Category Archives: Pizza

Roasted Veggie Pizza with Hummus + Goat Cheese

October! Where did you come from? It seems like just yesterday I was giving you guys a recap of August. It was another good month here on The Dreaming Foodie. My views nearly tripled from August! I am so unbelievably grateful for every single reader, all the time. Thank you, thank you so so much! I am grateful and very excited to see where October takes us!

Before I get to today’s recipe, let’s do a little review.

September recipes:

Chai Muffins with Pistachios + White Chocolate
Curry Eggplant Pizza
Curry Stuffed Peppers with Chickpeas + Carrots
Go-To Granola
4-Ingredient Pumpkin Smoothie
Mediterranean Pasta

We also planted a garden and celebrated Amanda’s birthday!

I also wanted to share with you some old recipes we’ve made this month.

Loving lately:

Shrimp + Rice + Veggie Cabbage Wraps
Rosemary + Goat Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes
Simple Bruschetta
Summertime Pasta Salad
Smoked Salmon Quiche
Smoky Black Bean + Cilantro Veggie Burgers
Almond Milk

Now, onto a new month with an amazing new recipe!

This recipe is inspired by the cafe where I work. We serve a grilled veggie wrap with grilled veggies, hummus and goat cheese, all wrapped up tight, cut in half and served pretty on a plate.

Every time I make one to serve, I want to eat it myself. It has all the things I love. A ton of different veggies, creamy hummus and the best ever: goat cheese. I think about the wrap all the time and one day I thought, how about making this into a pizza?

I really liked this curry eggplant pizza, but if curry isn’t your thing and eggplant isn’t your thing but you want to try a hummus pizza, this could be your new thing!

We usually grill the veggies at The Cedars House, but to be honest, I’m kind of not ready to use our grill by myself. Greg and I are getting better and better at doing the charcoal thing, but it’s just not time for me to do it myself yet. Being that I make most recipes for this blog during the day while Greg’s gone, I decided to roast the veggies rather than grill them. That being said, if you want to grill the veggies for this pizza, I know that it’d be excellent.

I also made my own hummus for this pizza but you can do what is best for you! I bought a container of hummus at the store for Greg and I and I was just not in love with it at all. I bought it to save time and for convenience, but decided after eating it that I would make an extra effort to make my own from now on. It truly is so easy to make your own hummus and you can control what flavors go into it.

My recipe for hummus was so simple. I used: chickpeas, lemon, salt, pepper and olive oil. I skipped the tahini because I didn’t have any and it is not necessary to use it, in my own opinion. I went heavy on the lemon juice because I just love that lemony flavor in the hummus and I left out fresh garlic because I knew I had put some on both the crust and the veggies.

This is definitely nothing close to a traditional pizza. I baked the crust first, let it cool and then topped it and ate it without putting it back into the oven. The crust was crispy + garlicy, the hummus creamy + lemony and the veggies tender + flavorful. I did not try this myself but I imagine these toppings going great on a pita round. It would be quicker but just as delicious, I think.

Also, after I was done topping the pizza, I “accidentally” had leftover roasted veggies and hummus, and thought it was excellent to dip those veggies in that hummus. Yum. Perfect little snack.

This is a quick weeknight meal made just for you. Go get some veggies, roast them up, spread some hummus, crumble some cheese and enjoy!

Roasted Veggie Pizza with Hummus + Goat Cheese

2013-10-01 07:45:08

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Ingredients

1 pizza crust
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small eggplant
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1 medium bell pepper
1 medium red onion
2 small portobello mushrooms
Olive oil
Garlic salt
Pepper
Goat cheese

For the hummus

1 can chickpeas, 1/2 of the liquid drained
Olive oil
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Salt
Pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400*.
Prepare the crust. I rolled mine out onto a pizza stone, drizzled with olive oil and a minced garlic clove. I baked it in the oven for 20 minutes, until crispy.
While the crust is baking, cut the eggplant, zucchini, squash, pepper, onion and mushrooms into equal size cubes.
Place on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper.
Roast the veggies in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until tender and slightly browned.
While the veggies are roasting, make the hummus.
Combine the chickpeas and lemon juice in a food processor.
Process for about 30 seconds and then drizzle in olive oil, until it has reached your desired consistency.
Taste, and season with salt and pepper.
When the veggies are done roasting, let cool slightly, then spread the hummus over the cooled crust.
Top with roasted veggies and crumbled goat cheese.
Enjoy!

The Dreaming Foodie https://www.thedreamingfoodie.com/

Curry Eggplant Pizza

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I’ve made a pizza for you.

Let me tell you about it.

It has eggplant. And curry hummus. And caramelized onions. And goat cheese. And toasted sesame seeds and fresh cilantro.

Would you like some?

I have been CRAZY about curry lately. I’ve loved the flavor since I first tried it. But lately, I can’t get it out of my mind.

There is a Thai place close to us that has the best curry dishes. My favorite (one I literally think about every single day) is a yellow curry. It is creamy and slightly spicy, and on top of a bowl of rice, heavenly.

And, I’ve been eating curried egg salad lately. I will hard boil some eggs, chop them up and mix with a dab of mayo (this one), a pinch of salt and pepper and a healthy dose of curry powder. I am in love with that.

So, we have had all of this beautiful eggplant from Three Springs and I have been thinking about curry-ing it for a bit now. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do it, but this pizza is the end result.

I made some simple hummus: chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and then: the curry. Yes, this hummus is packed with curry flavor. So, so good.

The hummus acts as the sauce on this pizza. I like this idea because I am always looking for unique alternatives to traditional red sauce pizza. It is a delicious and healthy alternative. I look forward to trying more hummus pizzas!

Also, let’s talk about the extras on this pizza. The toasted sesame seeds and fresh cilantro. Not the main ingredients but equally as important as anything else. The toasted sesame seeds add flavor + crunch and the cilantro adds the most amazing, fresh flavor. These toppings are necessities for this pizza.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Friday night and maybe enjoys some curry eggplant pizza with it!

Curry Eggplant Pizza

2013-09-06 07:42:38

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Ingredients

One pizza crust (your favorite!)
1 large eggplant
Olive oil
1 medium red onion, sliced
3-4 ounces goat cheese
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Large bunch of cilantro

For the curry hummus

1 15-ounce can chickpeas
1/4 cup sesame tahini
1 garlic clove, minced
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Salt and pepper
1 1/4 teaspoons curry powder
3-4 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

For the toasted sesame seeds: preheat the oven to 400*. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and add the sesame seeds. Bake in the preheated oven for 5 minutes, or until slightly golden brown. Set aside.
To make the curry hummus, add the chickpeas, tahini, minced garlic, lemon juice, a pinch of salt and pepper and the curry powder to a food processor.
Process for several minutes, slowly drizzling in the olive oil.
Process until smooth.
Taste, and add more salt, pepper and curry powder to your taste. Set aside.
Slice the eggplant very thin. I found that the thinner the slice, the better it was on the pizza.
Add a drizzle of olive oil to a large pan over medium-high heat.
Once the oil is hot, add the eggplant, in batches, until all eggplant is cooked. It should be cooked on higher heat the entire time so it gets a bit crispy.
Add a drizzle of olive oil to a small pan over medium-high heat.
Add the sliced onion, and cook until golden brown and a bit caramelized.
Spread a layer of hummus over the prepared pizza crust. Top with onions, then cheese, then eggplant.
Cook according to your crusts instructions. Mine was an unbaked pizza crust, so I baked it for about 18 minutes.
Once baked, top the pizza with the toasted sesame seeds and fresh cilantro.
Enjoy!

Notes

Make sure to slice the eggplant thin and cook it over high heat in the pan to get it crispy, sort of like an eggplant "chip."

The Dreaming Foodie https://www.thedreamingfoodie.com/

Mushroom + Onion Pizza with Simple Tomato Sauce

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Tell me, who doesn’t love pizza?

When we can, we have bonfire get-togethers at my mom and dads house. We have my friends, my brothers friends, family, family friends, anyone who can come.

They are always so much fun. There are always several games of bocce ball, can jam, and a new favorite, ping pong. There are plenty of good drinks to go around as well as good food. For a while, we would do what we call “gourmet mountain pies.” We would make mountain pie combos like veggies with feta, fresh raspberries with sweet cream, and apricot with walnuts and Gorgonzola cheese. Yes, they are as good as they sound.

Lately though, we’ve been going the easy route and ordering a bunch of pizza. The normal favorites are buffalo chicken, Philly cheesesteak and pepperoni, but lately, my brother and his friends have been obsessing over mushroom and onion pizza. I tried it, and really love the combo too!

It’s not often that I crave red sauce on pizza. I love it, I really do, and I would gladly eat red sauce pizza at any time. But it seems that when I’m making pizza I put maybe just some olive oil and garlic as the sauce, or some pesto.

But, I’ve been thinking, and I really wanted to create a super simple red sauce that I could easily make anytime the red sauce craving hits.

This sauce is so simple and also customizable. I put 1 tablespoon of sugar in it to add just a touch of sweetness, but I know that a lot of people in my family like sweet red sauce so I would say just add more sugar! Add things, don’t add things, exactly to your taste. The process is easy and simple but make the flavor just for you.

I know I’ve talked a bit about not having a food processor, but I now have one (thanks mom!). That is what makes this sauce so easy. I don’t think that my particular blender would have worked for this because it doesn’t have high enough power, but if you don’t have a food processor, and feel that your blender would work, you could try that.

Also, I highly suggest the mushroom + onion combo. And I highly suggest cooking your veggies for this pizza in wine. O yes. It is so great. But, for all the non-mushroom lovers, still try the sauce, and still cook your toppings of choice in wine. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. 🙂

Ingredients
This is enough for one pizza
1 prepared pizza crust (I used a pre-made one from market)
1 large onion
2 cups mushrooms
Olive oil
White wine
1 – 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese for topping, if desired
For the sauce:
3 large tomatoes
6 oz. tomato paste
2 large garlic cloves
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried basil

For the sauce, add the tomatoes, tomato paste and garlic to a food processor. Process on high, until the sauce is smooth, with only very small chunks.

Add the sauce to a pot over medium heat on the stove. Add the brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, oregano and basil and stir and bring to a simmer. Let the sauce cook, over low heat, while you prepare the rest of the pizza.

Preheat the oven to 400*.

Chop the mushrooms and slice the onion. Add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil to a pan over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and let cook about five minutes, until softened and slightly browned. Add the mushrooms, stir a cook for several more minutes. With the heat still on medium-high, add a good splash of white wine to the veggies. It should simmer and evaporate pretty quickly with the high heat. Add another splash, if desired, and again let it cook away.

Spoon the sauce on the prepared pizza crust. I used about 4 ladle-fulls of sauce, but use as much as you prefer. Top the sauce with cheese. I used about 1-1/4 cup of mozzarella but use as much as you please and your favorite type. Top the pizza with the veggies. I then sprinkled a small amount of grated Parmesan on top of the veggies.

Bake the pizza in the oven for 10-20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and crust is done. My crust was baked and ready to go when I topped it, but got soggy from the sauce so needed 20 minutes to bake. Use your judgement on cooking time depending on your crust.

Enjoy!

Kale + Mint + Cashew Pesto

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You know how people have secret recipes? Or a secret ingredient in a special recipe?

Well I think I just made my first secret ingredient recipe.

And I’m going to share it with you!

It won’t really be a secret. But if I were ever to have a secret recipe, this would have been it.

The very secret ingredient in this pesto? It’s mint!

I don’t think I’ll ever want pesto another way.

Making this was two things: random and kind of scary.

Let’s start with random. I’ve never really made pesto before because I don’t have a food processor and I didn’t think my blender could handle it. But I’ve wanted to make it for so long, so I just crossed my fingers that my blender would work and went for it!

This pesto happened because I had a bunch of random ingredients to use that I thought would make a good pesto. Cashews I bought to have as a snack that never happened. Mint I bought to use in something else but forgot what it was that I was going to make. Kale that I wanted to use for a salad but I thought tasted weird in that particular salad. A half of a lemon left over from making this dressing. This might be good, I thought.

I wasn’t sure. Like I said above, I was a little scared. Sure, a little scared that my blender wouldn’t pull through and make a smooth pesto. But, even more scared about serving Greg pesto with mint in it. He doesn’t like minty things. Things like mint ice cream or mint chocolate anything or mint tea. He says something like “the only thing mint belongs in is gum.”

So, putting mint in his pesto? I wasn’t so sure.

It was sort of like when I was afraid to give him a quesadilla with cream cheese, knowing he doesn’t like cream cheese. That turned out well, and I hoped that this did too.

I used this pesto for Greg and I very simply. I made our favorite noodles (spinach spaghetti noodles) and tossed together the noodles, pesto and some reserved cooking water. I topped the noodles with a sprinkle of Romano cheese. It was divine. Simple and delicious. A ton of flavor from the pesto.

And, Greg liked it. After he said he liked it, I told him there was mint in it. 🙂

The mint adds a hint of freshness to this pesto. It doesn’t stand out too much, but when you taste the pesto, it’s like there is something in it that is so refreshing, and of course that is the mint.

I hope that you enjoy this pesto. 🙂

Ingredients
4 cups raw kale, any variety (I used Tuscan kale)
2 small handfuls fresh mint (I used two stalks of fresh mint)
1/2 cup cashews
1 garlic clove
3/4 cup olive oil
Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
1/4 cup Romano cheese
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

To make the kale softer and easier to process or blend, blanch the kale first. Do this by preparing a bowl of very cold water. Then bring a pot of water to a boil. Once the pot of water is boiling, place the kale in it. Keep the kale in the water for about 1 minute, no longer. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the kale to the bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Then place the kale into a colander and squeeze it to remove any excess liquid. Transfer the kale to paper towels to dry off a bit.

Once the kale is dry, place all ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Serve over pasta, with bread, vegetable or in quiche.

Enjoy!

Asparagus, Kale + Mushroom Skillet Pizza

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What goes together better than Friday and pizza?

If you ask me, not much. Friday + pizza + perhaps a beer, if that’s what you’re into (I am).

This great combination just got even better. Pizza made in my beautiful cast iron skillet, with slightly sweet caramelized onion sauce, fresh asparagus, crunchy kale, balsamic mushrooms and salty parmesan cheese. O yes, Friday (or any day) is even better with this pizza.

The inspiration for this pizza came from two places.

The method came from the great Bev Cooks blog. I love Bev’s blog. She makes food that looks amazing and she is seriously hilarious. You have got to check out her blog. And this pizza idea? Brilliant.

The flavor combination was inspired by a great restaurant, Earth Bread + Brewery in Mt. Airy, Pa. Earth is the coolest little restaurant. It was the first restaurant that Greg and I tried in Mt. Airy and we were obsessed from the very first bite of hearth-baked flatbread. Earth makes flatbreads and they make them well. They are cooked in a wood-fire oven with ingredient combinations that just blow your mind.

We haven’t had anything there we don’t like, including their selection of small-batch, house-brewed beers.

One night not too long ago, we tried their “special” flatbread of the night. It had an onion marmalade as the sauce, kale, asparagus and mushrooms. Well, not too much later, I tried recreating it and this is what I came up with.

The delicious ingredients mixed with the skillet method makes for one great pizza.

You have got to try it!

Ingredients
1 ball of pizza dough
Olive oil
1 large red onion
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 bunch of asparagus
2 cups chopped kale
4 oz. mushrooms
4 oz. parmesan cheese

First work on caramelizing the onion. Slice the onion thin. Add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a pan over medium high heat on the stove. Add the sliced onion and a pinch of salt, stir and let cook about 5 minutes or until onions begin to soften. Add the balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar and brown sugar and stir well to incorporate into onions. Turn down heat and cook on medium low, stirring occasionally, until onions are caramelized, about 25-30 minutes.

While onions are caramelizing, prep all of your veggies. Preheat oven to 350*. Chop the asparagus into thirds.Toss asparagus and kale with olive oil to coat the veggies well and roast in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Set aside.

Slice the mushrooms. Toss with olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Roast in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Set aside.

Once onions are caramelized add to a food processor or mini food chopper (what I used). Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil with the onions and process until they are completely broken down and are thick and “sauce” like.

Now get ready to assemble the pizza. You can read the skillet method in-depth here. Place your cast iron skillet on your stove over high heat. Preheat your oven’s broiler. On a floured surface, roll out the pizza dough to fit into the skillet. Mine was 8 inches. Bev used a pizza skin to transfer her pizza from the counter top to the skillet. I don’t have a pizza skin so I used an extra wide spatula. Transferring the uncooked pizza from the counter to the skillet is tricky, so make sure you have a plan before you add the toppings.

For the pizza, spread a thick layer of the caramelized onion sauce onto the rolled out dough. Top with cheese. Then add on the asparagus, kale and mushrooms. Transfer the pizza to the hot skillet. Quickly transfer the skillet to the oven and broil. Bev said her pizza took 2 to 3 minutes, however, mine took around 10. Keep in mind that cooking time will vary depending on your oven.

Once the dough is cooked through and crust slightly crispy, remove the pizza from the oven, slice and enjoy!

*Notes:
-You can definitely make your own pizza dough like Bev did in the link
-I used a store-bought pizza dough that was 8 oz.
-You could also use the asparagus, kale and mushroom combination on a pizza without using the skillet method
-Do what works for you!

The Dreaming Foodie

Sharing dreams. On food and life.

Category Archives: Pizza

Roasted Veggie Pizza with Hummus + Goat Cheese

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Curry Eggplant Pizza

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Mushroom + Onion Pizza with Simple Tomato Sauce

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Kale + Mint + Cashew Pesto

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Asparagus, Kale + Mushroom Skillet Pizza

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