Cilantro Pesto Vegetable Pizza | Coriander Pesto Pizza

Cilantro Pesto Vegetable Pizza, an easy, delicious & flavorful pizza that would be ready in minutes given that you have pizza dough in hand. Cilantro/ Coriander pesto sauce requires just handful of ingredients and the sauce will be ready in a jiffy. If you like cilantro flavor then you must give this sauce and pizza a try, i'm sure that you would be amazed by its flavor and taste.

Back in days, when we were in Houston, we love the pizza from  "MOD pizza", our favorite pizza outlet. It provides various option for base sauces, toppings & finish sauce. That's where i got introduced to the idea of using pesto and white sauce over pizza and ST love their finishing sauce especially siracha on top of the pizza. It adds nice kick to the pizza. 

If you're so used to spicy Indian food and find pizza as bland, then you must add siracha or any hot sauce over the pizza and try. It's a totally game changer for all spicy lovers!!!

First for the dough, i have used my pizza dough recipe as base and made the dough with a little twist. Instead of using all purpose flour as whole, in today's recipe i have used half of whole wheat flour. Whenever i'm making thin crust pizza, i prefer to add equal amount of all purpose flour and wheat flour for dough. It gives such a crispy crust. But you can follow the same dough recipe without any change also, it also works fine,i have done that so many times.

Next for pesto sauce, since i'm not a big fan of pesto sauce made from basil and it's kind of over powering flavor to me, i prefer to make pesto from my favorite herb, cilantro/coriander leaves. It's absolutely lip smacking and good on anything like sandwich, pizza or pasta. I would rather prefer pesto sauce over the regular tomato sauce on my pizza whether it's from pizza outlet or home made. 

Finally for the toppings, I would recommend vegetables like onion, tomato, capsicum/bellpepper, sweet corn, spinach, mushroom, pineapple. With just any one of the  toppings or combination of any veggies that i have listed above would taste good on this pizza.

In addition to the above vegetables, we would like to add finely chopped ginger to this pizza for additional flavor and kick. I knew that the ginger is not the standard topping on the pizza, but when it comes to home cooking, there is no rule book !!! you can add whatever your heart and tummy desires, right??

Related : Classic Tomato Sauce for Pizza and Pasta 

Ok, now let's check out how to make this flavorful Cilantro/Coriander Pesto Pizza 

PS: Step by Step pictures and the final pictures are taken on different days, so there are some variations in the toppings.

Cilantro Pesto Vegetable Pizza

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Pizza | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Cilantro Pesto Pizza, Pesto Pizza, Coriander Pesto Pizza, Healthy Pizza, Vegetable Pizza,Pesto Vegetable Pizza Cilantro Pesto Vegetable Pizza, an easy, delicious & flavorful pizza that would be ready in minutes given that you have pizza dough in hand. Cilantro/ Coriander pesto sauce requires just handful of ingredients and the sauce will be ready in a jiffy.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Pizza dough - 1 
Coriander Pesto Sauce - 1/4 cup
Mix Vegetables - 1/2 cup(sliced)
Mozzarella cheese - 1/2 cup(grated)
Ginger - 1 tbsp(finely chopped)
Parmigiano-Reggiano - 1 tbsp

Procedure

Preheat the oven @ 425 F 
Keep the dough, sauce and vegetables ready.

How to make Pizza Dough from the Scratch 

Roll the dough thinly and place it on the baking tray.Add the sauce and spread it evenly on the crust.Add the veggies one by one and last add the ginger.Finally add the cheeses and bake it the oven for 15 - 18 mins.Tasty Cilantro Pesto Pizza is ready. Add some siracha sauce on top.  

Related : Classic Marinara Sauce Veg Pizza 

Notes:

• Add more or less veggie as per your liking.
• Cut all the veggies into thin slices for even cooking.
• Just like veggie, you can add more or less sauce and cheese, it's really up to your choice.
• Keep an eye on oven after 15 mins since every oven is little different. 

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Veggie Pizza, my go to pizza to bake on our Friday night at home. There were times we used to buy pizza on every weekend and now hardly buy it from store, totally love the homemade pizza than the store ones !!!  Baking pizza at home is lot simple and easier given few things to be take care earlier if you're making from the scratch. 

If i'm planning for pizza with marinara sauce/pizza sauce, i would make the sauce one or two days earlier and kept it in refrigerator. And for the crust, make sure to prepare the dough at least 2 hrs before your meal/dinner time. That gives enough time for dough to proof. Once the dough and sauce are ready, all it need is just assemble and bake. There is no rule here for toppings and the amount of sauce and cheese. Make as your heart desires. I love my pizza with lot of veggies, little sauce and moderate cheese.

Related : How to make Classic Pizza Sauce

In today's recipe, i have used the standard toppings for veggie pizza. But you can make even with one or two veggies alone. Other than the veggies used in this recipes , panner, corn, olives are also nice addition to this pizza.Now let's check out how to make this delicious pizza.    

Homemade Veggie Pizza | Best Veggie Pizza

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Pizza | Recipe Cuisine: Italian
Homemade, Veggie Pizza, Best Pizza, handmade,italian,baking Veggie Pizza, my go to pizza from any pizza places and it's one of the pizza that i bake frequently at home on our friday night.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Pizza dough - 1 
Marinara Sauce - 1/4 cup
Mix Vegetables - 1/2 cup(sliced)*
Mozzarella cheese - 1/2 cup(grated)
*I have used onion, tomato, spinach, mushroom & capsicum

Procedure

Preheat the oven @ 425 F . Keep all the ingredients ready. Take the dough and roll into medium size pizza dough.

Place it on the baking tray and form rim on the dough edges(if you wish) and add the sauce.

Spread the sauce evenly and then add onions, mushroom and capsicum.

Next add the spinach & tomato. Finally sprinkle the cheese on top evenly.

Place it on the oven and bake it for 15-18 mins or until the crust is golden and cheese is bubbly. Remove from the oven and let it cool for a bit and cut into slices.

Tasty homemade veggie pizza is ready.  

Related : How to make Pizza dough from Scratch

Related : How to make Cilantro Pesto Pizza

Notes:

• Add more or less veggie as per your liking.
• Cut all the veggies into thin slices for even cooking.
• Just like veggie, you can add more or less sauce and cheese, it's really up to your choice.
• Keep an eye on oven after 15 mins since every oven is little different. 
  

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Marinara Sauce | Pizza Sauce from fresh tomato

Marinara Sauce is a simple tomato sauce usually made with tomatoes, oil and herbs. There are so many variations in this sauce depends on what herbs are used or what type of tomatoes are used and so on. The recipe that i'm sharing today is the very basic tomato sauce recipe that i had learned from one of Martha Stewart's cook book. 

Many of the recipe available online are using the canned tomatoes, since i'm hardly buying any canned food items other than condensed milk, i'm looking for recipe using fresh tomatoes for long time and finally found it in her cook book . 

It's such a simple recipe and the flavors are really amazing.Here in the recipe, i have used both roma & beefsteak tomatoes just like the original recipe, but i have tried with only roma tomatoes before, that too taste good. 

So don't worry if you can't source any particular tomato variety, try it with whatever tomatoes you have but make sure it's ripen well and in bright color.  Also read that the tomatoes on the vine tastes best for any type of sauce since it's allowed to ripen on the vine, it's juicy and has most flavor. So if possible try to use the tomatoes on the vine. 

Marinara sauce is delicious on pasta and pizza or it can be simple served as dip for your chips. It's such a versatile sauce and can used as many way as possible.  For the given quantity of ingredients list, it yields little more than 1 cup of sauce, it's enough for making one medium size pizza and pasta for two. 

It stays well for a week in refrigerator and i'm not sure how long it last since mostly it would be finished off within a week. If you haven't tried making marinara sauce before, do give this recipe a try, i'm sure that you will love it. Now let's check out this amazing and simple marinara sauce recipe. 

Related : Homemade Pizza dough from scratch

Marinara Sauce | Pizza Sauce from fresh tomatoes

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Sauce | Recipe Cuisine: Italian
Marinara Sauce,Pizza Sauce,Pasta Sauce,Tomato Sauce, How to make Pizza sauce Marinara Sauce is a simple tomato sauce usually made with fresh tomatoes, oil and herbs.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Roma Tomato - 2 
Beefsteak Tomato - 1 
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 3 cloves
Red chili flakes - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Pepper - to taste
Salt - to taste

Procedure

In a sauce pan, add water and bring into boil. Make a criss cross on the top and bottom of the tomatoes with knife.Add the tomatoes into the boiling water and let it boil for 3 mins. Remove from the flame, discard the hot water and run it under tap water to let it cool.Remove the skin of the tomatoes and roughly chop into small chunks. Remove the thick center part of the tomato and finely chopped the garlic. Heat the sauce pan with olive oil.Add the garlic, saute till they are aromatic and then add the tomatoes.Next add the salt, sugar,chili flakes & pepper powder.

Related : How to make Corinaer Pesto Sauce

Give a good stir, cover the pot with lid and let it simmer for about 20 mins or until the tomatoes are mushy.Let it cool and then transfer into blender jar and grind into smooth puree. 

Tasty & Versatile Marinara Sauce is ready.

Related : How to make Veggie Pizza with tomato Sauce

Notes:

• Use well ripen and bright colored tomatoes for vibrant sauce.
• Added sugar to balance out the tartness from the tomatoes, but that's totally optional, you can skip it.
• Adjust the seasoning as per your liking.
  

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Wheat Pizza | Pizza with Zucchini & Baby corn | Vegeterian home made pizza | Home made wheat pizza crust

Wheat pizza with vegetables, a delicious and spongy crust pizza with zucchini and baby corn toppings. When i chose "Italian vegetarian recipe" theme for this month's blogging marathon, first dish that popped into my head was pizza. So how come i finish off this theme without posting a pizza recipe?  After i bought the oven, we rarely buy pizza from the pizza outlets.

I love pizza but more than that i love baking pizza at home. Every time, when i see beautiful baked pizza out of  my oven, i'm so happy. I started to bake this wheat pizza recently and we all  loved it so much and it tastes so similar to the pizza that i made from all purpose flour. 

If you look into the procedure, you may feel that it has lot of work to do.But if you have pizza sauce and dough ready, then within 30 mins you will make this tasty pizza.The key thing to get perfect pizza is proof the yeast perfectly and bake it  at correct temperature and time. 

During my initial stage of baking , i wasted a whole packet of yeast without proper proofing and i thought that the yeast was not good  . Later only i realized that nothing was wrong with the yeast and I didn't know how to activate the yeast. If you add hot water, then the yeast will die and baking with that yeast mixture would result in a hard crust. Similarly if the water is not warm enough, the yeast wouldn't activate. Either case if you don't see frothy yeast mixture after proofing, don't use it in baking. Start with yeast proofing once again.

Once the yeast is activated then everything else is a piece of cake. So if you're a beginner in baking, i would highly recommend to use instant active yeast instead of regular yeast. Instant active yeast doesn't need proofing and you can use directly in the flour. Check out my easy pizza dough where i used instant active yeast for reference.

Ok. now let check out how to make the yummy pizza.

Wheat Pizza with Zucchini

Preparation Time : 1 hr | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Pizza | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Wheat Pizza, Zucchini Pizza, Baby Corn Pizza, Veg Pizza Veg Wheat Pizza, a delicious and spongy wheat pizza with zucchuni and baby corn toppings.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients 

For crust

Wheat flour - 1 cup
All purpose flour/maida - 1/2 cup
Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
Olive oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - 3/4 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Water - required
For Topping
Pizza Sauce -1/2 to 3/4 cup
Capsicum - 1/2 of medium size 
Tomato - 1 (deseeded)
Onion - 1 small size
Zucchini - 1/4 cup chopped
Baby corn - 3 or 4  (slit length wise)
Mozzarella cheese - 150 gms 

Procedure

Mix the yeast & sugar in lukewarm water and leave it aside for 15 minutes or till it's frothy

After 15 mins, it  become frothy and it's ready to use. Now take all the ingredients for crust.

In a large bowl, add wheat flour, maida, salt & mix it well.

Then add  oil and yeast mixture and make soft dough by adding enough water. Now oil the bowl and keep the dough in it and keep it aside for 2 hours or till it raises double in volume.

After 2 hours,dough double in its size.Punch the dough to escape the air.

Now start to preheat the oven @ 220C/430 F for 20 mins.Then dust the working surface with flour and roll the dough with rolling pin as much thickness as you want.

Then place the dough in the baking tray and making rim at the edges(if you wish). Apply pizza sauce evenly inside the rim of the dough and arrange the veggies as per your wish.

Finally add the grated cheese and bake it in the  preheated oven for 12-15 mins at 220C/430 F

Tasty home made wheat pizza is ready. Let it cool for 5 mins and then cut and serve.

Related: How to make Pizza Sauce / Marinara Sauce  

Notes:

• To proof the yeast, make sure that the water is lukewarm. It should be 105F to 110F. If you dont have thermometer(like me) to measure the temperature. Put few drops of water in your wrist,  if it's warm  & comfortable to you, that's the correct temperature.
• Amount of pizza sauce is purely optional.Use as much as you want.
• Preheat the oven at least for 20 mins to get beautiful golden crust.
• Dont cut the pizza immediately when they 're out from oven. Let it sit for 5-8 mins and then cut.
• It makes one thick crust large pizza.   

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How to make pizza sauce | Home made pizza sauce

Pizza sauce is easy to make at home, if you have italian herbs in hand. I never use store bought pizza sauce so far, always i make on my own. I tried different version of pizza sauce from various source, finally this recipe is a keeper for me.

Adding carrot gives creamy texture to the sauce and i love this sauce for that and it's easy to spread. I dont known how long we can store this, usually i make and use it on the same day.Now over to the recipe.

Ingredients

Tomato - 3 nos
Carrot - 1 medium size
Capsicum - 1/2 of medium size
Garlic - 2-4 nos
Oregano - 1/2 tsp
Basil - 1/2 tsp
Rosemary -1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Chili flakes - 1/2 tsp
Tomato ketchup -1 tsp
Olive oil - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

Procedure
Cut the carrot and capsicum roughly and then make cross like slit in tomatoes on top & bottom.

Pressure cook the veggies (tomato, carrot & capsicum)with 1/2 cup of water for 2 whistle.

Once the pressure is released, remove the skin of tomato once it's cooled and put everything in blender without water and grind into smooth paste along with garlic.

Now heat the olive oil in kadai and add the tomato paste. 

Then add all the spices(Oregano,Basil,Rosemary,Pepper Powder) along with salt.

Bring into boil and cook it in medium flame for 5 mins .Finally add chili flakes and ketchup , give a good stir and switch off the flame.

Home made pizza sauce is ready

Note:

• You can use 2 tsp of italian herbs instead of the spices.
• Use bangalore variety tomato, don't use country variety, it has more tanginess.
• Adjust the spicy level according to your preference.

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