Leek and Potato Pizza

serves 2 (a)
Time ~ 40 mins
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

2 large white potatoes (b)
1 leek (c)
100 g / 3 sticks celery (d)
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp citric acid
Canola oil or rice bran oil spray (e)
3 tbsp canola oil (e)
2 tbsp chives
½ Well and Good Crusty bread mix (f)
1 ¾ cup warm water
½ cup rice flour

Foodnotes

(a) Suggest doubling the recipe to make 4 serves, trying other toppings or using the other half of the mixture to make a loaf of bread (while the oven is hot!) – see notes at the end.
(b) Use white brushed, coliban, sebago or kennebec potatoes. Check the colour before buying brushed potatoes because they can come in yellow.
(c) Dark green tops of leeks are low FODMAP. They are also slightly higher in salicylates than the white part although suitable for failsafe elimination. Tip: re-grow the leeks.
(d) Celery is low FODMAP at 75g (FODMAP Friendly App, 2018).
(e) Canola or rice bran oil spray should have no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321) or soy lecithin (moderate amines). Propellants such as propane, butane, isobutane are fine.
(f) Well and Good Crusty bread mix is available online from gluten free direct, with shipping in Australia and is worth buying in bulk. I have also found it in Norwood Foodland, Adelaide, SA, Australia and Go Vita, Highpoint Shopping Centre, Maribyrnong, VIC, Australia. Order here
(g) Scizza pizza scissors are available from Dreamfarm

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 230 °C
2. Slowly add yeast (included in bread mix) to 1 ¾ cup warm water while whisking to dissolve yeast.
3. Add 2 tbs canola oil and the bread mix flour to the water and yeast and stir.
4. Leave the dough to rise for 15 mins
5. Wash, double (thickly) peel the potatoes and slice (~4mm thickness)
6. Microwave the sliced potatoes for 4 minutes on High
7. Chop the dark green tops off the leek, rinse well and then slice thinly
8. Trim celery stalks, rinse and slice thinly
9. Heat 1 tbs canola oil in a frying pan and then cook celery stalks until they become soft (~3 minutes)
10. Add green leek, 1 pinch of salt and 1 pinch of citric acid to the frying pan. Cook until the leek is soft (~3 mins). Add more canola oil if needed
11. After 15 mins of the dough rising (usually mid-way through cooking the celery!), dust the bench top with rice flour and knead the dough.
12. Separate the dough in two and roll out one half into a pizza shape – rectangular to fit the tray works well. The other half of the dough can be used for whatever you choose. (a)
13. Place baking paper on a large baking tray, or spray with oil. Place the pizza dough onto the tray. Spray the dough with canola oil
14. If you want thick crust pizza, allow the dough to rise for another 10 minutes, while the tray sits above a bowl of boiling water. I prefer thin crust – proceed directly to 15
15. Spread the celery and leek mixture over the pizza base. Then placed the sliced potato evenly over the pizza
16. Spray the pizza with oil
17. Cook the pizza for about 15 minutes – after 10 minutes pull the pizza out and add the rinsed, chopped chives (tip: chop chives above pizza using scissors)
18. Take the pizza out and it is ready cut up and eat! A small plug here – the pizza scissors in the photo below are really good, and they were invented by my cousin! (g)

Personal notes

This is by far my favourite failsafe/low FODMAP pizza topping. It is also pretty straightforward, and there is not too much peeling and chopping, so it can be done on a Friday night after coming home from an after-work gathering (like tonight!). It keeps well in the fridge for a good 4 days (no meat means no freezing). It goes down well, although once I think I overloaded on the celery (at least twice the amount as in the recipe above), so watch portions with that.

Making pizza is a lot faster than making a loaf of bread, so they work really well in succession, especially when cooking for one. I usually find if I’m cooking just bread, especially on a weekend (without a bread machine), if really limits what I can get done as I have to be at home for about 2 hours. Doing it after pizza in the evening means only an extra 45 mins of cooking, and that’s while you eat/do other things. So, after rolling out the pizza dough, shape the other half of the dough into a loaf, spray with canola oil and place it on an oven tray on top of baking paper. Keep it warm (sitting on a bowl of boiling water, under a wet tea towel) for 50 mins. This is enough time to finish the pizza preparation with about 15-20 mins to spare – keep the oven on. When the dough has risen, remove the tea towel, wipe down the underside of the tray, spray the loaf with canola oil and cook in the oven for 25 mins.

Edit: I recently re-read the RPAH charts and discovered that the emulsifier soy lecithin that is often used in canola oil spray is actually moderate in amines. I have since switched to using rice bran oil without soy lecithin.