Grilled Mediterranean Flatbread Pizzas - gluten free, vegan, and slightly unsuccessful


The attempt at Gluten Free, Vegan Grilled Mediterranean Flatbread Pizzas came out pretty and colorful, but could improve greatly in texture		.

On our camping trip in Wyoming this weekend, I was super excited to bust out my beloved grill. I seriously LOVE my the portable grill that my parents gave me for my birthday last year. Unfortunately, the grill isn't magic and couldn't fix this failed attempt at gluten free, dairy free, yeast free Grilled Mediterranean Flatbread Pizzas.

I was inspired by Gluten Free Day's Flatbread Recipe. It is yeast free and the ingredients and instructions were extremely minimal - ideal for camping right? Well, as usual, I did not follow the recipe, but, unfortunately, this time my alterations were not for the best. Instead of quinoa flour I decided to use 1/2 stone ground brown rice flour and half garbanzo bean flour. Other than that I used the same ingredients, but just doubled the amounts because I would be making this for Brian and his friend Austin.

I think things would have gone fine with my flour substitutes if I had followed her instructions for baking, and just prepared the flatbreads ahead of time in the oven. Instead I tried making them on the grill on some foil because the batter is a bit runny and would fall through the cracks of the grill otherwise. After I poured 2 servings of batter onto the tin foil and spread it into circles, I thought...I should probably have greased this lightly. So I smeared olive oil below the remaining two flatbreads. I put them on the grill at medium high and closed the lid.

7 minutes later I excitedly went to check on my grilled gluten free flatbreads, and found them stuck to the tin foil tighter than a hippy to a redwood. I tried scraping them off and two of them just crumbled into pieces, while I managed to salvage the top layer of the other two. I placed the remnants directly onto the grill. Meanwhile I also grilled some sliced zucchini, summer squash, and red onion tossed in olive oil, oregano, basil, garlic, and crushed red pepper. I grilled this summer vegetable mix in a grill basket.

When the flatbread remnants seemed baked through, I spread hummus on top as the "pizza sauce", topped with feta cheese (dairy free daiya cheese for Brian's vegan pizza), and topped that with the grilled veggies. I grilled these fully loaded mediterranean flatbread pizzas for about 5 or so more minutes (until the cheese melted). I also made a side of grilled purple potatoes and grilled asparagus, hoping to fill the boys up since half the pizzas failed.

I can honestly say that I loved the toppings, and actually liked my pizza pieces (I gave myself the random crumbled pizzas). I guess because I am used to gluten free bread products having a funky texture. However, I would not have willingly chosen to feed this meal to someone who is not used to the sacrifices in texture from eating gluten free. The flatbreads turned out kind of crumbly, heavy, and slightly chewy even if that makes sense. I think the lack of yeast and egg caused the chewiness, the gluten free flours caused the heaviness and crumbliness. While my poor decision to try to grill these flatbreads instead of bake them resulted in me eating my pizza in pieces.

Well, you live and learn. This semi-failure reminded me why it isn't smart to experiment with gluten free baking (or grilling in this situation) when making food for people. And it is always good to have a back up plan. Thank goodness I had brought extra potatoes to fill up the boys!

Check out pictures from our camping trip here, and read Brian's trip report on his blog Ultra Running Kicks. Here are a few pics of our camping/bouldering trip in Vedauwoo, WY to give you an idea of the terrain - which was very very rocky!