Mexican Pizza & Cold Avocado and Leek Soup

The pizza is something I've made for a while, but the soup was adapted from Fast, Healthy Food from Readers Digest. I'll admit that I've never had cold soup. Really. I'm not kidding. The thought of a cold avocado soup made me a little twitchy, but I do love avocado, and adore the creaminess of it...and I had a few leeks in the fridge that needed to be used up, so I gave it a go.

It was a win!

I would recommend starting the leek part of the soup a few hours earlier, to allow it to cool.

Cold Avocado and Leek Soup



1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek, whites thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced (I grate mine right into the pot)
3 cups vegetable stock
1 ripe avocado
1 small container plain yogurt (like, the single sized serving)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper

In a saucepan, heat oil and soften sliced and cleaned leeks (remember, slicing the leeks and floating them in a bowl of cold water allows the dirt and grit to fall to the bottom and the clean leeks remain at the top) for a few minutes. Pour in veggie stock, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes or until leeks are very soft.

Put aside to cool.

Once cooled, pop leeks and broth in a blender and puree.

You don't want to open the avocado too soon because it will turn brown and the flavour will lessen. I'd serve this soup within an hour of mixing it up.

Cut avocado and remove pit, and scoop flesh into blender. Add yogurt, lime juice, and cilantro and whirr it up until smooth. Pop back into fridge to cool completely.

Serve with a little fresh cilantro on top.

The cookbook mentions that you can also serve this soup hot, but would replace the yogurt with sour cream.

Mexican Pizza



1 pizza crust (I use a PC Thin pizza crust, but you can make your own...just bake it off first)
1 cup refried beans (canned or homemade, or you can use black bean dip - see below)
Shredded cheddar
Any toppings you wish to add (or not)
Chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat your oven to 400 or so, pop in pizza stone (or you can use the underside of a cookie sheet, or other pizza pan...whatever you have). Remove stone or pan from oven, oil as necessary, and place pizza crust.

Smother beans on top - sometimes I'll use canned refried beans and add half a packet of low sodium taco seasoning. This time I used the canned beans and added some chipotle salsa I had in the fridge for seasoning. Sometimes I use a bean dip (recipe below) instead of the refried beans.

Top with shredded cheddar and anything else you'd like to add (that you want to heat up) and pop into the oven until pizza is hot and cheese is melted.

Pull out of the oven, and top with chopped cilantro and anything else you might want to put on there...I like raw green onions and I had some kicking around, so I put them on at this point.

Black Bean Dip (alternative to refried beans)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, grated in
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tablespoon (or so) fresh cilantro, to taste

Heat oil in saucepan and soften onions and garlic. Place in food processor and add rest of ingredients (aside from salt and pepper). Process until smooth, taste, and season with salt and pepper as needed. Sometimes I like to add a couple dashes of hot sauce.

Mushroom and Leek Pizza

Tonight we had mushroom and leek pizza. It's pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.



1 store bought pizza crust (we used a President's Choice thin crust, but you could certainly use a homemade crust, or even a pita bread)
Olive oil
1 Tblsp butter
6oz mushrooms (whatever kind you like, we used crimini)
1 leek, green tops removed
2 sprigs of thyme
Tomato pesto (I used PC Tomato Pesto)
Fresh mozzerella
1 plum tomato
Salt and pepper

You can attack this pizza a number of different ways: do it on the grill...do it in the oven (on a pizza stone, the back of a cookie sheet, a pizza pan, or right on the rack). I prefer the oven method for this pizza, and our pizza stone rules my world...so I will explain what I did using that cooking method, but whichever style you choose, the order is the same: heat up the crust (or prebake if you're making it from a dough), put the stuff on, cook it, eat it, lick the plate.

Crank the oven to 350, put in the stone. Heat a skillet on the stove, adding a tblsp of both olive oil and butter when the pan is hot. Add sliced mushrooms (we like them sliced thinly) and sliced leeks to soften and brown.

Let me divert your attention to something you may or may not know...leeks can be dirty veggies, and just rinsing them under the tap isn't going to get all the sand out. Get a bowl of cold water and, as you chop the leeks, place them in the bowl to float. You might need to give them a swish to break up the rings because that's where the dirt and grit will be hiding. The leek slices will float on the top, and the grit will sink to the bottom. Scoop the ones off the top and throw them into the pan. Add a bit of salt, pepper, and the thyme leaves.

Ok, back to this pizza. While the mushrooms and leeks are browning, I pulled the hot pizza stone out of the oven, oiled the bottom of the prepared pizza crust, put it on the stone, and put it in the oven to warm.

Once the crust is warmed, pull it out of the oven and smear on some tomato pesto. Distribute the mushroom/leek mess over the pesto, add slices of roma tomato, cover with rounds of fresh mozzarella. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil (optional), salt and pepper, and slide back in the oven to melt the cheese.

I really like this pizza because it's not too heavy, and I'm not a huge fan of saucy pizzas, so the pesto element of this is just perfect. Pizza is a great dinner because it's so versatile.

I also make one that has refried beans as the "sauce" and is topped with shredded cheddar and cilantro. I'll have to make that again soon. Stay tuned!