When it’s this easy to make flavorful, delicious pizza at home, I can only imagine restaurants suffer. Why? This homemade crisp pizza tastes as good or better as any thin crust pizza I have ever had in a restaurant.
I started with few leftover chapatis of yesterday. I added the tomato chutney layer and topped with red beans and cheese. Baked in an oven for few minutes, the outcome was a scrumptious looking, saliva inducing meal. An impressively, easy way to satiate the pizza cravings without doing the back-breaking pizza labor.
Recipe:
1. Pressure cook: One cup red beans(soaked in water overnight beforehand) to tender or use the canned red beans.
2. Prepare chutney: In a skillet, add oil and cook coarsely chopped one onion, two tomatoes, three cloves of garlic and four chillies to brown. Cool, then add salt and blend to coarse puree.
3. Take fresh or leftover chapatis, about 4 to 6. Cut each chapati to 4 wedge-shaped pieces of equal size.
4. Slice to thin strips or grate cheese. I used Monterey Jack cheese in this recipe – About half cup.
Before Meal Time:
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
In an iron skillet or in an ovenproof dish:
First, place the chapati pieces, then on top, add and spread tomato chutney to a thin layer. Sprinkle some red beans, cheese and cilantro. Continue until the last chapati, ending with a layer of the chutney, beans and cheese on top. Place the skillet in the oven and bake at 400°F for about 10-15 minutes, until the cheese melts and chapatis start to brown. Remove, slice and serve.
The whole combination of baked chapatis, spicy tomato chutney, red beans and cheese came out very well and tasted real good.
Mmm…it has a vaguely Mexican look to it, as well! But definitely yummy.
We’re still considering buying a pressure cooker, based on your recommendation!
Comment by Stephanie — September 19, 2005 @ 3:32 pm
Looks like we share so much with Mexican cuisine.
What we usually do is have chapatis with redbean curry, instead I baked them altogether with cheese topping. A little more effort but quite good.
For beans and dals pressure cooker is very useful and timesaver too. Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries has written a very detailed post about pressure cookers recently. Check it out Stephanie.
Comment by Indira — September 19, 2005 @ 4:12 pm
Very interesting! I bet it’s delicious. Thanks for sharing!
Comment by Beth - The Zen Foodist — September 19, 2005 @ 5:51 pm
yummy…that looks so tempting…ur killing me Indira, I am at work and starving and the pictures are making me drool 🙂
Comment by Nupur — September 19, 2005 @ 7:51 pm
Hi Indira!
I just love your blog…been following it for quite some time now! I’ve just started my own food blog called “An Apron and a Ladle”. Do check it out!
Comment by Meenakshi (Divine Diva) — September 19, 2005 @ 11:32 pm
Chapatizza – great idea 🙂
Comment by Shammi — September 20, 2005 @ 6:58 am
what a brillant use for leftover chapatis 🙂
Comment by tanvi — September 23, 2005 @ 1:35 pm
Such a gorgeous looking pizza, it must taste as good as it looks!
Comment by keiko — September 28, 2005 @ 7:17 am
Hi Indira,
Yesterday, tried out this recipe and my son, dont ask..he was taking 4 sets just becoz of cheese. Consuming a bean, this is the best way particularly for kids.
I actually, used Ragu sauce instead of the tomato chutney topping and adapted black eye with corn, tomato etc as a salad implemented here in the name of gravy. Anyhow, yr recipes are always amazes me..
Thanks.
Comment by Rama — November 8, 2006 @ 1:58 pm
Hello Indira,
Sorry to sound so stupid but what are red beans? what are they known in India? Are they rajmah? But rajmah is called red kidney bean. right? Are they one and the same?
I would appreciate it if you do respond to my queries. Thank you.
Hi Rajeswari: The red beans I have used in this recipe are not rajmah aka red kidney beans. I have used a small red colored beans called chori or adzuki beans. Here, you can buy them both in Indian and US grocery shops.
Hope this helps
– Indira
Comment by Rajeshwari — January 11, 2007 @ 11:28 pm
Yes I think they are same.
Comment by deepak — May 18, 2007 @ 6:35 pm
Hi Indira,
Hello from Singapore, I really love your website. You have made everything so simple and easy and beautiful to look at. Just looking at the picture bring a sense peace and satisfaction. Strange !!! but it is true really. We lived in the US and I wish I knew of your website then. I hear you when you talk about Costco and such. You are doing a wonderful sevice to all us desi’es. I worry that we who are living out of India will loose our heritage and traditions but I am not worried now. Thank you dear and if there is anything I can do for you from Singapore just “yell”.
All the best
Kiran
Comment by Kiran — February 14, 2008 @ 8:50 pm