Asparagus Pizza - My 200th Post!!

To all my dear friends and readers of this blog - Today is a big day! Its my 200th post on the blog! Mriganayani has come a long way ...and wants to go even further. Thanks to all of you who leave your love and comments here - those few words are the fuel that keeps the blog moving along! Thank you much for the few minutes of your lives everyday when you stop by here to read, look at pictures and leave your feedback. 

A special thanks to all my readers who actually try out the recipes here and leave me feedback that they liked what they made - that's the best compliment a blogger could get. I'm blessed to have many of those!

Thank you to all the facebook followers too and the instant feedback I get when I publish something new! You keep me glued on here and I'm not complaining a bit!

Thanks to all of you who have referred the blog to your friends and family and co-workers and neighbors..I owe you all one, big time.

Today's post is a very special post for me and I thought I should post something that is new, creative and colorful for all of you - so here we go!

Asparagus is one of my favorite veggies and I found some fresh and great tasting asparagus at my farmers market. I got 3 whole bunches of it! Of course, I had to put it to good use. I always make a simple Asparagus stir fry but this time I was needy. I needed more from my thin and tender sticks. So, I googled and came across this and I thought why not make something like that.

But, I was going for a non cheesy version of a pizza. The dough has enough carbs and calories needed. Why add more in the form of cheese? You've probably seen my Veggies with White Sauce post. So, I decided to make that same white sauce and add that as the sauce on top of the pizza and then top off with the asparagus.

So, here's the quick low down on the sauce.

In your blender or a pan, take 2 tbsps of all purpose flour.

Add 2 tbsps of unsalted butter. I used the Country crock spreadable non-real butter - the one with no hydrogenated oils or trans fats. The relatively healthy kind. Really.

Add 1 cup of really hot milk to the butter and flour.

Add 1/2 tsp of salt to the rest of the ingredients. Now, give everything a whirr in the blender. The hot milk will help in thickening the sauce as the ingredients get mixed up.

Move to a sauce pan and heat on medium for a few mins until the sauce thickens well.

And here comes the kicker - I added about 1 tsp of pav bhaji masala for some spice and kick in the sauce. You could just add red chilli powder or paprika as my inspiration recipe calls for.

I bought store pizza dough - from my favorite store of course, Trader Joes! I love their pizza dough - they do have these in plain, whole wheat and garlic herb flavors. For this recipe, I used just the plain pizza dough. Follow instructions on the packet and prepare the base. You could also make this from scratch or use a ready to use pizza base.

Now, apply the sauce evenly on top of the pizza and spread out completely till the edges.

Now, throw in some roughly chopped onions and tomatoes. And then start arranging the Asparagus pieces around the pizza. You could also just chop up the asparagus and add all around if you'd like that.

And then arrange them all over. I had to kick it up a notch - and so I added some silvered almonds on top! And man, oh man, what a bite they provide. Don't skip that - if you don't have silvered almonds - use crushed almonds. The almonds combine very well with the white sauce and the asparagus!

Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for about 20 -25 mins or until the crust turns golden. Does that look good or what? Remember this pizza has no cheese on top - and loads of goodness from the veggies!

I also made one other pizza using the store bought pizza dough - stretched it out to fit a baking sheet and all that stretching  gave me a wonderful thin and crisp pizza.

I added broccoli, spinach, olives, red onions and tomatoes. Simple and healthy.

And then a little bit of feta cheese on top.

Bake again at 350 F or until golden brown.

I also made a side salad for the pizzas - just my favortites thrown and tossed together - Fresh baby spinach, shredded carrots, strawberries and some silvered almonds on top - a very little spraying of lite italian dressing. Simple and tasty salad!

And not to stop just there, I also made my favorite Ginger Carrot soup to complete the meal. And just so you don't judge, we were 6 people in the house - I normally don't make so much for just me.

So, how did you all like the Asparagus pizza? Do leave me a comment - I'd love to hear from you! If you like what you see, pass it on to your friends and family too!

If you're not yet "like"ing this on FB, do that soon - its much more interactive and fun out there!

Once again, thank you all for all the love and encouragement and support you give me.

 I just have to leave with one more last obsession shot!

Enjoy. Peace Out!