Mediterranean Hummus Pizza

This is a recipe that I found a long time ago and always wanted to try, but had never gotten around to making hummus. So when Eric's brother Chris brought over a big tub of his spicy, black bean hummus, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give it a shot. Here is what I made for dinner last night.

Mediterranean Hummus Pizza:
Recipe from Pampered Chief's "Seasons Best Recipe Collection" Fall/Winter 2007


Crust:
1 package (13.8 oz) refrigerated pizza crust
1 TSP olive oil
1 garlic clove, pressed

Toppings:
2 plum tomatoes
1/4 medium red onion
1 2-inch piece seedless cucumber
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
7 oz plain hummus spread
2 jars ( 6-7.5 oz each) quartered marinated artichoke hearts, drained
1/3 cup Mediterranean-seasoned feta cheese crumbs

1). Preheat oven to 425 F. Unroll dough onto bottom of a lightly greased bar pan. Gently stretch and press dough to cover bottom or pan. Combine oil and pressed garlic; brush evenly over dough. Bake crust 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown.

2). Meanwhile, for toppings, slice tomatoes in half lengthwise; scrape out seeds and dice. Thinly slice onion. Slice cucumber and cut into quarters. Coarsely chop olives.

3). Remove bar pan from over to cooling rack. Spread hummus evenly over crust. Arrange tomatoes, onion, cucumber, olives and artichokes over hummus. Sprinkle with cheese.



So? How'd it turn out? Delicious!

I did omit the tomatoes, because Eric and I don't like raw tomato. So I did add more cucumber (it wasn't seedless-couldn't find one). Also, I used double the amount of feta the recipe called for, but we really like feta. :)  As I said, I used Chris's hummus which was a spicy hummus with black beans (which I MUST get the recipe for, because it's my favorite!). The black beans did make it a touch difficult to spread on the dough, so maybe a smoother hummus would have been helpful.

All in all, we did really like it. However, we both felt it was something we couldn't do too often. It has A LOT of very bold flavors, and thought we could have used even more cucumbers just to help balance the natural saltiness of the olives, feta and artichoke (of course, if we liked tomatoes, I'm sure that would have helped). Also, it was amazingly filling! I managed to eat two, not very large pieces, and was stuffed. Not to mention, if you use the packaged pizza dough and have hummus already made (or purchased), there is very little prep and you can easily whip this together in no time at all.

If you enjoy bold Mediterranean flavors, or have a giant tub of hummus come into your possession, I would recommend giving this recipe a try. It was very tasty!

And there you go. My very first "foodie" blog post. :)