Fall Harvest Salad Pizza
This Fall Harvest Salad Pizza celebrates all the best fresh autumn produce. Use a roasted butternut squash and maple syrup purée as the “sauce” and top with a heaping helping of salad with chicken, cheese and apples!
So, I think it’s time to have our annual heart-to-heart again. Just hear me out, OK?
I don’t like pumpkin.
It’s considered sacrilegious in the food blogger community, but I’m willing to admit the truth. It’s just not a flavor that appeals to me. I made a few pumpkin recipes in the early days of this blog to try to fit in with the cool kids, but the truth was, my heart just wasn’t in it.
But please don’t leave.
Pumpkin being the sole exception, I LOVE fall flavors and traditions. Against all odds, I love butternut squash. And apples. And cider and donuts. And boots. And big fluffy scarves. So, let’s still be friends. But maybe you just find another friend for pumpkin recipes, and I’ll pretend to look the other way. Deal?
As a peace offering, I made you a pizza. Because pizza is something we can all agree on. I find that pizza is the ultimate blank slate for creativity in the kitchen. I don’t feel obligated at all to go the traditional red sauce + mozz + pepperoni route (although a classic Detroit stye pizza never hurt anybody).
I basically open my fridge and see what ingredients need to be used up (my chicken pizza recipe and rustic pizza recipe are examples of this), or hit the farmer’s market to see what’s in season, and use that as a guideline for how to build my newest pizza creation.
So for this Fall Harvest Salad Pizza, we’ve got a classic pizza crust topped with a puree of roasted butternut squash and maple syrup (yes it looks like baby food but let’s ignore that part). And since I’m a big fan of the salad pizza (it’s an entree and a side, all in one!), I piled a bunch of organicgirl 50/50! greens on top.
I had a leftover chicken breast, so that went on there too. And that apple that had been hanging out in the fruit bin. And I picked up some ricotta salata cheese, which is a crumbly Italian cheese with a serious salty punch, which balances out the sweetness of the butternut puree. Feel free to use feta cheese if you can’t find ricotta salata. Balsamic drizzle and red pepper flake sprinkle encouraged.
organicgirl’s 50/50! mix is a perfect combination of sweet baby spring mix (no bitter leaves) and tender baby spinach. To learn more, be sure to connect with organicgirl on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
This Fall Harvest Salad Pizza celebrates all the best fresh autumn produce. Use a roasted butternut squash and maple syrup purée as the "sauce" and top with a heaping helping of salad with chicken, cheese and apples!Fall Harvest Salad Pizza
Ingredients
Instructions
Disclosure: This was a sponsored post written by me on behalf of organicgirl. Sponsored posts help me pay for the costs associated with this blog (groceries…lots of groceries), and help support me as I pursue a career in recipe development and food photography. All opinions are 100% my own.
Lori, I knew we were kindred spirits – I don’t like pumpkin either. All the raving about it by food bloggers drives me nuts. Butternut is by far my favorite winter squash. And I really like the idea of using it as the “sauce” for this pizza. The pizza will go onto my list of things to definitely make. I like different, original pizza ideas – especially ones that don’t use tomato sauce.
Susan, I’ve always felt like we were kindred spirits as well, and this confirms it! Honestly, I feel like food bloggers have made pumpkin into way too big of a thing by putting it in EVERYTHING. It’s just too much. Anyway . . .
Glad to hear you like different pizza ideas, too! I feel like it’s such a good blank canvas to just do whatever you want, with. And most of the time, I can skip the tomato sauce, too 😛