Before children I was a successful vegetarian for nearly seven years. Well if truth be told I was an 'almost successful' vegetarian who had a weakness for bacon. Every now and then I would momentarily relapse if I so happened to come into a one mile radius of a pan filled with fried bacon. I don't know what it is about the smell of cooked bacon but it gets me every time.

I then fell dismally off the vegetarian wagon for good during the second trimester of my first pregnancy. The fact that I was growing a 9.4lb mini human inside of me, coupled by the fact that I had rather low iron stores may have had something to do with my sudden urge to consume meat. So rather than stand firm in my ideals I decided to go with the moment and that moment has now lasted approximately eight years.

When I say 'I now eat meat' I mean that I may eat meat once a week as we still predominantly cook and eat more fish and vegetable meals. So the other day when I was having a meat craving moment I decided to make these Middle Eastern lamb pizzas for dinner. It goes with out saying that Mr. Man, Hoover and I had the spicy Middle Eastern pizzas while Fussy was content with his signature Margerita pizza with 'nothing green on it' please.



Middle Eastern Lamb Pizza

These pizzas are great as a light lunch or alternatively you could make mini pizzas and serve them with cocktails. You could also crumble fetta over the pizza just before serving but they taste just as good without. I have also added dried cranberries to the spiced lamb topping instead of raisins and that works really well too.
 

Ingredients

Spiced Lamb Topping

500g of organic minced lamb

I large onion finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

¼ cup of raisins or dried cranberries

2tbls of pomegranate molasses

1 tbsp of cumin powder

1 tbsp of cinnamon

A dash of dried chilli flakes (optional)

Natural yogurt

Sea salt & freshly ground pepper

Olive oil

 
Pizza dough

1 quantity Ms. Gourmet's Basic Pizza Dough

 
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/428F/Gas 7

2. Make one quantity of Ms. Gourmet's Basic Pizza Dough

3. Finely chop the onion and garlic in a food processor. In a frypan heat olive oil and gently cook the onion and garlic until it starts to caramelise. Add cumin, cinnamon and chilli and blend well.

4. Add the minced lamb and cook for 5-10 minutes or until browned. Stir in the pomegranate molasses and raisins and season to taste.

5. Meanwhile lightly toast the pine nuts in a separate pan until golden.

6. Lightly brush pizzas with a little olive oil and cook in the oven for 5 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and spread bases with a little natural yogurt and then sprinkle with the spiced lamb mixture. Return to the oven for a further 5 minutes or until golden brown.

7. Remove from oven and top with toasted pine nuts and finely chopped parsley serve immediately.

Makes four pizzas