Bean Beast Pizza

Intro: Bean Beast Pizza

A friend and I were bored one day and chatting about ways to make pizza more substantial in our manly guts and decided that some experiments would be done, this is the first of my experiments to find out how to tank out pizza...

I'd call it a success, also despite being doubly as filling and damn tasty it's tipping the scales between 900 and 1000 calories, which is not too bad, most store bought pizzas are a few hundred more and one I had to myself which was good turned out to be over 2000 calories, so for fulfilment to health ratio I'd call it healthy, though you could knock two hundred off by not adding a second layer of cheese.

The eating experience was interesting, the combination of pizza and bean textures was nice but it's extremely messy, this could be helped but lowering the bean count a bit and putting them on the top layer instead of the bottom.

Tastiness was definitely good though I do recommend using hot sauce or a preferred condiment like I did, because I left a bit without to see how it was and it the tomato sauce of beans wasn't up to much when pizzafied.

Kidney beans or some such may be more suitable for this application, but not butter beans, that would be vile.

STEP 1: Ingredients.

The ingredients are rough guesses and not complicated.

Pizza base or pizza dough, make your own if you like, if you do make it yourself give it a pie like lip to make the construction process easier.

Beans, about half a standard can, I used more but to keep it from falling apart as much as mine did I'd use a little can or just a bit less than half a normal can.

Cheese, I used roughly one hundred grams of cathedral city mature cheddar, use your preferred cheese(s) and drop to roughly 75 grams for single layer.

Tomato puree/sauce or your preferred variation, I went for simple sieved tomatoes here because I reckoned using my usual tomato and basil wouldn't mix well, the tomato sauce makes it more like a standard pizza but I reckon it could be done without, however it makes the leap smaller.

Hot sauce, I like cholula but you could change it out for some other condiment, brown sauce goes nicely with beans, even sweet chilli could go well...

STEP 2: Beans on First.

I did it this way but I think it may be less mess to swap the tomato puree to the bottom, this is just the way I did it and learned something.

Spoon the beans on and try to spread them a bean thick or so, don't pick up much sauce, it'll make it far messier, unless you're not adding the tomato.

I then threw a generous helping of hot sauce on to the beans, to make it tastier.

If your oven's as old as mine, start preheating it now. (200oC)

STEP 3: Cheese It!

I decided to add a light layer of cheese on to the the beans in the hopes that it'd bind them in a bit while cooking...

It did kind of work, but not that well, mozzarella would be much better than the cheddar I used here...

STEP 4: Adding Sauce.

I added on to of the beans and cheese a thin layer of sieved tomatoes, to make the pizza more like a pizza, not too much though, I went a bit overboard here...

Just a bit is all that's needed, honestly go a little easier than I did because it'll make the pizza better in the end, same taste except better cooked and less mess.

STEP 5: Final Cheesing.

I added the top layer of cheese, because I was a little short on toppings because I need to go shopping but after eating it I would say tomatoes, peppers, bacon, ground beef, sausage and maybe pepperoni would be good bets to add on top.

STEP 6: Chuck It in the Oven.

So if your oven's up to temperature (200oC) then chuck the pizza on in.

I did it for twelve minutes at 200 then threw the dial to maximum for another few minutes to crisp it up a bit.

I recommend a metal pizza tray with no holes, mine has holes, the oven now needs cleaned and I'd say it'd make a fair mess of a pizza stone.

STEP 7: Take It Out.

This may be tricky to do with out getting beans everywhere, especially when taking photos, because of the sloppy thickness of the pizza, combined with lack of stringing cheeses it isn't that stable.

Also, if your oven is like mine, maximum temperature may be rather high, usually a waft of 200 to the face is no bother but that near knocked me over opening the door, it's the first time I've had to leave it so long to crisp something and it had time to get some heat up.

STEP 8: Dig In!

if you do follow and make one of these, please send me photos and general improvements, I have a line of pizza experiments to complete and any tips or photos would be really welcome.

Enjoy this with a big plate, a bib and use a spoon to eat up the stuff that falls off, also the crispy bits at the edge are gorgeous, it's like cheese fried beans.

Comments

[dummy1977]

my gut gently weeps and raised a white flag before I even finished reading. : ( this sounds amazing.

[killerjackalope]

Oh no no... That was nothing compared to chizza - I forgot to take photos last time... But it weighed around three pounds...

[Celt]

I have done this!!!!  It is really good, but the visual presentation did not impress the wife.  I wonder if bacon could be stuffed into the crust,  all the more manly!

[killerjackalope]

I reckon bacon and cheese crusts could be good, or even just rolled pepperoni.

I've filled a crust with ground beef and cheese before and it was great. Visually the bean pizza is a tricky one but for tastiness it's up there...

[mikeasaurus]

yikes!

[killerjackalope]

Oh my god, that is a beautiful creation, though pure evil...

[ewalk]

Oh it looks so good!

[HotPinkBulb]

Im not a fan of beans. But I love what you have done!

[killerjackalope]

You may like the next pizza experiment next...

[mikeasaurus]

Since beans-on-toast is what much of the modern culinary world is built from, this seems like the next logical iteration.

I've had some trials of my own concerning pizza building, thought mine were all from the perspective of the construction of the crust. After seeing all the adds for stuffed crust pizza sometime in the mid 90's I decided to take it one step further and make a sandwich of cheese with 2 thin layers of dough, a hybrid of calzone and pizza with one cheese inside. Then toppings as usual. When I clicked on the oven light some minutes later the pizza had dramatically expanded in the middle with this whitish dome and looked ready to pop, sort of like scene from Aliens where the thing bursts out of that guy's chest, only in pizza form. Yummy!

If you're looking to up your caloric intake a smidge there's always room for bacon!

[killerjackalope]

My next pizza build will be a serious challenge and a stuffed crust may be necessary, structural strength will be important, or go pizza pie style. Hmm bacon's in my list of suggested toppings...

[Kiteman]

I saw the title, and my first thought was that you had been doing something with the old veggie-mince product I used to eat as a student.

(Foul stuff.)

[killerjackalope]

Oh dear god no, When I fancy something weird and bland cous cous and sweetcorn does the job...

[Lithium Rain]

Ewwwwww. >shudder<

[killerjackalope]

You love it really...

[l8nite]

interesting concept, it looks like you used plain baked beans which is fine for a quickey munchies meal but preccoking the beans with some added spices and or meats would probably help alot in the finished product. You could also try refried beans or mashing garbonzo beans or white beans with garlic as the base spread

[killerjackalope]

I went with plain backed beans and hot sauce because I figured keeping it simple to see if the cooking mechanics would work would be a good plan. I do reckon meats would go well with this one, I did list a set of suggested toppings after having tasted it which should be good.