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 sweet dumpling squash soup. 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.
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!
Ingredients
- 3 cups (12 ounces) cubed butternut squash (about 1-inch cubes)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 1 ball (1 pound) of homemade pizza dough, or store-bought
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 roasted chicken breast, chopped (left over from another meal or from a rotisserie chicken)
- 2 cups organicgirl 50/50! greens
- 1 apple, sliced
- 1/4 cup crumbled ricotta salata cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- Balsamic glaze and red pepper flakes, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place squash on rimmed baking pan. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Transfer to oven and roast 15 to 20 minutes or until squash is tender, stirring occasionally. Remove squash from oven.
- Place pizza stone in oven and increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F.
- Toss and stretch pizza dough into a 14-inch circle. Once oven is preheated, carefully remove pizza stone from oven and spray with cooking spray. Carefully place dough on stone. Transfer to oven and bake 12 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place squash in bowl of food processor fitted with blade attachment. Add maple syrup and 1 tablespoon oil. Blend until smooth.
- Remove crust from oven and spread evenly with squash mixture. Divide chicken evenly over squash mixture. Return pizza to oven and bake for an additional 6 minutes or until squash and chicken are warmed through.
- Meanwhile, place greens, apple and cheese in medium bowl. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil; toss until well combined.
- Remove pizza from the oven; top with salad and thyme. Cut and serve with balsamic glaze and red pepper flakes, if desired.
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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 😛