When I browsing the most important part of the Sunday paper [read: I dug through the paper for the Target weekly] I saw an ad about candy corn. Candy corn! I guess it is nearly mid-October, after all, so although I’m not that into candy corn, I am into being festive for holidays. Halloween is fast approaching, and so why not plan a fun dish to serve at my imaginary Halloween party with my dogs and all my imaginary friends.

I thought that candy corn kind of looked like an awkward piece of pizza. And then I decided that I should make a candy-corn inspired pizza! And then I was like OMG BEST IDEA EVER! And declared myself a genius before I spent roughly 40 seconds trying to use a spoon to cut my veggie burger.

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I next spent an entire hour long walk with Millie dreaming up all the different ways I could make this candy corn themed pizza. My imagination was literally running wild. Sure, I could do something boring like use different artificially colored yellow and orange and white cheeses, but that just isn’t my style now is it? I wanted to make something new, different, and delicious. So that’s just what I did.

Then I went to make the pizza and realized we have no pizza pan in this house. That’s awkward. I guess it got lost or thrown out when my mom moved. I got a lil sad and then decided that life would move on, and I made it a tart instead. Next time, pizza.

The sauce is sweet-spicy and definitely different from your classic red [in a good way]. The roasted onions take on that sweet roasted oniony flavor which tempers the spicy pepper nicely. Potatoes on pizza are ALWAYS a life choice, and as sweet potatoes are my favorite kind of potatoes and also happen to be orange, they made their way on the pizza. The white tip is roasted onions. If I had cauliflower on hand, it would have gone on too. Yums.

If you want to add cheese, add it under the toppings. This is totally allowed and actually makes for a more interesting taste/flavor combo. In fact, I believe once you start baking your cheese under your toppings on pizza you will never look back. Bless u.

The key to this pizza is a little forethought: just throw all the stuff in the oven and let it roast. Meanwhile make the polenta crust, assemble it all together, and slice so it has yellow-orange-white from crust-to-tip so each slice sort of resembles a piece of candy corn. Right? Right. Cheers to festive food that isn’t full of crap! Because enough candy will come on Halloween :-).

Candy Corn Inspired Veggie Tart: Corn Crust, Roasted Pepper Sauce, with Roasted Onions, Sweet Potatoes & Peppers

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 90 minutes total

Level: Easy

Ingredients – Pizza Crust:

1 cup cornmeal
2 1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chia seeds or flaxseed, or an egg

Ingredients – Sauce:

1 cup red bell peppers
1/2 cup onions
1 cup orange or yellow bell peppers
1 cup tomatoes (fresh or canned)
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon curry powder or cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients – Toppings:

1 large yellow bell pepper, cubed
1 large sweet potato, thinly sliced
5-6 validena onions
olive oil for drizzling
feta crumbles or nutritional yeast for sprinkling (optional)
balsamic glaze (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farhenheit. Chop red bell peppers, onions, orange bell peppers, and validena onions. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and place in the oven until vegetables are roasted and slightly browned, 20-30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, make crust by combing water, cornmeal, and salt in a medium saucepan on the stove at medium heat. Whisk constantly until thickens, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer for another 4-8 minutes until thick and dough-like.

3. Remove vegetables from oven. Place orange bell pepper, onions (reserve several validena onions for garnish), red bell pepper, tomato, garlic clove, olive oil, curry powder, and salt in a food processor. Pulse until a sauce is formed.

4. Peel sweet potato and slice into thin coins, or slice on a madeline. Dice yellow bell pepper.

5. Grease a pizza dish or pie dish and thinly and evenly spread a thin layer of cornmeal crust.

6. Top crust with a layer of sauce.

7. Garnish with a layer of sweet potatoes.

8. Top with more sweet potatoes in the center layer, yellow bell peppers on the outside, and onions or cauliflower in the middle.

9. Brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle sea salt.

10. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until crust is crispy and vegetables are roasted, 25-30 minutes.

11. Remove from oven and sprinkle with goat cheese, feta cheese, or nutritional yeas, and/or balsamic glaze (to make balsamic glaze, simply slowly cook balsamic on the stovetop until thickened to the consistency of maple syrup, while stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. it creates a delightful, sweet, sticky version of balsamic vinegar!)

Thanks to Beyond Sushi, I have a several month long obsession with black rice.

So what is black rice? Well, I will tell you.

Not only is it more dramatic looking and exotic than white rice, it’s a heck-of-a-lot healthier, too. It’s even better for you (and more chic) than brown rice. It’s much higher in fiber, because the rice kernel isn’t milled offed and polished the way it is in white rice. It also contains a lot of B vitamins that white rice is stripped down of (even though some are fortified back in, it’s not the same!), as well as manganese, phosphorous, iron, and all (yes, ALL) of the essential amino acids. Umm, hello vegetarian-friendly nutritional powerhouse!

As of about a month ago, it’s available for $2.69 per bag at Trader Joe’s ! HOLLA!

It’s also bursting with antioxidants. It contains anthocyanin – a water soluble antioxidant which colors things red, purple, or blue, depending on pH. This is what gives the rice that that blacky hue and makes it bleed purple (just like an NYU violet! #fightonNYUviolets #intimidating).

It’s pink in acids, purple in neutral (ie water), and greenish-yellow in alkaline. So hypothetically you could even use black rice to test pHs of solutions. The possibilities with this stuff are endless. Anthocyanin also gives blueberries, acai, cherries, and concord grapes their colors. It’s also in a lot of flowers. Basically, it’s pretty.

I made this for a graduation lunch I had with some lovely friends of mine. Regarding this lunch, someone told me no one has parties for college graduation. I say I just like reasons to cook nice things for people. Living alone, I feel weird taking a lot of time or buying a lot of ingredients to make myself fancier or complicated things.

It feels frivolous. It’s not. I’m going to start #treatingmyself more. Anyways, in my opinion any small accomplishment is worth celebrating with food. Next time you get a cavity filled or an A on your test, hit me up. I’d love to cook you something yummy. Like this black rice salad.

I was nervous that people wouldn’t like this. I actually had a mild panic right before all the people arrived like OMG ALL THIS FOOD IS WEIRD AND HEALTHY WHAT IF PEOPLE DON’T ACCEPT ALL THIS HEALTHY FOOD. WHAT IF SOMEONE JUST WANTS A DAMN CHEESEBURGER OR SOME WINGS.

After a few deep breathes I realized it was too late to do anything except serve everything I made. And everything was well received, especially this salad. This post is now getting way too long and I bet no one is even reading anymore so I’m finna wrap things up.

This black rice salad really great for parties actually. It looks pretty. It looks impressive. It’s like tasting the rainbow in a non-Skittles way. And it tastes ah-MAZING. It can be served as a side dish or an entree. Whatever way you make it just make sure you do.

Rainbow Black Rice Salad

Ingredients for the Salad:

2 to 2.5 cups black rice
one large red bell pepper, diced
one large green bell pepper, diced (can also use orange or yellow, whatever is around)
one large mango, cubed
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
8-10 green onions, chopped
crushed peanuts and/or cashews (about 1/4 cup or more if you’d like, also can be omitted)

Ingredients for the Dressing:

Note: I eyeballed this. Use about 3 tablespoons each oil + 3 tablespoons lime juice with 1 tablespoon honey as a guideline

1 part vegetable oil
1 part lime juice
dash white vinegar
honey to taste (enough to emulsify and sweeten)
salt
pepper
dash of sriracha or red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:

1. Cook black rice as instructed on package. The package will probably tell you to use a ratio of 1:2 for rice:water. I suggest using a little less. And not cooking it until it’s mushy. The salad works better when it’s a little al dente.