Gluten Free Eating From The Garden: Rainbow Chard and Kalamata Olive Pizza

It has been the hottest I ever remember in Vermont this past week. For three days, the temperature hovered in the three digits…and it was humid, like New Orleans humid! Never has going to work every morning seemed so appealing—leaving a hot, humid, home in the hills for an air-conditioned baking floor. Warmer weather has come earlier and hotter by Vermont standards, and our garden has been the major beneficiary. For several years now, we haven’t seen ripe tomatoes until September, just before the first frost. Not this year.

New to our garden this year is rainbow chard, a mix of red, orange, pink, yellow, and white with bold and streaked leaves (organic seeds by High Mowing, one of Vermont’s finest organic farms.) The chard is both visually appealing and abundant. For dinner the other night, we made a rainbow chard and kalamata olive pizza on an Against The Grain Gourmet pizza shell. We all agreed that it was one of our best veggie pizza combinations yet.

Instead of using a tomato base, I sautéed fresh small white onions with rainbow chard and topped the pizza with a one-to-one mixture of low fat mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

And while I can’t claim that the veggies were entirely local because I can’t grow kalamata olives here in Vermont (well, maybe I will someday if the trend toward hotter and hotter weather continues in Vermont,) my brother is growing a bumper crop of them in South Carolina.

Photo by Geoff Woodard

Rainbow Chard and Kalamata Olive Pizza

 Serves 4 with two ample slices each

A good handful of rainbow chard (approximately 30 leaves with stalks)

Six small white onions

2 Tablespoons canola oil

1 C cheese mixture of low-fat mozzarella and freshly grated parmesan cheese

½ C chopped kalamata olives

1 Against The Grain Gourmet Pizza Shell (defrosted)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Sautee onions and chard in canola oil until the stems are barely tender (approximately 10 minutes.)

3. Spread sautéed mixture evenly on pizza shell.

4. Sprinkle cheese to taste and top with chopped olives.

5. Bake directly on middle oven rack for 25 minutes.

6. Go outside and sit on the porch while it is baking ‘cause the kitchen gets HOT.

7. Allow to cool for several minutes, slice, and enjoy!

Baked Apple Torte With a Pizza Twist

What do you get when you combine the cheesy crust of an Against The Grain Gourmet Pizza Shell with baked apples? You get the most amazing gluten free dessert—an apple pie with cheddar cheese taste in a pizza slice. This recipe comes from Kathi Thiboutot, the owner of Healthy Haven, an all gluten free store in Tiverton, Rhode Island. In addition to coming up with a tasty recipe to demo our product in her store, Kathi is a true optimist who opened the first exclusively gluten free store on the east coast and also started a celiac support group. She will be featured in a nationally broadcast television segment called “Smart Woman,” and if you try her recipe, you’ll know why. What a clever (and gourmet) use of our pizza shell.

1 Against The Grain Gourmet Pizza Shell

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place thawed pizza in a round pizza pan.

Arrange the apples in rows on top of the pizza overlapping them. Sprinkle all over with the cinnamon sugar. Dot the apples with the bits of butter. Bake until the apples are soft, about 15 minutes. Cut into 6 wedges and serve warm.

Serve with ice cream on the side (optional).

Serves 6 people