Taco Pizza

Ingredients
For the pizza dough
2 teaspoons yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 ¹⁄₂ cup warm water
¹⁄₂ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
4-4 ¹⁄₂ cups flour (You can use up to 2 cups of whole wheat flour, the rest should be all purpose.)

For assembly
1 pound ground beef or turkey
1 packet taco seasoning
1 (16 ounces) can refried beans, optional (I used vegetarian refried beans since I’ve always liked them the best.)
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 cup red taco sauce (I used Old El Paso since it’s the only brand my store carried that didn’t have HFCS.)
2 cups cheddar cheese or Mexican cheese blend, shredded
3-4 plum tomatoes, diced, or 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
2 cups lettuce, shredded
Black olives, sliced, optional
Sour cream, for serving

Instructions
1. For the dough: Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water and let sit for five minutes.  Add oil and salt, stir to mix.  Add flour one cup at a time, stirring to combine completely.  Dough should be a little sticky but easy enough to work with that it doesn’t stick all over your hands.  Knead dough for five minutes.  Place in a greased bowl and let rise for an hour. 

2. Punch down dough and let rest five minutes.  Divide dough in half and roll, stretch or press into two 12-inch rounds.  Place each round on pizza pan or parchment paper if using pizza stone. 

3. Preheat oven to 500*F.  If using pizza stone, preheat that as well. 

4.  Brown meat in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add taco seasoning and cook according to package directions.  Add refried beans, if using, and stir to soften and mix.  Add green onions and stir to combine. 

5. Spread ¹⁄₂-1 cup taco sauce onto each round of dough, depending on how saucy you like your pizzas.  Spread half of meat-bean mixture on top of each pizza.  Top each pizza with half of the cheese.  Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until cheese is melted and dough is fully cooked. 

6. Allow pizza to cool for five minutes then top with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and olives, if using.  Serve with sour cream and any remaining taco sauce.

To cook from frozen: Preheat oven to 400*F and bake until cheese is bubbly and pizza is heated through, about 20-30 minutes.

Note: I used two disposable 12-inch pizza pans because I don’t seem to own proper pizza pans.  I should rectify that some day.  I preheated my pizza stone in the oven and cooked the pizzas one at a time on the stone in a disposable pan.

Comments
This recipe is from my aforementioned awesome sister-in-law.  She mentioned the recipe on facebook and it sounded right up my alley so she was sweet enough to share it with me!  It was scrumptious.  I used half whole wheat flour as per her suggestion and that worked perfectly.  The dough had a nice texture and flavor, plus I can tell myself it’s healthy.  I had to use grape tomatoes instead of plum tomatoes since the plum tomatoes at our store were not looking so great. 

One of the nice things about this pizza is that it’s easy enough to make through step 5 and then serve all of the other ingredients as toppings table side, if you wanted to make it more like a taco night.  Avocado would probably be a great topping as well for those who love it, like me. 

The recipe makes two good-sized pizzas and the three of us completely polished off one of them.  I wrapped the second one up without the lettuce and tomatoes and have it in the freezer to reheat for a future meal.  The pizza was definitely a winner and I already have visions of making more pizzas like this in the future.  It would also be extremely easy to vegetarianize by omitting the meat or replacing it with soy crumbles and using vegetarian refried beans.

Person - Nikki Little