Try this chickpea pizza crust if you are looking for a high fiber and high protein pizza option. I’m taking chickpea flour and making it into a gluten-free pizza crust that your family won’t be able to resist. Feel free to make a socca pizza Margherita or go for a pizza with the works! This chickpea flour pizza crust is perfect with a variety of toppings.
A couple of months ago, a friend alerted me to the idea of a pizza crust made with chickpeas. I found the concept intriguing, and it’s been hanging in the back of my mind.
After all, chickpea pastas such as Banza pasta have become quite popular in recent years. Why don’t we hear more about chickpea pizza crust?
We’ve tried a variety of alternative (and often gluten-free) pizza crusts over the years. Some were store-bought varieties, while others were created from popular recipes. Some of my unique pizza crusts have included:
- Air fryer frozen cauliflower pizza crust
- Broccoli and kale pizza crust (yes, it was green!)
- Butternut squash pizza crust
- A crust made with the Fat Head pizza dough recipe (This was an almond flour and cheese-based low-carb crust. An adapted version of the dough makes excellent cheese keto crackers!)
- A “meatza” crust (This is a carnivore crust made of cheese, eggs, and ground beef. The results were incredibly filling and kind of like a pizza burger minus the bun.)
As you can see, something that is absent from this list is a chickpea flour pizza crust. It’s amazing that I missed chickpea pizza dough, since my family loves chickpeas. So, let’s get to this chickpea pizza crust recipe, shall we?
Jump to:
- ⭐ What is chickpea pizza crust made of? (It’s socca!)
- 🍕 How to Make Chickpea Pizza Crust
- 🔥 How to Make Chickpea Flour Pizza Dough with Yeast
- 🌡 How to Store Leftover Chickpea Pizza
- 🤔 What to Serve with Chickpea Flour Pizza
- 📋 Chickpea Pizza Crust Calories
- 🍞 How many carbs are in chickpea pizza crust?
- 👨⚕️ Chickpea Pizza Crust Nutrition
- 💭 Expert Tips from a Dietitian
- FAQs
- 👩🏻🍳 Other Pizza Recipes
- The Disclaimer…
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
⭐ What is chickpea pizza crust made of? (It’s socca!)
You can already find chickpeas being made into flatbreads in certain cuisines, so there’s no need to invent something completely new. Unleavened chickpea pancakes, also known as socca, are a traditional dish in Nice, France.
In parts of Italy, a similar pancake made with chickpeas goes by other names, including farinata and cecina. It seems like a small stretch to try throwing some pizza toppings on there!
One of the best things about socca is how simple it is to make. All you really need is chickpea flour, olive oil, and water, and all of this deliciousness can be yours. Spices and herbs are a nice touch for a chickpea flour pizza crust recipe, but not required.
I was making a lot of socca early in the pandemic when we were trying to limit our grocery store visits. With my teen home all day long, I realized that I needed to have a lot more snacks on hand than was typical. Socca served as a great between-meal filler (and helped to use the excessive amount of chickpea flour I had).
Even if yeast, white flour, and sugar are missing from stores, you can make socca. And with this recipe, you can also have pizza!
To make this dish, I started with my go-to socca recipe from The Kitchn. However, you can’t just use this recipe as-is.
We tried it. The flatbread is really too soft for pizza. (Unless, that is, you don’t mind eating your pizza with a fork.)
No worries if fork pizza is not your ideal. After a bit of trial-and-error, and a too soggy pizza or two, I think I’ve really nailed this chickpea pizza crust thing. We ate the failed chickpea pizza experiments so that you don’t have to.
We’re generous like that.
🍕 How to Make Chickpea Pizza Crust
Like most gluten-free pizza crusts, this crust made with chickpea flour does have a different texture than those made with white flour. However, it’s still yummy, and you don’t have to eat it with a fork!
I have two main tips to get a grain-free chickpea crust that is sufficiently firm on the bottom without sogginess. Ready?
First, heat the crust in a cast iron skillet on the stovetop for 3-5 minutes BEFORE popping it in the oven to broil. This is the key to make a crust that holds up to pizza toppings. The downside of this method is that the thick batter may form large bubbles on the stovetop.
This is no big deal though. Just pat the bubbles down with the back of a spoon before adding your tomato sauce. The sauce brings me to my second important tip.
Second tip: don’t get overly generous with your toppings that add a lot of moisture. I found ½ cup of tomato sauce was too much.
Add your tomato sauce sparingly! One-third cup looks like it will be too little when you spread it on, but it will be perfect.
Also, there’s no need to top your pizza as I did in the recipe below. Use your favorite toppings, but make sure you don’t add too much moisture!
For example, if you make a Margherita pizza, ensure your fresh mozzarella slices are dry. Pat them a bit with a clean paper towel if you have to.
Yum!!!
What was I saying? I think I’m getting hungry. Haha
🔥 How to Make Chickpea Flour Pizza Dough with Yeast
You could make a chickpea flour pizza crust with yeast, but why would you want to? This garbanzo pizza crust recipe has no leavening like yeast or baking powder. It’s basically an unleavened flat bread, and it works great for pizza.
So, make life easier on yourself and skip the chickpea flour yeast pizza dough. Since chickpea flour is a gluten-free flour, you’ll need to use a mix of flours and starches to get the yeast dough to hold together. This is the best chickpea flour pizza crust recipe, because the only specialty flour you need is chickpea flour.
🌡 How to Store Leftover Chickpea Pizza
Leftover chickpea pizza can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days (remove fresh basil). You can reheat chickpea flour pizza using the reheat pizza in air fryer directions to make it crispy again. In short, heat the topped chickpea pizza at 400F (200C) for 3 minutes (air fryer ovens: use top rack).
🤔 What to Serve with Chickpea Flour Pizza
The best chickpea pizza side dishes are the same sort of sides that go with regular pizza. Here are some ideas for what goes with chickpea flatbread pizza:
- Vegan Spinach Salad
- Air Fryer Eggplant Fries (Keto)
- Costco Cauliflower Rice
- Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi
- Air Fryer Garlic Bread
📋 Chickpea Pizza Crust Calories
How many calories in chickpea pizza crust? This chickpea pizza recipe has 533 calories per serving (without toppings except the pizza sauce and mozzarella). The toppings I used add 73 calories per serving.
The precise calories for your chickpea flour pizza crust depends on how the crust is made, the toppings, and your portion size.
🍞 How many carbs are in chickpea pizza crust?
This chickpea pizza crust has 36.1 grams net carbs per serving, or 37.7 grams net carbs with pizza toppings. Though this is chickpea pizza crust with no flour, it is not keto. You may be able to fit this pizza into more relaxed low carb diets (e.g., diabetic carbohydrate exchanges).
👨⚕️ Chickpea Pizza Crust Nutrition
Here’s the nutrition info for this chickpea crust pizza (tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese toppings only):
- Calories: 533
- Total fat: 30.2g
- Saturated fat: 7.8g
- Cholesterol: 30mg
- Sodium: 1041.7mg
- Total carbohydrate: 47.3g
- Fiber: 11.2g
- Net carbs: 36.1g
- Total sugar: 3.7g
- Protein: 21.3g
- Vitamin A: 7.1%DV
- Vitamin C: 0%DV
- Potassium: 910mg
- Iron: 27.7% DV
- Calcium: 39.7% DV
To make your chickpea flour pizza crust vegan, all you need to do is use vegan cheese alternatives and other vegan pizza toppings. Easy!
💭 Expert Tips from a Dietitian
This is a level 3 recipe (weight maintenance and active lifestyles). The calorie count on this recipe is for half of this small pizza. This is a realistic portion of four slices (or two slices, depending on how you cut it).
I’ve given this dish the bump to level 3 due to the presence of flour. It may be easier to create the calorie deficit needed for weight loss by limiting products made with flour. That said, the chickpea flour here does offer more filling protein and healthy fiber than a classic white flour crust.
If you did want to lighten up this meal, I would do the following:
- Cut back to a half portion of the pizza (¼ of the pizza)
- Add a side salad of non-starchy veggies (no croutons, cheese, etc.)
- Add 1-2 tablespoons of a low-calorie, low-oil dressing to the salad
- Consider adding more non-starchy veggies to the salad and/or a lean protein if the suggestions above don’t feel satisfying enough to you.
I don’t recommend trying to make chickpea flour pizza crust oil-free to cut calories. The oil ensures your pizza slices release from the pan easily.
This chickpea flour pizza crust without yeast has anti-inflammatory properties and is an excellent source of iron. Using pizza toppings with vitamin C (such as zucchini or red peppers) can help increase iron absorption.
If you experience bloating with chickpeas, try consuming them in smaller amounts. The oligosaccharides in chickpeas can cause digestive discomfort in some people. When using dried chickpeas, some report that soaking them prior to cooking helps minimize the GI issues.
FAQs
You can find Banza chickpea pizza crust at many popular grocery stores in the U.S. This includes Walmart, Target, Stop & Shop, Winn Dixie, and Publix. You can also purchase it online at Amazon.
Here are the ingredients for Banza plain crust pizza: Chickpeas, Water, Tapioca, Cocoa Butter, Olive Oil, Less than 2% of: Yeast, Oregano, Garlic Powder, Salt, Date Powder, Sunflower Lecithin, Xanthan Gum, and Baking Powder.
Yes, you can make pizza crust with canned chickpeas that are pureed. You’ll need to add a binder, such as flour. Canned chickpea pizza slices may fall apart easily, so making a chickpea flour crust might be better.
Chickpea flour (AKA garbanzo bean flour, gram flour, or besan) has a mild bean flavor. It works well in sweets such as cakes, as well as savory foods like falafel and pakoras.
Don’t soak the chickpea flour in this recipe. The added moisture will cause your pizza crust to fall apart. You may soak chickpea flour if the recipe calls for it.
No, don’t eat chickpea flour or chickpeas raw. They are very bitter and contain substances that may cause digestive disturbance. Canned chickpeas are precooked and ready to eat.
Chickpea flour is likely not appropriate for a low FODMAP diet (source), though small amounts of canned chickpeas may be ok. Interestingly, sprouting may actually increase the FODMAPs in chickpeas (source).
Gram flour pizza base, socca pizza, and garbanzo bean pizza crust are other names for chickpea pizza.
👩🏻🍳 Other Pizza Recipes
If a more traditional pizza crust sounds better to you, don’t miss my spelt flour pizza dough recipe. It’s a great choice for those who prefer a thin and crisp crust (though it’s not appropriate for gluten-free diets). Here are some other recipes for pizza:
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The Disclaimer…
All recipes on this website may or may not be appropriate for you, depending on your medical needs and personal preferences. Consult with a registered dietitian or your physician if you need help determining the dietary pattern that may be best for you.
The nutrition information is an estimate provided as a courtesy. It will differ depending on the specific brands and ingredients that you use. Calorie information on food labels may be wildly inaccurate, so please don't sweat the numbers too much.
For more information on how the three recipe levels may help with a weight management goal, refer to my overnight oats no sugar post. Let's get cooking!
📖 Recipe
Chickpea Pizza Crust Recipe (Chickpea Flour Pizza Dough Base)
Ingredients
For chickpea pizza crust (adapted from The Kitchn):
- 120 grams chickpea flour (about 1 cup; weigh it for best results)
- 1 cup water
- 2½ tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
To top chickpea pizza:
- ⅓ cup pizza or tomato sauce (choose one with no added sugar)
- 3 ounces shredded mozzarella 85 grams
- other pizza toppings of choice optional (I used 1 tablespoon sun-dried tomatoes, 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, 7 slices pepperoni, 2 tablespoons sliced olives, and fresh basil)
Instructions
- Whisk the chickpea flour, water, dried basil, dried oregano, salt, and 1½ tablespoons of the olive oil together in a bowl. Keep whisking until the mixture is thoroughly combined without lumps. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450°F (232°C). During the last five minutes of step one, turn your oven to high broil. Put an 11-inch (27.9 cm) cast iron skillet in the oven to heat it up.
- Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet and swirl to coat the bottom. Pour in the chickpea flour batter and (carefully!) tilt the skillet so the batter completely covers the bottom. If it's too thick, quickly spread the batter around with the back of a spoon.
- Heat the skillet on the stovetop over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes. It's fine if large bubbles form in the batter.
- Next, place the skillet one-third down from the top of the oven. Broil on high for approximately 5 minutes. Your chickpea crust should be firm and nearly finished cooking.
- Remove the crust from the oven. Let any air bubbles deflate a bit. You can pat them down with the back of a spoon if needed to flatten the crust. Thinly spread the sauce on the crust. It is important to not add too much sauce to your pizza, this will make it soggy.
- Sprinkle the mozzarella on your pizza, then top with other toppings (except fresh basil, if using).
- Return the pizza to the oven and broil on high for an additional 3 minutes. The cheese should melt.
- Let the pizza cool a bit before garnishing with the optional basil leaves and cutting into slices.
- I had no problem cutting the pizza into ¼s. If your slices are falling apart, cut the pizza into 8 slices instead. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Cut back to a half portion of the pizza (¼ of the pizza)
- Add a side salad of non-starchy veggies (no croutons, cheese, etc.)
- Add 1-2 tablespoons of a low-calorie, low-oil dressing to the salad
- Consider adding more non-starchy veggies to the salad and/or a lean protein if the suggestions above don’t feel satisfying enough to you.
Nutrition
Pat says
I made a similar recipe with 1/2 cup buckwheat flour and 1/2 cup water with 1/2 tsp italian spices ,1 tsp olive oil . I whisked it together . pout into fry pan like a crepe , Cook a few minutes . Turn off , let sit . Then turn over and cook a little more . It's a thin crust and ready to top with favorite toppings . Be careful with the moisture of your toppings . Enjoy
I also eat gluten free.
Summer Yule says
That sounds like a wonderful idea for a gluten-free pizza crust! Thank you for visiting and leaving a recipe rating! 😀
Brian Hardin says
Great idea! My Mom can’t eat gluten so this would be ideal for her. Fantastic tip about avoiding topping with excessive moisture as well. Thanks for posting!
Summer Yule says
A lot of people are on gluten-free diets, so it can help to have other options! Thank you for dropping in 🙂
Brian Hardin says
Always enjoy your posts!
Summer Yule says
Thank you so much! I don't know if you saw my comment before but your kimchi video was amazingly well-done!
Brian Hardin says
Wow! Thanks! I really appreciate that!
Terrified Amateur says
Now you've gone and piqued my curiosity, Summer, as cauliflower is the only "alternative" type of crust I've tried, and I was positively impressed. Looking forward to the same with your idea, something I would've been hard-pressed to contemplate before cauliflower won me over.
I like how your innovations produce a crispy crust, something that will hold its own against the rigors of pizzahood.
As for toppings, well, my own site will feature pizza one month or another, and the choices, currently are between me and the pie. All will be revealed then (amidst much disappointment for sure), but for now allow me to build the "suspense!"
Summer Yule says
I look forward to seeing your spin on pizza! Pizza recipes tend to be fun to test because let's face it, even "bad" pizza tends to be pretty good!
I was recently experimenting with some skillet to oven sourdough pizza crust recipes. Yeast is still hard to obtain so having a lot of alternatives can be helpful!
Terrified Amateur says
Most assuredly, Summer!
I just ordered a pound of baker's yeast from Amazon, because I tired of being inspired to try something, only to have that enthusiasm founder on empty store shelves.
So, mid(ish)-crisis, everyone's making bread, hence the sudden scarcity? That's all I can figure.
Summer Yule says
Yeast is the last thing I haven't been able to get! I'm still holding out because I think a pound would last the rest of my life (and beyond LMAO).
Are you planning on splitting your order with people? You'd think with the popularity of low-carb diets the yeast would be back in stock by now. Apparently plenty of us are still eating bread!