Over the Memorial Day weekend, I spent lots of time in my kitchen cooking up some of my favorite Spring ingredients. One of the healthy recipes I made was this yeast and wheat-free Leek and Asparagus Pizza.
I wanted to try a yeast-free pizza dough recipe that I’ve had my eye on for some time. It’s the Yogurt Dough recipe from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon (if you have the book, it’s on page 459; if you’ve never read the book, I highly recommend it! It’s quite an enlightening take on nutrition and it has tons of intriguing recipes).
It’s a simple recipe made from butter, yogurt, spelt flour, and sea salt– not technically a sourdough (since there is no “starter”), but similar to one since it stands overnight before use. Not using yeast and allowing the ingredients to ferment overnight makes the resulting dough much easier to digest than a “regular” pizza dough. Fermenting the dough also makes the nutrients in the grain more available to your body.
I tinkered with the recipe by reducing the butter (from 1 cup to 1/4 cup) and I substituted Greek yogurt for standard yogurt (I just adore Greek yogurt because it is delicious and has a creamy texture that works beautifully in recipes). The yogurt I used in this recipe is the wonderful Oikos organic Greek yogurt made by Stonyfield Farms.
Yeast Free Pizza Dough
Ingredients:
1/4 cup organic butter, softened
1 cup Greek yogurt (I used Oikos plain non-fat organic Greek yogurt)
2 1/2-3 cups spelt flour
1 tsp. Himalayan or sea salt
Directions:
In an electric mixer, cream the butter with the yogurt. Add the salt and flour and mix until blended (use just enough flour so that you have a solid ball of dough). Place the dough in a bowl that has been buttered a bit and cover and allow to stand overnight (remember that it has no yeast so it’s not going to rise).
When you are ready to use the dough, preheat your oven to 350°F and sprinkle your rolling surface with some spelt flour. Roll your dough out to the desired shape. I made my pizza in a half sheet pan, so it was rolled into a large, thin rectangle. (The dough is very forgiving, so you can piece it together wherever necessary if the rolling doesn’t go too well for you.)
Sprinkle the pan you’ll be baking your pizza in with cornmeal, and then place your dough in the pan. Drizzle the dough with olive oil and then spread it with a thin layer of ricotta cheese (I used about 1 cup total–feel free to use a thicker layer of the ricotta cheese if you like; you could also skip the ricotta and make a more traditional pizza by spreading it with tomato sauce instead).
Spoon the leek asparagus pizza topping(see below) over the ricotta, season with salt and pepper, and bake in your preheated oven for about 30 minutes (you’ll know it’s done when the bottom is lightly browned and the dough appears cooked through; watch for the last few minutes to make sure it does not burn).
Leek and Asparagus Pizza Topping
Ingredients:
1 bunch leeks, white and green parts only (this is approx. 4 leeks–leeks need to be cleaned very well; I find it best to chop them first, and then place them in a colander and swish them under running water for a few minutes)
2 Tb. olive oil
1 bunch asparagus, chopped (remove and discard/compost tough ends)
Himalayan or sea salt and black pepper
Directions:
Clean and chop the leeks. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the leeks, cover, and cook until wilted (about 5 minutes). Uncover and add the chopped asparagus; cook for a few more minutes, just until the asparagus is tender. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool a bit before spooning over the ricotta cheese. Bake as directed above.
