While traditional chefs create their dishes in a systematic manner based on a real understanding of the fundamentals of food preparation- to such an extent that many of the world’s best chefs, like Spain’s Ferran Adria, France’s Pierre Gagnaire and the UK’s Heston Blumenthal are associated with Molecular Gastronomy (a study of the physical and chemical processes that occur in cooking)-, there are some recipes born from a convergence of interests.

Or at least, that is how I would describe my very-un-recipe-like formula for making a homemade spelt, veggie pizza. It was motivated by my desire to bring more vegetarian dishes into our kitchen. Added to this, I wanted to use the spelt flour I’d bought at the bulk store (where I refill all my essentials like oatmeal, dried beans, nuts, paprika, peppercorns, etc).

The final motivation for my entirely invented pizza pie recipe was my recent interest in making a dough without industrial yeast. I’d been following those in the movement- like those at the breadstore Barcelona Reykjavik- advocating the use of a ferment (like a sourdough) instead of a yeast in order to promote the growth of beneficial probiotics in our foods.

While I didn’t have a true ferment, I did have baking soda and baking powder, which according to some help give a dough a bit of life without a traditional yeast. And plus, it was the only thing I had around the house (a common trait of most of the ingredients of this pizza).

In this video, I (Kirsten Dirksen), with some help from my 2-year-old daughter, show you how we make our yeast-free, spelt, vegetarian pizza in just about 45 minutes (including cook time) before we sit down to eat it.