I always crave pizza but I am trying to cut back on carbs, so when I saw little street taco sized whole wheat tortillas at the store, I was inspired to revisit a recipe I created a few years back for Whole Wheat Mini Pizzas. This time I went in a slightly different direction, making flatbreads that are not very pizza like at all—no grated cheese, no tomatoes, no sauce, no meat.
Right now it’s corn season and the combination of corn, smoked salmon, a little crunchy cucumber and goat cheese is a real winner. What takes this recipe from good to even better, is the addition of a bit of Chili Onion Crunch. Chili crisp has been a condiment I’ve been seeing all over the internet and I finally bought a jar from Trader Joe’s. It was so good I decided to do a little taste test and compare it to the more well known Lao Ganma brand.
A comparison—
Lao Ganma Spicy Chili Crisp, 7.4 ounces, $2.19. available online or in Asian markets
Ingredients: soybean oil, chili, onion, fermented soybeans, MSG, salt, sugar, prickly ash powder, sulfur dioxide and sodium sulfite
- Very oily and very crunchy, more salty than sweet, not much heat at all
Trader Joe’s Chili Onion Crunch, 6 ounces, $3.99 availabe at Trader Joe's stores
Ingredients: olive oil, dried onion, dried garlic, dried red bell pepper, crushed chili pepper, toasted dried onion, sea salt, natural flavors, paprika oleoresin (color)
- Fine texture, more crisp than crunchy, not very oily, balanced sweet and salt, heat on the back end
Both are delicious, but I prefer the vegetal sweetness, texture and heat of the Trader Joe’s Chili Onion Crunch. I also appreciate that it doesn't have any artificial ingredients. Also, doesn’t garlic make everything better?
Fresh Corn & Smoked Salmon Flatbread
Serves 4
4 small whole wheat tortillas
1/4 cup soft goat cheese
2 teaspoons water
1 small Persian cucumber, thinly sliced
1 ear corn on the cob
4 slices smoked salmon, torn into bite sized pieces
2 teaspoons or to taste, chili oil, crisp or crunch
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Strip the corn off the cob and place 2-3 tablespoons of the corn on a piece of foil. Prick the tortillas with a fork to minimize puffing. Place the tortillas on a non stick pan along wit the corn on the foil, and bake for 5 minutes, flip the tortillas at about the halfway point. You want the tortilla to be crisp and browned, but not burnt.
In a small bowl mix the goat cheese with the water in order to make a spreadable texture.
Spread each tortilla with a tablespoon of goat cheese, top with the salmon and cucumber slices and scatter about 2 teaspoons of the corn. Drizzle the flatbread with the chile oil.
Enjoy!
