started experimenting with ways to add beans to my own pizzas, and this turned out to be the winning recipe for us.
This is actually a really healthy pizza with very little fat (most of it is in the crust, and even that is pretty low fat) and lots of great nutrients: You get fiber and protein from the beans; lots of vitamin A, C, B6 and E as well as carotenoids from the pepper; C, A and antioxidant nutrients from the zucchini; vitamin C, manganese and antioxidant phytonutrients from the corn; and polyphenols and antioxidants from the scallions – even the black pepper is beneficial to your health because of its antioxidant and antibacterial effects.
About the ingredients
The Frontera chipotle taco sauce is just fantastic, and we use it in a lot of things (more recipes featuring it to come). You can use any kind, but I love the smokiness and spice of this one in particular.
In the summer, we grill corn quite a bit, and I often use leftover corn for the pizza. This time of year however, I usually use frozen corn kernels and just fry them in a dry cast iron pan until they start getting a bit of color and popping.
I am a pretty bad baker – no actually I’m not, but our oven is – so I always use ready made crusts (my favorite at the moment is the super thin Top This! brand), but if you make your own pizza crust, by all means use that.
With cheese, this is a vegetarian pizza; to make it vegan, omit the cheese. It sounds strange, but it tastes great cheese-less as well.
Ingredients
- 2 pizza crusts
- 1 cup pizza sauce
- ½ cup Frontera chipotle garlic taco sauce
- Roasted red peppers (either 2 from a jar or 1 fresh roasted in the oven)
- 1 cup of corn
- 1 small zucchini
- 1 can black beans
- ½ tsp salt (regular)
- Black pepper
- Sea salt flakes
- 2 scallions
- 1 avocado
- Smoked cheese (if using cheese)
Instructions
- If you are roasting the pepper, start by doing that (for how to, see my roasting peppers recipe). If you are using frozen corn, take it out of the freezer and spread it out on a plate to thaw (if you roast it frozen, it becomes chewy).
- Cut the zucchini in thin half moons. Add a little oil (I use canola) to a cast iron pan, heat until very hot and add the zucchini. Fry until they start to brown in spots (stir every now and then to prevent them from burning). Once done, take out of the pan and put in a bowl.
- Keep the heat going under the frying pan and add the corn. Again, fry until they start to brown and pop, while stirring every now and again.
- While the zucchini and corn are frying, cut the red pepper in small cubes and rinse the beans. Put in a bowl (the same one you are putting the fried zucchini and corn in). Once you have zucchini, beans, corn and red pepper in the bowl, add the regular salt and some freshly ground black pepper (I used smoked pepper the last time, but I didn’t really notice a difference from the regular).
- Preheat the oven according to the instructions for the crusts you are using, and in a separate bowl, stir together the pizza sauce and taco sauce. Put the crust on a pizza paddle, spread a little bit of sauce on it (if you’re using the Top This! kind, be careful to not put too much on, it gets soggy and gross), then add the veggies (again, sparingly), sprinkle some sea salt flakes over the entire pizza, and if you are using cheese, add that.
- Put the pizza in the oven, bake according to your crusts’ instructions (and ovens’ abilities) and while it’s baking, slice the scallions thinly.
- Once the pizza is ready, take it out, slice it and plate. Add a couple of thin slices of avocado to each slice. Sprinkle over some scallion and enjoy!
For more pizzas, also see my Banana Curry pizza and Broccoli toaster oven pizza recipes.
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