No-bake pizza

This was a revelation to me. The fact that I could make a pizza in my van without an oven! I know a lot of nomads do have an oven in their van and that is one thing, I would have to say, I do miss. But, as I have discovered, it doesn't limit me in making pizza! Admittedly I don't make the bases from scratch without an oven, but that doesn't detract that much from the home made experience.

Why would I make a pizza versus buying one? Well simply put, they are healthier. Although on occasion we do buy pizza, but I prefer the ones that aren't from a chain takeaway joint.

When you make your own, you can focus on adding more healthy toppings like vegetables, you can reduce the fat content and the salt content which are a couple of the things that makes fast food pizzas less healthy. You can also have all the toppings you want rather than a select couple to choose from.

I guess the burning question is, "how do you cook it?". Good question!

I have tried a few options. The first option I tried was to make them in a frying pan on the gas cooktop. The problem with this method is you can't brown the top. The solution, however is to cook the bottom in the frypan with a lid or foil on, to get it nice and hot to melt the cheese and heat the toppings. Then put it under the grill to brown the top.

I used this option for a while and it does work but the bases don't always fit in my frypan. So I swapped to using my barbeque with the lid down and using a baking tray. I first will heat the barbeque to a medium heat. If it is too hot, you will burn the bottom (see pic for evidence!). I also raise it up a bit on a rack that I

took out of my vans grill. It keeps it from having direct contact with the heat and slows the cooking down a bit. I know that it can be done in a weber, but I haven't tried that as I don't have one. I believe this is done at high temps and quickly.

Anyway, I put one pizza on the barbeque to cook and at the same time, I brown the top of the other pizza under the grill in the van. (I will always make two so we have left-overs.) Then I swap them over and they should be ready at a similar time.

So there are a couple of options to try. I also think if you have a microwave with a convection feature you could try that as well. I haven't tried, so I can't give any feedback as yet.

We love our home made pizzas and they really are better than takeaway pizza. And I love that I can still have pizzas and be healthy!