Fakeaways at Home

Make your own – fakeaways at home!

Sometimes you may feel like having pizza but don’t see yourself kneading bread dough and going through the whole process of making it yourself. Takeaways are convenient, but it can become quite expensive very quickly and a homemade meal is definitely healthier too. Heleen Meyer shares a lovely alternative for a quick homemade pizza.

The base

Heleen uses pita bread as the base for her quick pizzas, which is a wonderful, effortless way to get your pizza fix, without the fuss! And … it’s definitely much more affordable. She prefers to use wholewheat pitas as they will have a lovely nutty flavour once baked, but you can use any type of pitas you prefer for this recipe.

The sauce

For the aromatic tomato sauce, she shares a clever trick to add lots more flavour than just spreading plain tomato paste on the pita bases. The sauce is ready in minutes and quite versatile, so prepare double the sauce and freeze some in portions for another meal. Enjoy the delicious sauce with pasta, boerewors, any egg dish or dollop some onto homemade burgers.

Tips and toppings

The size of these pita pizzas makes them perfect to fit into an air-fryer – you’ll have pizza ready in a flash. Tip: this recipe is for 4 pitas, but if you only want to make one pizza, then just use a quarter of the filling ingredients and refrigerate the remaining sauce for another day.

Heleen has three topping options below, so choose which option would work best for you. Be creative with the recipe and use any ingredients you have on hand as pizza toppings.

Pita pizzas

Recipe by Heleen Meyer, adapted from Make five/Maak vyf

Serves 4

1 x 410 g tin chopped tomatoes

10 ml (2 tsp) balsamic or red wine vinegar

2,5 ml (½ tsp) smoked paprika or 5 ml (1 tsp) ordinary paprika

5 ml (1 tsp) mild curry powder (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

4 wholewheat or plain pitas, cut each through, to form 2 ‘pizza bases’

15 ml (1 tbsp) olive oil

250-375 ml (1-1½ cups) grated mozzarella or mature white cheddar cheese

topping ingredients of your choice, like the options below

plain yoghurt, sour cream, avocado, fresh herbs, rocket leaves or thinly sliced spring onions for serving (optional)

Topping 1: The ‘Always a winner’: ham, cheese & tomato

cooked bacon or ham or any other leftover meat, like chicken or steak

2 fresh tomatoes, sliced

Topping 2: The T’s&C’s: Tuna, corn & cheese

2 cobs of corn, cooked and kernels sliced off in strips

1 x 170 g tin tuna in salt water, drained well

Topping 3: MaVo: Margherita with avo

2 fresh tomatoes, sliced

1 avocado, sliced (when in season)

1. Sauce: Place tomatoes, vinegar and spices in a small saucepan. Season to taste and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until thickened. Alternatively, place in the microwave and allow to simmer for a few minutes until aromatic.
2. Pizzas: Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Place pita halves on a baking tray and brush each half lightly with oil.
3. Divide the sauce between the pitas and spread evenly. Add the topping ingredients of your choice and sprinkle with cheese.
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden brown, or the outer edges become crispy. Repeat with the rest of the pitas and filling.
5. If preferred, spoon dollops of yoghurt or sour cream on top and garnish with fresh herbs and a good grind of pepper. Ingredients like avocado, sliced spring onions or rocket leaves are always delicious and go with just about any pizza topping.

To bake the pizzas in an air-fryer: Bake one pita pizza at a time at 200 °C for about 8 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the edge is crispy. Prepare more pitas while the others air-fry. This is the kind of meal that can even become a fun family activity. Bake and enjoy some while baking more and let everyone help to assemble the pizzas.

Tip:

1. A pita base is not as sturdy as a thicker pizza base, so remember not to use too many toppings at a time.

For more recipes like this visit Heleen’s website.

Image by Adel Ferreira for LiG Tydskrif