Kale Pizza on Whole wheat crust

Kale pizza on whole wheat crust with a basil kale pesto sauce and double cheese topping. A healthy yet delicious take on pizza.

I have mentioned in a previous post, one of our main finds of this lockdown has been Kale. I previously shared a recipe of Kale and quinoa salad. That post has in detail the benefits of kale, where to source it in Delhi and more.

Another favorite way of using Kale during the lockdown and subsequent unlockdown has been this Kale Pizza on whole wheat crust.

I tried the Kale Pizza recipe for the first time during the first week of lockdown. That time Anubhav’s brother was also staying with us, and unanimously it was agreed that the pizza was a flavor bomb. This coming from people who order meat lovers pizza ALWAYS. Since then I have made this recipe for Kale Pizza a couple of times, and each time we have enjoyed it.

This Kale Pizza would give any non vegetarian pizza topping a run for its money. I got the idea of the kale pizza from here. The drizzle of balsamic vinegar on top, the sweetness that the oven roasted cherry tomatoes lend, plus the creaminess of the goat cheese and mozzarella combined with the earthiness of Kale, makes this Kale pizza so so good!

THE CRUST

The crust is the quick whole wheat crust from the blog archives. This too has been a favorite for us during the lockdown, and I am happy to write a favorite of others too. A lot of you shared pictures of using the whole wheat crust to make pizzas at home. While this crust is great for a quick crust solution, if you keep the dough overnight and use it the next day, its even better. I had such good results with same dough recipe with an overnight rest and used it with the Kale pizza topping. One of my favorite pizzas now. You can find the recipe for the whole wheat pizza crust here. I have edited to add metric measurements, as well as other tips and tricks that have helped with making the dough.

In case you have any dough leftovers, you can freeze the dough, after the initial rise. Once the initial rise is over, wrap the dough in cling wrap, and put inside a freezer safe bag and defrost it the night before you want to use it in the refrigerator. Take the dough out from the refrigerator an hour or so before baking, and let it rest on the counter for it to come to room temperature. You could also let the initial rise happen overnight in the refrigerator for a more flavorful pizza crust.

THE SAUCE

The pizza uses a pesto based sauce, instead of the regular tomato based sauce.

Since I do love a little bit of tomatoes in my pizza, the cherry tomatoes fill that requirement. The pesto recipe is adapted from the almond basil pesto recipe– and uses a mix of kale and basil pesto and walnuts as the choice of nuts. You could also just use basil (I have done that too), and have shared both options in the recipe below.

THE TOPPINGS

I used mozzarella, kale, cherry tomatoes and goat cheese as the toppings. Once the kale pizza is baked I generally add some fresh arugula, or microgreens with a drizzle of  balsamic vinegar on the top. I have mentioned sources for Kale in Delhi in this post, but in case you can not find Kale, you could substitute it with baby spinach, or regular spinach as well. I have added pork sausages to this same pizza, and it was a hit. You could try caramelized onions, or mushrooms too. Feel free to experiment.

I hope you get to try this pizza out.

Kale Pizza on Whole wheat crust

 

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Author: Shumaila

Serves: makes 4 pizzas

Ingredients

• 1 batch homemade whole wheat pizza (recipe in post above)
• 1 bunch kale (200gms), stalks removed and leaves chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1 cup basil walnut pesto (recipe below)
• 200-250 gms fresh mozzarella, sliced in chunks or grated
• 4-6 tbsp goat cheese
• ½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• arugula/microgreens for garnish
• 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

For the pesto

• 2 cups fresh basil (you could use 1 cup basil, 1 cup kale or you could do all basil, or all kale)
• ⅓ cup walnuts
• ¼ to ½ cup olive oil (while the best pesto is made completely with olive oil, in case you find thats a lot of oil, sub a little of it with water)
• ¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• salt and pepper, to taste
• juice of 1 small lemon

Instructions

Make the pesto:

1. In a food processor, or mixer grinder, add all the ingredients listed under pesto except the olive oil. Turn the processor on, and with the machine running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Process the pesto till you get your desired consistency, stopping midway to scrape down the sides. Adjust seasoning and lemon juice if required.

Prepare toppings:

1. Chop the cherry tomatoes in half.
2. For the kale, remove main stem from the leaves. Chop the kale leaves into bite sized pieces. Add 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper and massage kale for 2 minutes and the leaves are slightly wilted.

Prepare the pizza dough:

1. Preheat oven to 250°C/ 550° F (or as high as your oven can go). Place a pizza stone, or inverted baking tray in the oven to preheat, while you roll out your dough and prepare topping.
2. Make the pizza dough as directed in the recipe on the blog (link in the post). Divide the dough into 4 balls, and taking one ball at a time shape the dough into tight balls. Starting with one dough piece, roll out the dough as thin as possible. I generally roll out the dough on a piece of parchment paper to make it easy for me to transfer the topped pizza into the oven.
3. Spread an even layer of pesto. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on the top. Add the Kale, and some cherry tomatoes halves. Top with chunks of goat cheese spread across the entire pizza. Drizzle with a little olive oil on top.
4. Transfer one pizza to the oven, on the baking sheet or your preheated baking stone.
5. Bake until the crust is golden and the cheese on top is bubbly (about 10 to 12 minutes on a baking sheet, or as few as 5 minutes on a baking stone).
6. Repeat with remaining pizza, if necessary.
7. Top with fresh arugula/microgreens/red pepper flakes/ drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Slice and serve.

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