Heart shaped pizza with a pretty pink balsamic beet spread <3
Valentine’s Day is just a few days away! It’s not something that we really celebrate in our house, I never expect flowers or chocolates from my husband – don’t get me wrong, we are madly in love (even after nearly 9 years!) – but Valentine’s Day just isn’t something we do. If you love someone, you shouldn’t just give them flowers on one day of the year – what makes Valentine’s Day so different from any other day? So what we lack in Valentine’s festivities, we make up for throughout the year with spontaneous gestures of love.
But on Valentine’s Day, I do like to make a special themed meal (even if it’s just something simple like heart-shaped chocolates for dessert). I remember making heart shaped pizzas a few years back in my pre-blogging days, but this year I thought I would make them using this lentil pizza crust recipe and top with with a beautifully pink beet spread.
I got the inspiration for this beet spread from my Instagram friend Eni @enieatspretty – I loved the colour of her spread, and thought it would go beautifully on this heart shaped pizza for Valentine’s Day!
Speaking of Instagram, I’m having a bit of an internal dilemma at the moment: am I a blogger with an Instagram account, or am I an Instagrammer with a blog? Does anyone else wonder the same thing sometimes? I feel like I’m pouring way more energy into Instagram than my actual blog at the moment, but I don’t suppose that’s a bad thing…I’m just following my heart <3
Show some love with a heart shaped pizza <3
Anyway, to make a heart shaped pizza, I simply poured a few tablespoons of the lentil batter onto the frying pan and quickly spread into a heart shape. I made mini pizzas, but by all means feel free to make full sized heart shaped pizzas, as big as your frying pan will allow!
- 2 cups dry red lentils
- 2 cups water
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 garlic clove
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 cup cashews
- 1 garlic clove
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbs balsamic vinegar
- ⅓ cup grated beetroot
- Strawberries
- Radishes
- Basil
- Or other toppings as desired
- Blend all pizza ingredients in a high speed speed blender (I use an Optimum 9400) until the lentils are broken down.
- Preheat a frying pan (I use a cast-iron griddle plate) over a low-medium heat - grease with a little splash of olive oil if needed.
- Spoon a few tablespoons of batter onto the frying pan (if making mini-pizzas - otherwise pour on about ½ cup batter) and use the spoon to shape into a heart.
- Fry for about 2-3 minutes, until the top is fairly cooked through, and flip.
- Fry for a further 2 minutes on the reverse side, then transfer to a plate while you repeat with the remaining batter.
- Blend all beet spread ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth.
- Spread onto the pizzas.
- Top with toppings of your choice (I used strawberries, basil and radishes).
- OPTIONAL: You may bake for 10 minutes but I really enjoyed the raw vegetables on top.
I love reading your comments – please leave your comments, thoughts, questions or reviews below:
- What’s on the menu at your place this V Day?
- Are you one of those couples who don’t give each other Valentine’s gifts either?
- Are you an Instagrammer with a blog, or a blogger with an Instagram?
A year ago: Sundried Tomato Spelt Ravioli with Pesto Sauce
![Lentil Pizza Crust [Vegan, Gluten-Free]](http://viedelavegan.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/269-150x150.jpg)
I am more into the valentines food than grand gestures on valentines day. So much fun stuff about – love your pizza hearts! And I am not on instagram. I sometimes think I should be but I just am not sure I have the time.
Yes, I think Valentine’s food makes a great substitute for presents – I’m glad you agree Johanna! Instagram is a bit of a time-waster – I quit Facebook a few years ago because it was a huge time-waster for me, but I think I spend just as much time on Instagram now :\ but I do love it, I am connecting with so many other like-minded people – I have never really found many people who I connect with in real-life (and by that, I mean vegan/vegetarian or at least health/environment-conscious) so it’s amazing to finally have friends who are like-minded! But yes – it’s a total time sucker haha.
I’m totally with you Kyra! I quit FB over a year ago, and now I find myself spending WAY to much time on Instagram :0/. It’s such a fun creative outlet, but sometimes to excess. I also love to feel “connected” in a world where far to few fell the need to fill their bodies with nourishing foods. I love to feel as if I’m not the ‘only one out there…’ And IG helps me do that. I’ve enjoyed all your recipe so far as well as your comments and thoughts. Keep up the good work!.
Thank you so much Sloan! Instagram is a fun creative outlet, but it’s easy to spend too much time on there! I’m starting to feel that I need to set some boundaries with myself to limit how much time I spend on there, but it’s hard when it feels so rewarding with connecting with other people. I’ll get some balance there eventually :) thank you so much for your support Sloan! x
We don’t do Valentine’s Day either but I often like to make something fun for the occasion – these pizzas are brilliant!
Spreading love with food is fun for Valentine’s Day, hey? Thanks Kari :)
I love these mini pizzas! Soooo cute! I’m not sure what I’ll be making on V-Day for breakfast, lunch & dinner but I’m pretty sure I’m making my Chocolate Lovers Cake because my bf was craving it the other day and I thought V-Day would be an appropriate day :)
I’m definitely a blogger with an instagram account.. but I am unsure on how to use instagram. On the one hand I want to have a somewhat complete food diary (including not so pretty mobile photos) and on the other hand I want a pretty instagram account. UGH. difficult! I think I’ll just keep on mixing these two.
Me and my boyfriend, we don’t give each other gifts on V-Day, we even said we didn’t want to give each other anything for christmas… but one cracked (him) and then I had to get him something last minute too. Thank god we talk about anything, so I knew he would be getting me something.
Thank you so much Bianca! Ohhh I don’t think I’ve seen your Chocolate Lovers Cake but that does sound perfect for V Day, I’ll have to check out the recipe!
I think the food diary thing on Instagram works pretty well if you have good lighting (as you always do!) – if you look at some accounts that have over 100K followers they do seem to be just a food diary with no special presentation or anything!
We don’t really give each other gifts for Christmas either – I suggested for last Christmas that we buy ourselves each a new iPhone for Christmas but my husband thought that was a lame Christmas present haha.
How pretty! I love the look of your pizzas =) What a great meal to make for your loved ones. I especially like the gorgeous pink beet spread =)
My husband feels the same way you do – why make a big fuss over one day? Our opinions differ though ;p Ah well.
I am definitely a blogger with an IG account. I can’t actually be bothered to remember to check it more than once or twice a week. One of my goals is to try to use it more often and check it more. I’m hopeless with social media. I feel like I could be better with it if it weren’t so phone-based. I would prefer to use it on my laptop, but it’s not laptop friendly.
Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful pizzas at Healthy Vegan Fridays. I’m going to pin & share.
I hope you had a wonderful weekend Kyra!
Aww thank you Kimmy! Haha, if my husband wanted to spoil me on Valentine’s Day, I definitely wouldn’t complain, but I’ve come to realise he’s not really the romantic type so I just keep my expectations low for V Day :P
I think the fact that IG is phone-based makes it more appealing to me – it’s so portable, I can check IG while I’m anywhere – waiting at the checkout, while dinner is cooking…I even spent a good deal of time on IG tonight while on my exercise bike! But at the same time, these can all be negatives – I don’t want to be that person who is constantly glued to their iPhone. Ahhhh social media…sucking my time since 2005 ;)
Oh wow, I don’t know why i didn’t visit your account earlie, but somehow I didn’t rwally know it existedr! :O It’s soo stunning, pretty, awesome, nice, colourful…I just love it! :))) And this recipe looks fantastic! I’ll definitely have to try this soon! :)
Lots of love,
Janina xx
Awww you are so sweet Janina! Thank you for visiting my blog, I really enjoyed exploring yours too <3
These are beautiful Kyra! Love the beet spread idea.
Aww thank you Anjali! That beet spread is seriously amazing, I’ve made it a few times since I posted this recipe last week, I JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF IT! So good :)
These are so pretty and fun. I love beets, what a neat idea for the spread. Thanks for sharing this at Savoring Saturdays linky party!
Beets are so fun, I really should use them more often! Thanks so much Emily, I’ll join you again this week!
We’re the same as you; we don’t do gifts (in fact we don’t buy each other birthday or Christmas gifts either!) but I like to make a special meal, and we do like to snuggle down and watch ‘our’ movie together. Although we don’t need a special day to show our love for each other, it’s a good excuse to make sure we both finish work at a sensible time, and make sure we have an evening to ourselves!
Oh, and re. the Insta dilemma – I’m definitely a blogger with an Instagram account… I should engage with Insta way more than I actually do!
I love your little pizze, and I adore that you’ve put strawberries on them – so cute and yummy! Thank you so much for allowing me to share them on my Perfect Vegan Valentine round-up. The post is now live if you want to check it out (an’ y’know, share it around a bit)!
http://www.yumsome.com/your-perfect-vegan-valentine-25-fantastic-plant-based-recipes/