Mushroom, Feta and Cilantro Pesto Naan Pizza

I told you we’ve been cooking a lot of Naan recipes lately.This particular recipe I am sharing today was kind of an afterthought. I was initially planning to make this naan pizza with paneer marinated in cilantro chutney, only to find out that I was out of paneer. Some meaty and cute looking mushrooms were staring back at me from inside of my refrigerator instead, so I picked them. Later I was glad I did. That’s the beauty of naan pizzas, you can play around as you want. Go wild with the flavors or can go as basic as you want.

The main idea of this recipe although was born on a day when there was nothing in my refrigerator except for some sad looking leftover cilantro chutney, a few cubes of paneer and some tortillas. We assembled them and popped in the oven later to drizzle some sour cream on them and crispy “tortilla pizzas” were born in my household. Slowly I kept playing around with the recipe or rather kept topping my leftover flatbreads with whatever was in my fridge. To be completely honest not all of them were well appreciated by the “food critics” in the family but this idea for using an Indian staple, hari chutney or cilantro mint pesto, stuck around.

I’ve tried tossing my aloo sabji with the chutney and topped on my pizza, palak paneer or lamb koftas do well with this kind of a pizza too. If you haven’t yet, try a dessert pizza. Its a hit amongst the kiddos. Caramelized onions, with goat cheese and a fruit, grapes or strawberries drizzled with balsamic and topped with whipped cream or just a layer of sweet mawa (solidified milk) and nuts are some great options. I will share more such recipes soon. For now enjoy this vegetarian Naan pizza with a thin layer of spicy cilantro mint chutney, meaty mushroom, crunchy bell peppers and creamy feta.

Ingredients: Serves 4

4 Premade Naans (recipe here)

1/3 cup cilnatro chutney (recipe here)

1/2 cup button mushrooms

1/2 cup bell pepper (red, green or yellow) diced

1/3 cup feta cheese (crumbled)

1-2 tablespoon olive oil

Method:

Mix cilantro chutney and olive oil together.

Preheat the oven to 400 deg. F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Line up the naans flat on the cookie sheet, bubbly side up.

Spread cilantro pesto over the four naans. The pesto can be spicy so use per taste. Sprinkle each naan with mushroom, bell pepper, and top with feta.

Transfer baking sheets to the oven, middle rack. Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts a little and turns brown on the edges and the crust is golden. Pull out of the oven. Slice. Serve hot.