Herb Flatbread with Roasted Veggies & Pesto
When people find out I love to cook one of the first questions they often ask is “whats the hardest thing you make”. Through practice I have discovered that if you add a few specific words to any dish you can make it sound impressively complicated and gourmet. Words such as braised, emulsion, puree and reduction are almost guaranteed to be met with an impressed “wow” response.
Truthfully that’s all a lie, but lets be honest, how impressed would you be if I told you one of the hardest things I make is muffins? Or that bread is the equivalent of my Mount Everest.
I have found baking without sugar, baking powder, yeast or grain flour of any type to be very hard, because as much as you want honey = sugar and ground almonds (almond flour) = all purpose flour, it just doesn’t. It has taken me endless batches of muffins, breads, cookies and loaves to finally get the hang of baking on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Along the way there has been a number of hockey puck muffins (a rock hard lump of dough that could break glass), burnt loaves with raw centers and praying to the Baking Gods in front of my oven door, but after awhile I finally started to get the hang of it.
Bread is one of the toughest SCD things to bake as the consistency is much more dense and crumbly then normal bread as its yeast and baking powder free, and the end result often falls apart in your hands. One of the first recipes I ever posted on this site was these Cheddar & Chive Biscuits and a year and a half later it is still my go to bread recipe, so I thought I may as well play around with the batter to see if I could turn it into a flatbread. Let’s just say when I pulled this out of the oven there was a little Hallelujah dance done around my kitchen.
So what exactly do we have here? A delicious flatbread that has thyme and rosemary baked into the dough. It’s not as dense as normal almond flour bread (it rose slightly in the oven which was a massive personal cooking victory!) and is strong enough to hold the weight of toppings without crumbling. Its topped with garlic pesto, grilled eggplant (although zucchini would also be delicious), prosciutto, rocket and roasted tomatoes and every single bite is absolutely delicious. Want to know the best part, it tastes exactly, if not better, then normal flatbread.
This is a fantastic dish to serve for dinner or as an appetizer/finger food for guests, everyone will love it. This flatbread is incredibly versatile and can be topped with any sauce, veggie or protein you have in your fridge, be adventurous!
If you make this recipe let me know in the comment section below, I would love to hear what you think or take a photo and tag me (@everylastbite_) on Instagram, I love seeing your photos!
Herb Flatbread with Roasted Veggies & Pesto
Ingredients
Herb Flatbread
- 3 cups Almond Flour
- 2 Eggs
- 2 tbsp Butter or ghee
- 1/3 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tbsp Thyme chopped
- 1 tbsp Rosemary chopped
- salt and pepper
Pesto
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 2 cups Basil
- 1/4 cup Pine Nuts
- 1/4 cup Parmesan optional if Paleo/Dairy free
- 1/4 cup good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Toppings
- 1 Eggplant or Zucchini
- 10 Cherry Tomatoes or store bought Sun Blush Tomatoes
- 1 1/2 cups Rocket
- 6-7 slices Prosciutto or other protein of choice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)
- Place the cherry tomatoes with a light drizzle of oil in a pan in the oven, they will need about 35 minutes in the oven, flip them after 15 minutes to ensure they don't burn
- In a mixing bowl combine the ingredients for the flat bread and stir until well combined
- Form the dough into a ball and place between two sheets of parchment paper. Using a roll pin flatten the dough evenly until it is approximately 1/4 of an inch in thickness.
- Remove the top layer of parchment paper and place the rolled out dough still on the bottom layer onto a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until it is a light golden color
- In a handheld mixer add the pesto ingredients and blend. Set aside
- Cut the Eggplant or Zucchini into thin slices, brush with oil and place on a hot grill, cook for 4 minutes per side until they soften and burn marks begin to show
- It's time to assemble, top the flatbread with a thick layer of pesto, the grilled zucchini or eggplant, prosciutto, rocket and sun blush tomatoes. Place back in the oven for 4-5 minutes to warm. Cut into squares and serve. Enjoy!
How do you store the flatbread? (By itself without toppings) thanks! It tastes great, btw
Hi just wanted to ask is this flatbread high in carbohydrates and calories
Hi.. can i substitute almond flour with oat flour? And how is the measurement?
Unfortunately I have not tried this using oat flour so cannot say with confidence how much you should use. I did a search on google and was unable to find an exact conversion ratio. Sorry I couldnt be more helpful!
for a long time I’d been looking for a pizza alternative base that wasn’t cauliflower – this is just the thing if you’re avoiding gluten (as we all should!). great recipe – thanks!