Healthy recipe: courgette and avocado 'green' pizza with quinoa crust

Celebrate St Patrick’s Day with a healthy green pizza. The choice of toppings is up to you - the greener the better!

Ingredients (makes enough for 1 large pizza)

For the pesto

1 garlic clove, roughly chopped

60g basil leaves

½ - 1 cup extra virgin olive oil

30g almonds

30g pine nuts

50g parmesan

½ teaspoon Himalayan pink salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the quinoa pizza crust

1 cup white quinoa (soaked overnight in water)

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes

1 teaspoon unfiltered apple cider vinegar

Himalayan pink salt and freshly ground white pepper

For the toppings

1 small courgette, finely sliced

2-3 spring onions, finely sliced

Feta cheese, crumbled

A handful of gherkins, chopped

A handful of fresh peas

1 tablespoon capers

5 cherry tomatoes, halved

A handful of pine nuts

A handful of pumpkin seeds

Half an avocado, peeled and shaved with a speed peeler

1 sprig lemon thyme, leaves picked

Zest of half a lemon

Parmesan shavings

Method

To make the pesto

Put the garlic, basil and ½ cup of olive oil into a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the almonds, pine nuts, parmesan, salt and pepper and pulse until the mixture is chunky, adding more olive oil if you like a runnier texture. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

To make the pizza crust

Soak the quinoa overnight in a large bowl, make sure it is completely covered by water, if you’re uncertain just add a bit more, any excess will be drained off before making the pizza crust.

Preheat your oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.

Drain and rinse the quinoa then put into a food processor with the nutritional yeast, vinegar, salt and pepper. Blitz until smooth, it won’t form a dough it will be quite runny, this is the way it should be so don’t worry.

Pour the mixture onto a lipped baking tray lined with baking parchment and cook for 15-20 minutes until firm. Remove from the oven and carefully peel off the parchment paper. Flip the crust over and return to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes. If you want a warm pizza don’t let your crust colour too much around the edges at this stage as it will going back in the oven, if you are going to have a raw pizza then let it bake until golden.

To assemble the pizza

Remove the pizza base from the oven and spread a couple of tablespoons of pesto all over, cover with some courgettes, spring onions and feta cheese. Now, simply add the rest of your toppings and enjoy hot or cold!