Chickpea Flatbread with Pesto

I was craving something different and heartier than my usual salad/roasted veggies/quinoa bowl for dinner, when I found this recipe.  A delicious chickpea flatbread with homemade pesto.  After watching this video and this video, I was motivated to make pizza.  I figured I could turn the flatbread into a pizza crust, and have pizza and salad for dinner. 

I started by making the tomato sauce described in the videos.  I just roasted cut tomatoes and garlic - no oil needed.

Then I mixed the batter for the flatbread.

The batter calls for almond meal.  You might try subbing another flour or making your own almond meal.  Generally, almond meal is pretty expensive.  The only exception I've found to this is Trader Joe's.

Flatbread cooking and tomatoes roasting.

Ingredients for homemade pesto sauce.  Pictured below is basil, almonds (I would typically use walnuts or pinenuts, but any nut will work), sea salt, and apple cider vinegar.

Spread the blended pesto on the flatbread.  Variation: instead of making a spreadable pesto, make it thicker like they do in the video.  This will create a thicker cheese-like texture.  The reason I chose not to do this is because I wanted the pesto flavor to evenly coat the pizza, instead of bits of it scattered.

Leave your blender dirty.

Add the roasted tomatoes and garlic, and blend.

Something magical happenes when you blend roasted tomatoes and roasted garlic.  This sauce was so flavorful and creamy, and it only has two ingredients!

Extra pesto and sauce for leftovers/eating by the spoonful late at night.

Add sliced onions and bake until just a few minutes, until the crust is firm and the sauce has set.

Julienne chard/kale/spinach etc and toss with leftover pesto thinned with some vinegar.  Serve this alongside the pizza.

This is an awful picture, but I served the salad right on top of the pizza and added an avocado. 

Ingredients:

Flatbred (adapted from Veggie Nook):

-1 c chickpea flour

-1/4 c almond meal

-1 c water

-2 tbsp olive oil

-1/2 tsp sea salt

Mix all ingredients well.  Grease a dish (I used a pie pan), pour in batter, and cook at 400 degrees from 25 minutes.

Tomato Sauce:

-4 roma tomatoes

-5 cloves of garlic

Put ingredients in an ungreased pan and bake until browned.  Blend.

Pesto:

-basil leaves

-apple cider vinegar

-nuts of choise

-sea salt

Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.  To make a thicker cheese-like pesto, use very little vinegar.

Bake flatbread.  Spread on sauces, onions, any other toppings and bake until crust is firm and sauces are set.  Serve with a side of salad.

Variation:  Make flatbread batter, slice red onions, grease a pan, lay red onions in pan and pour batter over.  Added any herbs or seasonings you desire.  This is flavorful enough to serve plain, alongside a salad or soup.