Black Bean Chorizo Pizza

I am sure that you think I might have gone a little nuts with this one. The Mr. definitely thought that when I told him what was for dinner. I cannot take all the credit on this one though. One of my good friend's who is also a marine wife makes this black bean dish with essentially the same ingredients but she mashes it up and adds the cheese on top. Every time she makes it I gobble it up and usually go back and clean out her leftovers. Hey, what are friends for anyways? I am just doing my friendly duties to make sure that she never runs out of room in her refrigerator.




I don't know what made me think to make her bean dish into a pizza but it worked out really well. I liked that the chorizo and garlic butter make the crust extra flavorful and crispy. Now I will admit that this isn't a very healthy recipe but look at it this way, the crust has wheat flour, there are beans for protein, cheese for calcium and you get your vegetables with the... ah... onions! Okay so I know that I am stretching it but hey, we all need to let loose every once in a while.


Pizza

• 12 oz chorizo
• 2 c. cheddar
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
• 4 T. margarine/butter
• 1 c. black beans, cooked
  

Pizza dough

• 1 1/4 c. warm water
• 2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 c. wheat flour
• 2 c. all-purpose flour
  
• 2 tsp. cornmeal

1. Make the dough: Warm up your bowl by running it under hot water. Add 1/4 cup of warm water and yeast. Stir in sugar and let stand for 5 minutes. Add the remaining water, oil and salt. Stir in flour until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
   
2. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface, 8-10 minutes. Coat bowl with cooking spray, turning dough in bowl to grease the top. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until almost double in size, about 45 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
4. In same pan over medium heat, break up and cook the chorizo sausage. Drain and set aside on a paper towel lined plate to absorb excess grease.
5. When dough is ready, preheat oven to 450°F. Punch down the dough. Cover the pizza pan with cooking spray; sprinkle with cornmeal. Roll out dough as thin as you can get it without tearing. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.
6. Remove crust and spread the garlic mixture over the crust. Top with the crumbled chorizo, black beans, onion and cheddar cheese.
7. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

This post is submitted in
Letting the Creative Juices Flow
Tasty Tuesday