You need crust, sauce, and cheese to satisfy your pizza craving, right? Not always. While it may not look like pizza, this healthy fakeout has all the flavors of pizza without using any of those ingredients. 

I love pizza, and really who doesn’t? But I don’t always feel like making pizza. So, I decided to mash the flavors and toppings of pizza with another one of my go-to recipes: the chickpea omelet.

For this Veggie Pizza Fakeout, I prefer using Bob’s Red Mills garbanzo and fava bean flour blend instead of straight chickpea flour. I find this blend is a little heartier than regular chickpea flour and stacks up better to all the veggies you add to it.

In this recipe, I use bell peppers, mushrooms, and spinach (a must in all great chickpea omelets). These are classic toppings on most veggie pizzas, and so they happen to taste great with the pizza seasoning you add to the omelet batter.

The secret ingredient in this pizza fakeout recipe is turmeric. It adds an almost “cheesy” element to the flavor profile. The other key to this recipe is allowing it to cook low and slow. You want each side to get nicely golden brown. If the edges get a little crispy, it only adds to the pizza fakeout effect.

Feel free to switch up the vegetables to any of your favorite pizza toppings.

Ingredients: 

Heaping 1/4 cup garbanzo and fava bean flour

1 cup spinach

1/4 cup diced bell peppers

1/4 cup white mushrooms

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon pizza seasoning (I use Frontier)

Dash of turmeric

Salt to taste

Non-stick oil spray

Directions: 

In a non-stick skillet, cook spinach, peppers, and mushroom in about a half inch of water. Season with salt. When the mushroom shrink down, turn off heat even if some water remains.

Meanwhile, combine bean flour with the water, pizza seasoning, turmeric and a little more salt. Mix well to ensure all the batter is smooth and no lumps of flour remain. Add the veggies, reserving the extra water in the pan. Stir in the veggies. Add additional water as needed. You want the batter to be no too thick and not too watery. Allow to sit a few minutes and add more water if it thickens too much.

Rinse out skillet and spray will non-stick oil. Then reheat at low heat until it warms up again. Pour batter in and spread until the entire omelet is about the same thickness to make sure it cooks at a similar time. I prefer mine just under an inch thick.

Let it cook low and slow on the first side until the edges become a deep golden brown and the top of the omelet no longer looks wet. It usually takes around 15 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side for another 10-15 minutes.

Then flip onto a plate and enjoy it pipping hot! If you really want, you can dip it in pizza sauce, but it’s really not needed.

Makes one large personal size pizza fakeout.