This would be our second time enjoying this year’s greens from our garden – spinach & Swiss chard. It’s also the second variation of this pizza… but small changes can make a big difference!

This pizza was fresh and delicious, a great option for the summer.  Even though the greens star in this pizza, the plum sauce is the supporting ingredient that gives it an unexpected flare that truly sets this pizza apart from others. Here is what you’ll need.

Dough :
1  ¹/3 cups warm water
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet)
3 ½+ cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 scant tablespoon crushed red pepper
3 tablespoons ground flax seed

ingredients on top :
Swiss chard
spinach
arugula
basil
baby bella mushrooms
plum sauce
garlic
olive oil
kosher salt
smoked gouda

Here are the guidelines…

Before you get to mixing your dough prepare your spices. In a small frying pan, dry toast 1 scant tablespoon cumin seeds with 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper. Cut down on the crushed red pepper if you don’t want the crust to be spicy – half that amount will give it just a hint of spice across the 2 pizzas. Shake your pan over the heat and toast slightly until your cumin browns slightly – don’t burn it!

Mix your dough by hand or with a stand mixer. Start with 1¹/3 cup warm water and add 2¼ teaspoons of dry active yeast (one packet). Let it rest for a moment. Add 1 tablespoon salt, 3 tablespoons ground flax seed, about a tablespoon of honey, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and your toasted spices. Mix in 3½ cups flour; you may need to add more if your dough is too wet, just add a small amount at a time and mix until the dough can form into a nice ball. Let it sit for about fifteen minutes while you prepare your toppings.

We cut down all the chard and spinach ready to be used in the garden and then I added a few handfuls of arugula to the mix as well to bulk it up. I don’t have an exact amount of the greens we used. My logic suggests that more greens are better. While you’re preparing these greens it will feel like there is too much but once you slightly saute them, they will be much more manageable. You’ll wish you had even more.

Start with the Swiss chard. Slice out the center stem and chop it into small pieces, place them in a small bowl and set aside. Gather up the leafy parts of the chard and roll lengthwise, chop into ribbons. Do the same with the spinach. Place each chopped green in its own bowl. Keep them separate so it is easy to cook them at the appropriate time. Toss a few handfuls of arugula in with the spinach – no need to chop.

Gather up your basil – we picked a lot from our little plant. I happen to love the flavor of basil so I wasn’t concerned with having too much. Chop up as much as you think is reasonable or available. We also chopped up a few baby peppers that had fallen from in the garden – the Hungarian hot yellow pepper, and yes, even though it was just a baby it was very spicy! Can’t wait to try the big ones, they’re really getting huge right now!

Chop mushrooms, we used an 8 oz. package of baby bella mushroom. This is a nice amount to stretch across two pizzas, it’s a lot… a lot delicious. Once they are sliced add a few spoonfuls of plum sauce to coat. I didn’t measure this out I just added a few spoonfuls and mixed it up so the mushrooms were lightly coated with the sauce but not drenched in it. This just adds a new element to the pizza, a little bit of sweetness. I got this idea from my friend Alegra; we made a similar pizza a few months back and coated shitaki mushrooms with plum sauce – I thought this idea was brilliant and was very pleased with the results, it’s not something that I had ever considered doing before.  I think in this case it works really nicely as well.

Instead of sauce we used an oil flavored with a bit of garlic and spice. Crush or chop two cloves of garlic. In a very small frying pan add half of the garlic to about 4 tablespoons olive oil and slowly cook over warm/low heat. This will mellow the garlic and flavor the oil – I also add a dash of our pepper powder for an extra little kick. We use a pan designed to fry one egg, it’s actually something we use quite often. It’s very useful for frying spices or small amounts of oil, I use it just about every time I cook with garlic because I can’t eat fresh garlic without feeling a little ill (although I do love the flavor).  While your garlic oil is cooking keep an eye on it to avoid the bits from burning. Remove from heat for a moment if it starts getting too hot or bubbly. This can stay on the stove top until you’re ready to use it.

In a large pan add a splash of oil and toss in the remainder of the garlic. Saute for a moment over low heat and include the Swiss chard stems. They are very tough so you’ll want to saute them until they are tender. This will take a few minutes. Once the stems are tender, add the Swiss chard leaves and toss it around. Allow it to wilt sightly. Add the spinach and arugula and remove it from the burner. The heat of the chard will wilt the rest of the greens enough. We don’t want to completely wilt them, just enough to tame them – that way we’ll be able to fit more greens on the pizza, it will be easier to top!

Prepare 2 sheet pans by buttering or oiling the surface. Our sheet pans are about 12 x 15. Cut the dough in 2 pieces. We use a dough cutting tool, it’s awesome for cutting dough as well as scraping and scooping chopped ingredients off the cutting board, we just love it. Roll out the dough to be thin and about the size of your cookie sheets. My mom gave us a new silicone rolling pin last week for a house warming gift. It’s great; we’ve been wanting a rolling pin of this shape for quite sometime. The silicone feature is nice because the flour sticks to the pin and the dough rolls right off. Really great gift, we’ll be using it a lot this year – thanks mom!

Get ready to top! I like to top both pizzas at the same time so I can evenly distribute the ingredients. Making pizza is great in this way because you can always make it work with what you have – have more? add more! have less? add less! It’s easy to adapt and hard to mess up.

Start by brushing the garlic oil onto the rolled out dough. Brush all the way to the edges. Give it a nice coat but don’t create oil pools. Adding a lightly flavored oil will really enhance this super flavorful dough.

Next add the greens. Sometimes when they’re wilted they clump together. Spread them out as best you can.

Fill in the blanks with the plum sauced mushrooms.

Sprinkle with basil and any other extra ingredients you might like to include, in our case we scattered the little Hungarian hot pepper bits.

Finish it off with shredded smoked gouda cheese.

Bake at 450° for about 15 minutes. Check it towards the end of it’s baking time and remove the pizza once it’s slightly browned and crispy.

This pizza is extra delicious. With out using a red sauce and by including lots of greens, the pizza feels very fresh and light. Great for dinner, lunch, or a snack!

Surprise your guests with a hint of plum sauce and loads of nutrients.

I’ve been making little egg rolls for years now and I’ve never been disappointed. I’ve switched up the ingredients and the proportions many times.  Some things work better than others of course; I’ve made them too garlicky or too peppery before but still… they’re always delicious.  Of course the ones I make are not traditional and don’t even involve egg — just a familiar name for a familiar concept, bite sized fried-up goodness in a hand-rolled form.

Here is a recipe to get you started on making your own.

This recipe is for about 40-50 mini egg rolls:
(sounds like a lot but they go quick!)

1 pack of wanton wrappers, usually 60 sheets
2-3 cups red cabbage (1/2 small head)
3/4 cups shredded carrots (2-4 medium carrots)
1/2 cup mushrooms chopped
1 large clove of garlic minced
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (heaping)
1/2 block tofu (1 1/4 cup crumbled)
1 tablespoon soy sauce & 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
splash of olive oil & sesame oil

vegetable oil for frying

Be sure to allow enough time before you get started for your wanton wrappers to thaw if necessary.  Press tofu to drain as much excess moisture as possible.  You can pat it dry with some paper towels and set it under a plate while you prepare the other ingredients.

Finely chop cabbage and shred carrots. Cut mushrooms into small bits. Finely mince ginger and garlic, keep separate from other vegetables.

In another bowl, crumble the tofu. Add 1 tablespoon soy sauce & 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper. Stir.

In a wok or frying pan heat up a splash of olive oil and a drizzle of sesame oil. Add garlic and ginger, saute over medium heat for a moment until garlic is fully cooked.  Add cabbage, mushrooms, and carrots and cook for about 1 minute.  This is a really quick fry, you don’t need to cook it much at all in order to preserve a bit of crunch in the filling. Add the tofu mixture, stir up and add kosher salt to taste.  Remove from heat and transfer in to a bowl. The filling is complete, you should have 4-5 cups worth.

Get ready to fill the wanton wraps. Create a work area fully equipped with a rolling surface, a bowl of water for sealing, and a landing zone for the egg rolls ready to be fried.

Put one wanton skin on your work surface. Place one tablespoon of filling in the middle.  Doesn’t seem like a lot of filling but it’s enough. If you start off packing it with too much it will be very difficult to roll. Once you roll a few you will get a feel for how much filling works best for you, there will be plenty of chances to practice. As you are working through the filling towards the bottom of the bowl you may have extra moisture, try to work around it rather than include it in your rolls. If moisture escapes while frying you may have some spitting oil. Ouch.

Begin rolling by folding one corner of the wanton over the filling. Dip your finger in water and lightly wet the next corner to be folded towards the center. The water will help seal it closed. As you fold the side over be sure to tuck and close any openings on that side. Repeat this step for the other side.

Complete the mini roll by wetting the last edge and folding it over. It’ll look like a cute little package. It might be a little sloppy at first but it won’t take long to get the hang of it. If you happen to rip a wanton or two don’t fret, you’ll have a few left over anyway. Put completed rolls on to a plate, be sure to stack them in such a way that they don’t stick together — give them a chance to dry for a moment before you pile them on top of each other.

Once the all the filling is depleted and rolled into mini egg rolls it’s time to fry! Deep fry! We use a small sauce pot filled with about an inch and a half of vegetable or canola oil and a wire basket utensil to remove them from the oil. Use a utensil that will allow the oil to drain directly over the pot and off of the roll.  I like to use a small pot in order to use less oil and also because we can only fit a couple in the oil at a time, which means it’s easier to handle 2-3 frying egg rolls rather than having the option of dealing with many more at once. Seems safer for a makeshift home deep frying set up, they cook rather quickly once the oil is hot and you don’t want to have too much to deal with at one time. Prepare a landing zone for the freshly fried egg rolls. I usually use a baking sheet lined with Viva paper towels, a plate with a few paper towels works too.

When you’re ready to fry, check if the oil is hot enough by tossing in a small piece of wanton. It should quickly fry up and float to the top. If it sinks or takes awhile to fry continue to heat the oil and test again. Once the oil is ready lower one mini egg roll to start, it’ll float to the top with a beautiful crisp golden color. Transfer onto the baking sheet and carry on. Once you are confident with the cooking time you can decide to fry a few at a time. Best to start slow if you haven’t done this before so there aren’t any accidents. Hot oil is not something worth rushing around.

Be careful and enjoy as is or dip in some sweet & sour, soy, or plum sauce.

I think it’s safe to say that making your own pizza will change your life. At least it changed ours in the way we feel about eating it…

Let’s face it, pizza is delicious — dough, sauce, cheese — although it’s not one of those foods that I just have to have. We just about never go out for pizza and when it’s delivered it’s usually mediocre at best. Pools of grease that then sit heavy in your stomach. Ugh. I generally don’t feel so great after a pizza delivery experience, a quick crap fix of a meal that cost a pretty penny. Not to mention the standard pizza sauce surely involves onions. Delicious at the time but not always a feel good situation in the end.

Last winter Joe and I got into making our own pizza and haven’t gone out or ordered pizza delivery since.  It’s just so simple and so much cheaper to make our own; it’s actually quicker too. While you can’t deny that it is pizza you are eating, it feels better for you because you control everything that goes into it. For example the cheese — you can use as much or as little, you can buy a cheese that is light or of higher quality.  You can load it with vegetables so it’s not just dough sauce and cheese, you can roll it out as thin or as thick as you like…. basically it’s fully customizable, so how could you lose?  Make it just how you like it and feel good about eating it. Have it for lunch the next day too…

This recipe makes 2 big delicious pizzas:

roasted red pepper sauce:
6 medium peppers
1 jalapeño
1 head of garlic
4 tomatoes
kosher salt to taste

dough:
1 1/3 cup warm-to-hot water (about 100 degrees F)
2 1/4 teaspoons dry active yeast (1 packet)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 cups flour

topping:
2 potatoes
1 tablespoon rosemary
3 cups chopped mushrooms
12 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

First prepare your sauce; this can be done the day before if you plan ahead but we often just do it the same day. Doesn’t matter.  Preheat oven to 425°. Wash ingredients to be roasted. For this sauce we used 6 medium peppers (2 red, 2 orange, 2 yellow), 4 small tomatoes, 1 jalapeño, and a head of garlic. Place on a greased baking sheet and brush with oil. Wrap the head of garlic in foil and drizzle with oil, place on baking sheet as well.  Roast for about 40 minutes turning once or twice during that time. The peppers will be slightly blackened and soft when the are done.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool before handling.

Before blending, remove the stems and seeds from the peppers, you can leave the jalapeño seeds in and cut out the stem from the tomatoes. I also like to peal away the skin from the bell peppers and tomatoes to create a smoother textured sauce. Include the garlic and blend until desired consistency.  Salt to taste. We ended up with about 4 cups of sauce which is a little more than we would use for the two pizzas. 3 cups should be enough. But we wouldn’t want to run out so we planned to have a little extra instead. Set aside while you prepare the rest the dough and toppings.

Next prepare the dough. In a large bowl or in a stand mixer combine 1 1/3 cup warm water with 2 1/4 teaspoons of dry active yeast (or 1 packet). Allow to sit for a couple of minutes to give the yeast a chance to work. Add a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of salt, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Mix in 3 1/2 cups flour and let the dough sit for about 15 minutes while your prepare your ingredients.

Preheat oven 425°
(check that your rack is at the lower setting before the oven gets hot)

Peal and chop the potatoes in smaller pieces, we usually cut them to about 1/2 inch cubes or similar sized rectangles. Slice mushrooms. Remove rosemary leaves from stems and coarsely chop if you’d like. Shred your cheese. We always buy the block of cheese to grate ourselves for a couple of reasons; it’s generally less expensive and there are unnecessary preservatives added to prepackaged shredded cheeses — same stuff with a bit of extra questionable ingredients added to the mix. No thank you, we’ll grate our own.

Time to roll out the dough! Get out two large baking sheets and grease them up. Sometimes we use butter and other times we’ll use a spray oil. You can also use a sprinkle of cornmeal if you’d like. we’ve never had a problem with the pizza sticking.

Cut the dough in half making 2 balls. Roll out one at a time on a lightly floured surface. The dough might be a little tough if you’ve never rolled dough before, but you can stretch it out a bit by pulling at the edges and letting it hang off your hands. If you want to be really daring, practice spinning it in the air; this might seem like an unnecessary flourish but it actually helps stretch the dough.

Now it’s time to top the pizzas…

First layer is the sauce, spread an even layer across each pizza.  It takes about 1 1/2-2 cups of sauce per pizza. We usually roll out each pizza to be about 12 x 15 inches or so.  You’ll probably have more sauce than you need so put as much as you like.

Second layer is the potatoes.  Divide your cut potatoes in two and scatter them on top of the sauce.

Third layer is the rosemary. I usually chop up about a heaping tablespoon or so of rosemary to share between the 2 pizzas. You can add more if you want a more intense rosemary taste, but it’s a pretty strong flavor so you don’t want to overdue it especially if your cooking it for other people.

The forth layer is the mushrooms. Find some open spaces between the potatoes and fill them in with mushrooms. There’s room for everyone here.

Last but not least is the cheese! We use about 12 oz of mozzarella between the 2 pizzas, but you could cut it down a bit for a lighter pizza or bulk it up some for a cheesier pizza, of course.  Sprinkle an even layer on each. We also usually add Parmesan to the top as well but this time we were out, it’s delicious either way.

Bake at 425° for 15-20 minutes or until it’s golden. Baking time may vary depending on your oven. We like to bake ours at the bottom for a slightly crispier crust.

Two large custom pizzas for well under $10 — in under an hour!

There are definitely many right ways to make stuffed mushrooms.  It’s an extremely easy dish to make and to improvise with whatever you have.  With the simple guideline of “top mushrooms with filling,” the possibilities are endless.

This dish makes a great appetizer, side, snack, or even a small meal. We made a similar version of these mushrooms for a dinner party a few weeks ago with the only real difference being the cheese we used.  They’re great for parties whether you are the host or you are bringing them with you.  Make ahead and pop them in to the oven 25 minutes before you’re ready to enjoy.

recipe:

about 2 8oz packages of baby bella mushrooms

2 cups frozen spinach
1 roasted pepper
4 cloves roasted garlic
1+ cups cheese (sharp cheddar, havarti, swiss all work well)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8- 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper powder or cayenne
handful of toasted pine nuts (optional)

1/4 cup bread crumbs toasted with butter

Prepare your roasted pepper and roasted garlic ahead of time.  Preheat oven to 425°. Lightly brush pepper with oil, wrap a head (or half) of garlic drizzled with a little olive oil in tinfoil and place both on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 – 45 minutes, flip pepper half way through. Allow to cool before handling.

Meanwhile prepare the filling. Thaw spinach and drain excess water- if you are using fresh spinach saute it for a moment to wilt.  Grate the cheese; we used cheddar for this recipe, but last time it was havarti. It’s ok to switch things up. Both were delicious. Toast a handful of pine nuts — dry toast them in a small pan with no oil, shake them around over the heat until they’re nice and toasty.  Dice the roasted pepper and peel the garlic.  Combine all of these ingredients along with spice and salt to taste. Set aside.

Clean mushrooms and pop off stems. Place mushrooms caps cup side up in a glass baking dish. We use a shallow 8 x 12 glass baking dish.  Use whatever you have — a couple of pie dishes or a lasagna dish would work well too. The filling should be enough to top 2 8 oz packs of mushrooms.  The size of the mushrooms and the amount of room on your baking dish may vary the proportions. Disperse filling into the caps.

Finish the stuffed mushrooms off with bread crumbs.  For this recipe we used panko bread crumbs and fried them up with a little butter, probably about a tablespoon or so.  You can add some parmesan to the mix if you want.  If you are interested in making your own bread crumbs from scratch, check here for some inspiration.

Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes.

Try out our recipe or make up your own! If you don’t have all of the ingredients we used consider what else might taste nice here…. artichoke hearts, olives, goat cheese, tomatoes, Parmesan, carrots, edamame, kale, walnuts… no onions… this list could go on for days- you get the point.

I’m continuously on a quest to find ways to prepare squash and pumpkin in a satisfying way. I mentioned in a previous post that I don’t care much for squash mostly because they are most often prepared in a sweet way. However, it is possible to successfully prepare the squash family in a savory way as well. This year we picked our pumpkins mostly for the seeds with no intention to carve.  Unfortunately when we opened our pumpkins we found the most pathetic dilapidated flat seeds I have ever seen ;( — they were completely unusable and severely disappointing to me.  In a moment of panic upon this discovery I feared that we bought and lugged these pumpkins home for no reason… I was peeved. Deep breath, we had to give them purpose — this meant making pumpkin puree!

And with that puree we made bread, muffins, cookies, lasagna, and even gave some away! I would have never had the desire to make my own pumpkin puree if those seeds were any good. I would have happily moved on to roast and devour the seeds without thinking twice about completely wasting the rest of the pumpkin! We made our puree from two pumpkins, which left us with about 16 cups! So of course we had to search for different ways to use it, what the heck could you do with so much puree!? I will forever look at a pumpkin as more than a carve-able surface filled with delicious seeds.

One of the most interesting dishes I discovered was pumpkin lasagna; I have never heard of or thought of it but I was sure ready to try it out.  I got the idea from Food Mayhem, they made it last year as well.  Of course I didn’t follow their exact recipe, I had to cut out anything sweet and add a little more savory to the mix.  It turned out nicely. Lasagna is one of those meals that really doesn’t need many rules. Noodles, sauce, cheese, and anything else baked in layers — that’s basically how it’s done. This is how we made our first pumpkin lasagna! If you’re a sweeter pumpkin eater you should have a look at Food Mayhem’s recipe as well and adjust to your preference.

Ingredients used: pumpkin puree, cayenne powder, cumin powder, ginger, kosher salt, lasagna noodles, fresh ricotta, fresh mozzarella, spinach, tofu, mushrooms.

3 cups plain fresh plain pumpkin puree-
spiced with :
1 tsp pepper powder or cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon cumin powder
½+ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon fresh finely minced ginger.

lasagna noodles of choice
15 oz fresh ricotta cheese
8+ oz fresh mozzarella
3 cups sliced baby bella mushrooms
2 cups fresh or frozen spinach
½ block of tofu

Begin by spicing up the pumpkin puree; simmer puree in a sauce pot and add ginger, cumin, cayenne powder/pepper powder, and salt to taste.  Cook over lowest heat while you prepare the rest of the ingredients (cut mushrooms, tofu, and spinach).

Preheat oven to 350°

In a 9 x 13 glass baking dish spread a thin layer of pumpkin puree at the very bottom, place the first layer of lasagna noodles and cover with a thin layer of pumpkin puree. Having a bit of puree on the very bottom will help the noodles cook and avoid it from sticking to the bottom of the pan once cooked.

Add tofu; we sliced ours but crumbling it would also be nice. Add a layer of spinach — we used frozen spinach because that’s what we had, we always have frozen spinach on hand because it’s super cheap and a perfect ingredient to add to any sauce, beans, rice, casseroles, lasagna, etc…

Time for another layer of lasagna noodles & of course a layer of pumpkin puree.

Clump fresh ricotta onto the mix and spread it out into an even layer.

Place the sliced mushrooms in an nice even layer and place your last layer of lasagna noodles.

One last layer of pumpkin puree and top with mozzarella! We accidentally bought a fresh mozzarella filled with cream: Burrata — fresh mozzarella filled with cream. When we first chopped into the surprisingly soft and gooey cheese we worried that we made a mistake.  Of course we used it anyway and it didn’t seem to make a difference at all. Once Baked all of the cheese melted together and was delicious as expected.

Cover with tin foil and bake at 350° for 50 min.  Allow time to cool — cut and serve. Now tell me that doesn’t look delicious! Ha — ok, I know, it’s not exactly a beautiful looking dish. But it’s definitely a nice way to remake a traditional lasagna into a seasonal treat…