Moringa, More-Pizza

Moringa Recipe Contest strikes again! This pizza dough recipe is soft and slightly chewy on the inside with a perfect crunch on the outside. It was a fun night of Build-Your-Own-Pizza! Everyone loved that the dough was healthy and pizza was baked with fresh ingredients. All of the delicious and none of the guilt!

Recipe: Moringa, More-Pizza!

Chef: Ada, CA

Ingredients for the dough
Makes for 1 gigantic pizza or 2 medium pizzas that feed 2-4 people

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar, brown or white
1 1/2 cups of warm water (about half cold, half hot water)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, for the dough
1/3 cup all-purpose flour, to knead and roll the dough
2 tbsp moringa powder

Directions

Dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water and rest for 10 minutes.
Stir in oil and salt into the yeast water.
Mix in 3 1/3 cups flour and and moringa powder.
With your hands, roll and knead the dough until no longer sticky. Add the remainder 1/3 cup of flour sparingly until the dough doesn’t stick.
Put the dough ball in a clean, large, oiled bowl and let rise until double in size. Cover the bowl with a warm cloth or saran
wrapped in a warm area. The dough should be doubled the size in 30 minutes to 1 hour. The dough should be very smooth and soft.
Poke or punch the dough and let it rise for another 15 minutes. Skip this step if you are really, really hungry.
If you are making one pizza roll out the entire dough ball. If you are making multiple pizzas, split the ball accordingly and roll out separately. You can use a floured rolling pin, your fingers, or the edge of a round cup. Roll the pizza dough on a cookie sheet, cookie tray, or a piece of parchment paper. You won’t be able to transfer your pizza once it’s loaded with delicious-ness!

Ingredients for the toppings
This is your pizza, so be creative! You can have more or less of anything you want, these are approximate amounts of each topping I used for 2 medium sized pizzas feeding 3 people.

3 heaping cups of shredded mozzarella cheese*
2 sliced bell peppers, orange and yellow
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 whole onion, sliced or diced
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
3 sausages, sliced
1 cup garlic, minced
2 tbsp sauce, barbecue or ketchup

*We ran out of cheese, so use wisely or prepare more!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Slice, dice, and mince all ingredients as you wish. Drain all water.
Spread a thin layer of sauce evenly on the pizza dough. Thick sauce may cause the pizza to collapse in the center!
Add the base layer of mozzarella cheese.
Add toppings as you wish. A fully loaded pizza may take a little longer to cook through.
Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese on top
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese and crust is puffy and golden brown. A thinner pizza crust with less toppings can take 12-15 minutes, while a thicker pizza with more ingredients may take the full 20 minutes.All the topping ingredients above is raw. You can most definitely use other toppings. Toppings like ham, pineapple, jalapeños, spinach, and pepperoni can all be used raw since it will cook in the oven. On the other hand, meats like ground beef, chicken, or bacon should be cooked first before using it as a topping. Bigger vegetables like artichoke, asparagus, and thick zucchini slices can also be cooked before hand if you don’t like semi-raw vegetables.