Indian Naan Pizza

My fave food trend at the moment is fusion food where you incorporate two cultures into one dish. Taking the best of both cultures and combining into one plate - it sounds pretty tasty right? We are a melting pot, and our dishes definitely reflect it. For Meatless Mondays, I've been discovering alot of vegetarian dishes that are heavily influenced by Indian dishes. I have been craving to make an Indian-inspired dish even more so when I had a bite of Paneer curry at the recent Indian wedding that I attended. I can't stop thinking about the wonderful flavors that I had from one bite!
Luckily for me, our Costco recently started carrying Naan bread and it's great all by itself, for soups, salads but I wanted it as the base of my pizza. (I really wanted garlic naan, but I'll save that for another time). I've been in love with the exotic spices of India and I always enjoy a nice slice of pizza - so combining these two cultures into one - seemed like a perfect fit. I have to thank Jessica of The Novice Chef for posting this recipe, and good luck to her on the path to be The Next Food Blog Star. There's nothing like enjoying a slice of comfort food like pizza and I loved how the tikka Paneer had a touch of rich and creamy flavor and wasn't overly cheesy like typical cheeses. The combination of pizza sauce with the mango chutney gave a nice sweet and sour sauce. Overall, a nice change-up from our go-to pizza selections and it was a great vegetarian meal for our Meatless Mondays. Enjoy!

Indian Naan Pizza
Adapted from The Novice Chef & Aarti Sequeria
Ingredients:
1 cup Paneer cheese, diced (or make it yourself)
6 oz fat free Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons tandoori sauce (or 1 teaspoon tandoori paste)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoon ginger, minced
1/2 lime, juiced
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1/4 cup mango chutney (recommend Major Grey’s brand)
4 pieces of naan
1 cup mozzarella, shredded
handful cilantro, chopped
parmesan cheese, shavings

Preparation:

In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt, tandoori sauce, garlic, ginger, lime juice and salt and pepper. Mix to combine. Add in the diced Paneer and cover with plastic wrap and let it marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together the pizza sauce and mango chutney and spread evenly on top of naan. Top naan with mozzarella.

Remove Paneer mixture from refrigerator, and saute on medium-high heat until liquid reduces. Scoop Paneer on top of pizzas.

Cook pizzas in oven for 10 minutes, or until mozzarella has melted (the Paneer will not melt).

Garnish pizzas with cilantro and shaved Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

Review: Spicy and sweet all mixed into a thick slice of pizza naan. If you like food with lots of flavors and spices, this is a great dish to try. We paired this with a simple green salad and it was very filling. The naan is a little bit denser that an average thick crust of pizza, so one naan pizza a piece for Eric and I was a perfect meal. If you need a little bit of protein, try adding a couple slices of prosciutto or bacon on the pizza - it will be fantastic, too.