Zucchini & Squash Tart

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

It's no secret, vegetables and I just don't get along. The funny thing is, I come from a part of the world that is famous for its vegetarian cooking, and yet, I'm not a big veggie eater. I know all the benefits and I've really tried hard to incorporate them into my diet, but I gotta be honest, it hasn't been going too well. I usually just toss some in to a pasta with a rich sauce or under a layer of cheese on a pizza. But this time I wanted something light and simple.

 

Maybe its the long, hot days or the produce was especially fresh the day I hit the stores, but this tart ended up tasting like a slice of summer on a plate. It was bright and earthy, light yet satisfying all in one bite. It was exactly what I was craving.

Oh, and just for good measure, I threw in some sliced soy sausage, cuz I'm new-age like that. And also because I needed to use up the last bit I had left in the fridge. The variations on this tart are endless but what I found to be the most important factor was using good produce, a thin crust and herbs.

Zucchini and Squash Tart

1/2 recipe pizza dough
1 small yellow squash
1 medium zucchini
1 medium tomato
2 tablespoons softened cream cheese (or goat cheese, if you're feeling fancy)
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese  (optional)
sliced soy sausage (optional)
salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Roll out dough to about 1/4" thick and so it fits your baking pan.

2. Spread cream cheese over your dough and top with squash, zucchini, tomato and sausage. Sprinkle herbs and salt over top. Add cheese if you like and bake until bubbly and crust is golden.

Chicken Gyro Pizza

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Its no secret we like our pizza around here, but every now and then even pizza lovers like ourselves need a refreshing break from the norm. Sure, there's the roasted garlic pizza, a grilled eggplant pizza, a barbecue pizza, heck there's even a dessert pizza, so why not add another to the mix?

The inspiration for this chicken gyro pizza was my craving for a good, authentic gyro and my need to use up leftovers (as usual!). The star of this dish is the slow marinated chicken in shwarma spice which you can find at any Arab or international market (alternatively you can make your own spice mix). From there, I thought about my favorite gyro/shwarma toppings and settled on lots of olives and caramelized peppers and of course, the tzatziki sauce. Sure, authentic tzatziki should have some hint of cucumber in it, but I didn't have any that day and made do with yogurt and dill weed.

So next time you want a little change from the norm (or maybe a quick and easy Superbowl dinner?) think outside the box and try combining some of your favorite flavors with traditional recipes. You may be pleasantly surprised with the results!

Chicken Gyro/Shwarma Pizza

1 pizza dough recipe

1lb chicken boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 tablespoon garlic & ginger paste

1 tablespoon yogurt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons shwarma spice mix

your choice of toppings (olives, onions, peppers)

shredded mozzarella

tzatziki sauce:

2 tablespoons yogurt

1 teaspoon dried dill weed

pinch of garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut chicken into bit-sized pieces. Combine chicken with garlic and ginger, 1 tablespoon yogurt, lemon juice, shwarma spice mix, and salt and pepper to taste.Marinate at least 30 minutes or upto 3 hours. 

2. Cook chicken pieces on medium high heat just until no longer pink. Its okay if its not cooked all the way, it will continue to cook in the oven on the pizza.

3. Spread thin layer of pizza sauce or tomato paste on rolled out out pizza dough, top with chicken and toppings of your choice. Bake at 420 F on lowest rack in oven for 25 - 30 minutes until crust is golden and cheese is bubbly. 

4. Drizzle sauce on pizza as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Roasted Garlic and Olive Pizza

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

I have this fear that somewhere out in the virtual world, there is a reader who says "if Muslim Wife posts one more pizza post, that's it, I'm done with her!" because really, how many times can one person write about pizza? Well, dear reader, I ask you to bear with me one more time because this one is worth it.

This is a pizza that deserves a categories of its own. The type of pizza that, unlike the rest of them, takes a bit more prep-work and planning ahead. Yes, you'll need to get your oven going for a little while and yes I realize we're in the dead smack of a hot summer, but did I mention how worth it all this is?

Cuz it really, really is.

Roasted Garlic and Olives Pizza

1 recipe pizza dough (as usual, I use about 2/3 of this recipe for one pizza and save the rest for breadsticks, etc later in the week)
3 heads of garlic, cut in half horizontally
1 1/2 cups of a variety of olives, roughly chopped
red and yellow bell peppers, chopped in 1/2" pieces
1 cup of shredded mozzerella


1. Pre-heat oven to 350. Arrange cut heads of garlic on a square of foil each. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Seal-up foil and roast until soft, about 1 hour.Remove and let cool completely before squeezing out paste-like insides.

2. Spread roasted garlic on pizza dough. Arrange toppings and bake at 400 until cheese is bubbly.

Eggplant and Olive Pizza

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Finally, the warm weather is here and with it comes fresh and vibrant fruits and veggies. I get so excited by the thought of crunchy and juicy produce and imagine bringing them home by the armload and....thats where my daydreaming ends. I'm not a veggie person and haven't the slightest clue what to do with them. A salad? Sure, if all you got is lettuce and tomatoes but what to do with fun things like green beans and eggplant?

Well its no surprise we love pizza around here so this recipe just sounded too goo to pass up. We always have at least one jar of spicy green olives so I used those and only had mozerella on hand, which wasn't a problem either as the star of the show is the eggplant. Take that extra few minutes to grill for an extra smokey taste that's amazing (I sliced mine thin just to speed along the process). I also took the liberty to add a layer or carmalized onions. Go crazy with it, just make sure you go eggplant with it as well!

Grilled Eggplant and Olive Pizza
Adapted from Gourmet, August 2009



1 garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 pound eggplant, cut into 3/4-inch-thick rounds
1 pound store-bought pizza or homemade pizza dough at room temperature
5 ounces sliced provolone, cut into short thin matchsticks (1 1/4 cups)
Handful pitted green olives, coarsely chopped (1/3 cup)
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

To make this pizza on a grill, or in a grill pan: Stir together garlic and oil. Brush some of garlic oil on both sides of eggplant and season with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Grill over direct medium heat, covered, turning once, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes total. Cut into roughly one-inch pieces and set aside.
Stretch dough into about a 12- by 10-inch rectangle (or into the shape of your grill pan, which in my case, was square) on a large baking sheet or your counter and lightly brush with garlic oil. Oil grill rack, then put dough, oiled side down, on grill. Brush top with more garlic oil. Grill, covered, until underside is golden-brown, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Using tongs, return crust, grilled side up, to baking sheet. Scatter eggplant, cheese, olives, and parsley (whoops, forgot mine) over crust. Slide pizza from sheet onto grill and grill, covered, until underside is golden-brown and cheese is melted, about 3 to 5 minutes. (If you’re using an oven-safe grill pan, you can slide the pan into a preheated 500 degree oven at this point, as we did, which gets the toppings that much more blistered.) Season to taste with salt, pepper and a red pepper flakes.

To make this pizza in the oven: You can either fry or roast the eggplant slices, brushed with garlic oil, until tender. Prepare the pizza as you would any other, rolling or stretching out the dough, mounding on the toppings and sliding it onto a baking sheet or pizza stone in an oven that has been preheated to its top temperature. It will be ready in about 10 minutes.

BBQ Pizza

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem



I know what you're thinking, another pizza post? What can I say, around here we love our pizza. I will admit though that having the same thing every week can get a little boring, and this here pizza is anything but! You can very easily substitute the homemade sauce for a bottle BBQ sauce, or go with a more labor intensive recipe for one (google's full of 'em, just have a looksie), but for a weeknight dinner I really suggest my quick and simply homemade BBQ sauce ( I literally made it up while standing in front of an open refrigerator craving barbeque pizza!). Oh and leftover chicken is PERFECT for this. I hope you and your family enjoy this fun twist on a classic.




Weeknight BBQ Pizza

- Pizza Dough
- BBQ Sauce (bottled or homemade - recipe below)
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 2 tablespoon vinegar
- mozerrella cheese
- sliced jalapenos
- cooked and shredded chicken


1. Pour vinegar over sliced onions and keep aside (this will take off some of the rawness of the onions).

2. Preheat oven to 400

3. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness. Spread barbeque sauce evenly over dough.

4. Scatter shredded chicken, onions and cheese over the dough. Add jalapenos on top.

5. Bake until cheese is bubbly and crust is golden, about 35 minutes.



Fast & Easy Homemade BBQ Sauce
(as mentioned before, I made this up on a moments notice, so nothing was measured out. I am approximating amounts here and suggest you add more or less of each ingredient to your taste)

- half onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- half a can of tomato paste
- 1/4 cup of vinegar (adjust to your liking)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (adjust to your liking)
- generous pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup of water

1. On medium heat, saute onions and garlic until soft and aromatic. Add tomatoe paste and cook for another 30 seconds to remove raw tomato flavor.

2. Carefully stir in vinegar, brown sugar and salt. Add water and bring to boil. Lower to simmer and cover. Allow to cook for at least 10 minutes. Add more water if its gets too thick If you have raw chicken, this is a good place to slice it up and allow to cook in the sauce. I recommend to taste at this point and add more vinegar if it needs more of a 'bite' or sugar to make sweeter. Remove from heat when its tastes how you want it, allow to cool.

Leftovers' Leftovers

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

I still had leftovers from my leftovers and wanted to try something different, thus, the Fajita Pizza was born. I used my usual pizza crust recipe and topped it off with my usual fajita mix. Masha'allah, turned out a lot better than I thought!




Chicken Fajita Pizza

pizza dough
chicken fajita mixture (chopped up a bit)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup salsa
favorite pizza toppings

1. Preheat oven to 400. Combine sour cream and salsa and spread evenly over pizza dough.

2. Top with chopped up chicken and bell peppers (left over fajita mix). Add favorite pizza toppings and top with cheese. Bake 30 minutes or until crust is golden and cheese is bubbling.

Double Duty

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

If there's anything I love more than a simple recipe, its a simple recipe that can work for more than one meal. My favorite example is my pizza dough recipe. I always make sure to save at least 1/3 of the dough and immediately throw it in the freezer. That way I always have dough on hand to make one of these quick go-to meals:

1. Bread sticks
Super easy and the perfect side to a hearty pasta dish or a steaming bowl of soup. Simply roll out dough into roughly 6" logs, brush with butter and garlic powder and bake at the same temperature as your pizza.

2. Calzones:
Similar enough to pizza to ensure everyone will love it yet different enough to keep things exciting! Roll out dough to a 6" circle. Spoon pizza sauce or ricotta cheese in the center and pile toppings. Make sure to leave a 1/2" border from the edge. Fold over and press seams together. Make sure to cut a few slits on top to let the steam escape or else you'll have leaky calzones. Bake the same as pizza and make to let it cool for at least 5 minutes before chowing down.


3. Plaited and Stuffed
This is my version of a dear friends recipe (her dough recipe is great!). Again, I'm trying to present as many examples of using one recipe for multiple things, but feel free to make a seperate dough for this if you like. The best part of this recipe is the presentation factor, make sure to try it out next time you have company! (her page has illustrated directions to fill and fold the plait, make sure to check it out!)




4. Focaccia
A rustic and light accompaniment to any meal; you can personalize this any way you want but traditional focaccias are simple and thin. Make sure to drizzle with extra virgin olive oil before serving. Roll out dough to 8"x12" square (or whatever will fit your pan) and brush with olive oil. Top with tomatoes, bell peppers, olives, etc. Sprinkle with salt and basil and bake at 400 until lightly golden.

Pizza Night

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem




I grew up in a house where "from scratch" meant "from box" and "homemade" meant "home pre-heated". Once I was married and cooking for myself, I started reconsidering the meaning of terms like the ones above and learned a whole new way of cooking. Making your food from scratch automatically cuts out loads of sodium and calories, not to mention all the unnatural things like preservatives and artificial flavors. Once you go scratch, you never go back!

The very first thing I made from scratch was pizza dough. I spent so long kneading that dough by hand, not sure exactly what it was supposed to feel like. It was hard work and I was only half confident it would turn out something edible. But Alhamdulillah, a few hours later we were biting into warm, home made pizza.

Since then pizza has become a weekly staple in our home. I've experimented with several different recipes only to find that tweaking it to my own taste is what works best for us*. I've made it for out-of-town guests, assembled it and taken it on the road to be baked at our destination, frozen batches of dough for friends to bake at their convenience and even baked mini-pizzas for a Ramadan Iftaar party. This is a very forgiving recipe and seems to be a real crown pleaser. Personalize it with your favorite toppings** and flavors, just have fun with it!

Pizza Dough
* this makes for a large and thick crust pizza. Divide in half for a thin crust, or do what I do and lop off 1/3 of it and freeze for calzones or bread sticks later in the week.
** sneak in a layer of grated zucchini for an extra vitamin boost for kids - and adults!

4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons grated parmesan cheese (I've been omitting this and it still turns out fine)
2 teaspoons yeast
1 1/2 cup very warm water
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water, set aside.

2. In a large bowl (or an electric mixer) add flour, salt and oil. Mix to combine.

3. Add yeast mixture and continue to knead for 7 minutes by hand, 4 minutes in mixed (add more flour if mixture is too sticky).

4. Cover and let rise in an oiled bowl until doubled (1 1/2 hour)



5. Punch down and roll out to appropriate size (this is were I lop off 1/3 to freeze for later).

6. Dimple dough with fingers and brush entire dough with olive oil.



7. Pile on toppings of choice, saving the cheese for last (it will "glue" everything in place).


8. Bake in 400 preheated oven for 20 minutes, checking to make sure cheese is bubbling and crust is golden (you may need to turn the pizza half-way).