Fresh vegetable pizza, reduced potassium

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 350 g wheat flour, standard
• 2 pinches of black pepper, ground
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 bag(s) of dry yeast (for 500 g of flour)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 250 ml water, lukewarm
• 2 tbsp extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil
• 1 jar Ajvar, mild (Balkan peppers, 250 g)
• 2 medium-sized onions, halved and cut into strips
• 4 tbsp extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 8 tomatoes, sliced
• 1 small can of corn, drained (285 g), rinsed
• 2 bell peppers, cut into large cubes
• 1 zucchini, sliced
• 2 carrots, cut into long slices using a vegetable peeler
• 10 mushrooms, sliced
• 1 handful of arugula, roughly chopped
• ½ tsp basil, dried
• ½ tsp rosemary, dried
• ½ tsp oregano, dried
• 2 pinches sweet paprika powder
• 2 pinches of cayenne pepper
• 100 g cheese, grated or shredded Emmental

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 25 minutes; Total time approx. 13 hours 25 minutes

Delicious pizza option for kidney patients (also tasty for healthy people)

Preliminary note: Don’t be put off by the length of the recipe. I’ve simply tried to describe all the steps as accurately as possible! Prepare the vegetables for the topping (preferably the night before): Peel the onions, halve them, and then cut them into strips. Then place the strips in a separate bowl and soak them thoroughly, preferably overnight. Change the water once or twice. Wash the zucchini and cut them into approximately 2-3 mm thick slices. Peel the carrots and use a vegetable peeler to cut them into wide shavings. Wash the bell peppers thoroughly, remove the cores and stems, and then cut them into large cubes. The color of the bell peppers is, of course, a matter of personal taste, as many people like their food colorful. Soak the zucchini, carrots, and bell peppers together in a bowl, just like the onion (see above). Change the water occasionally. Soaking removes the potassium from the vegetables, making them more tolerable for kidney disease. If the pizza is being prepared for people with healthy kidneys, the soaking process is of course unnecessary, and the vegetables can be used immediately. The mushrooms, tomatoes, and arugula can then be prepared directly (without soaking) according to the ingredients list. The tomatoes, arugula, and onions remain “raw” when topping the pizza; the corn is simply rinsed thoroughly under running water. Now, heat a non-stick pan with olive oil until very hot. Tip: Add a strip of onion to the pan; as soon as it clearly bubbles, the oil is hot enough. Now add the garlic, the thoroughly drained zucchini, carrots, bell peppers, and mushrooms, and sauté for 5 minutes over high heat, stirring frequently. One minute before the end of cooking, add the spices (basil, rosemary, oregano, paprika, cayenne pepper) and stir them again with the vegetables. Set aside and let cool. Prepare the dough: Place flour, pepper, and salt in a bowl and make a well in the center. Thoroughly mix the dry yeast with the sugar in lukewarm water. Be sure to mix with the “sugar water,” even if the package states otherwise! As soon as a noticeable foam forms on the sugar-yeast-water mixture, pour it into the well in the flour and knead thoroughly with a mixer and dough hook. Once a tough dough has formed, add the olive oil and knead briefly and thoroughly again. Then, cover the bowl and let it rise in a warm place for half an hour. Now flour the top of the risen dough and carefully remove it from the bottom of the bowl. Then flour the bottom as well. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet. Tip: If you lightly oil the baking sheet, the parchment paper will stick to it, making it much easier to spread the dough because it won’t slip. The dough is now evenly distributed on the baking sheet. This is best done with a rolling pin, a round glass bottle, or simply by hand. Now spread the ajvar evenly over the dough. Ajvar is made from paprika and contains significantly less potassium than a tomato topping, but tastes just as good. Topping the dough: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (convection or conventional oven). First, spread the contents of the pan evenly over the dough. Then add the “raw” ingredients: first the tomatoes, then the corn, the onions, and the arugula. I always limit myself to half the can of corn, but it’s a matter of taste. Finally, sprinkle the cheese on top. Cover the baking sheet with the topping and let it rise for another 10 to 15 minutes, then place it in the middle rack of the oven. Baking time: The baking time varies between 15 and 25 minutes depending on the oven. After 15 minutes, just keep an eye on it. The pizza is ready when the crust is nicely golden brown and crispy and the cheese has melted and taken on a nice color. Now turn off the oven, open the oven door slightly and let the pizza rest for another 10 minutes.