Deep Dish Southwest Salad Pizza
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Deep Dish Southwest Salad Pizza

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Refried beans and seasoned ground turkey form the base for this zesty, superfood-packed pizza!

Pizza night doesn’t need to be the standard pepperoni and cheese with tomato sauce every week. Why not spice things up and pack in lots of Southwest flavor, fresh veggies and a homemade Chipotle Ranch dressing?

Deep Dish Southwest Salad Pizza

This pizza was inspired by one of my favorite new grocery store items – Eat Smart Gourmet Vegetable Salad Kits. These aren’t any ordinary pre-packaged salads – each is chef-inspired and chock-full of fresh ingredients including at least 5 superfoods!

I had such a fun time kicking off March (AKA National Nutrition Month!) with a different salad for lunch and/or dinner every single day. My 2 favorites were the Southwest and Sweet Kale.

The Southwest kit contains 5 superfoods: savoy cabbage, red cabbage, radishes, carrots and kale. The toppings included are cheddar cheese, tortilla chips, corn and Chipotle Ranch dressing. There was so much flavor in this hearty salad, and I loved the mix of fresh and crunchy toppings.

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I love making pizza at home, and deep dish is a real treat. Cast iron skillets work beautifully here, and with a little advance planning, this pizza can be on your dinner menu this week!

On to pizza-fying this salad. I used this deep dish crust recipe from Serious Eats, because I’ve made it before and it.is.phenomenal. But feel free to use your favorite crust recipe, or even buy a pre-made crust from the store and get on to the rainbow of toppings!

Deep Dish Southwest Salad Pizza

Instead of sauce, I used a layer of warmed refried beans. If you don’t warm them first, they won’t spread well and you’ll rip the crust. I topped that with a layer of seasoned turkey and some shredded cheddar cheese.

The rest of the toppings don’t go on until the pizza comes out of the oven, so you can prep them while it bakes if you want – or prep them the night before and stash ’em in the fridge so they’re ready when you are!

Deep Dish Southwest Salad Pizza

One really important note here is that you need to let your oven preheat for a LONG time. I initially thought it was crazy that it’d need an entire hour after the oven indicated that it had come to temperature to actually reach 550°F, but it really does.

An oven thermometer is the best way to ensure that you truly get the heat high enough before putting your pizza in the oven. My oven eventually gets up to 550°F, but it takes a while.

And it is so worth the wait!

Deep Dish Southwest Salad Pizza

Another thing that makes this pizza fabulous is the Chipotle Ranch dressing. I use a mix of herbs, spices, chipotle in adobo, and both low fat plain and nonfat Greek yogurts to make it rich and creamy without being too heavy.

Plus, it makes a ton, so you can have dressing hanging out in your fridge for several days for anything that needs a little kick.

Deep Dish Southwest Salad Pizza

I highly recommend using the slicing/grating disc that comes with your food processor (if you have one) to make quick work of cutting all of the veggies for the top of the pizza. I was able to shred the cabbages and radishes and grate the carrots in no time! Next time, I’ll probably do this the night before while I’m put the dough together to make dinner come together quickly.

This pizza is messy in the best possible way. It was a huge hit with my family. I left the dressing off of the slices that my 4-year-old ate, and he gobbled them up. Success!

Deep Dish Southwest Salad Pizza

I’m still shocked at how tasty these salad kits are, too. I usually prefer to mix my own salads at home, but life gets busy and having something in the fridge that has such a vibrant mix of superfoods really does make things a lot easier (and more delicious!).

And hey – you could totally buy a pizza crust, some ground turkey and one of these salad kits and this meal would be even easier to put together. Ain’t no shame!

You can keep up with the latest Eat Smart news by signing up for their e-blast at the bottom of their website or follow them over on Facebook.

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Deep Dish Southwest Salad Pizza

  • Prep Time: 8 hours
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 8 hours 25 minutes
  • Yield: 2 (10-inch) pizzas (8 slices per pizza)
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Ingredients

For Crust:

  • 400 grams (14 ounces, about 2 1/2 cups) bread flour
  • 10 grams (.35 ounces, about 2 teaspoons) kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
  • 4 grams (.15 ounces, about 1/2 teaspoon) instant yeast
  • 275 grams (9.5 ounces, about 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons) water
  • 8 grams (.25 ounces, about 2 teaspoons) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for pans

For Ranch Seasoning Mix:

  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried dill
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground paprika
  • 1/8 teaspoon celery seed

For Chipotle Ranch Dressing:

  • 2 tablespoons Ranch Seasoning Mix
  • 1 cup fat free Greek yogurt
  • 1 cup low fat plain yogurt
  • 1-3 tablespoons adobo sauce from canned chipotle in adobo, depending how spicy you like it

For Pizza:

  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 (16-ounce) can refried beans, warmed
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

For Topping:

  • 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 3/4 cup canned corn, drained
  • 3/4 cup shredded red cabbage
  • 3/4 cup shredded savoy cabbage
  • 3/4 cup chopped kale
  • 3/4 cup crushed corn tortilla chips (I used a mix of blue and yellow)
  • 1/4 cup thinly sliced radishes
  • 1/4 cup shredded carrots

Instructions

  1. For Crust: In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, yeast, water, and oil. Mix with hands or a wooden spoon until no dry flour remains. The dough will rise quite a bit, so make sure you use a really large bowl.
  2. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let rest on the countertop for at least 8 hours and up to 24.
  3. For Chipotle Ranch Dressing: While the dough is rising, in a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the Ranch Seasoning Mix (dried parsley through celery seed). Place 2 tablespoons of this mixture in a medium bowl, add Greek and plain yogurts and adobo sauce. Mix thoroughly, cover and refrigerate until ready to use (this makes about 2 cups of dressing, so you’ll have plenty leftover. It keeps well in the fridge for several days).
  4. Once the dough is done rising, sprinkle the top lightly with flour. With well-floured hands, divide the dough in half. Take the first half and tuck the dough underneath itself, rotating until it forms a tight ball.
  5. Pour 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil in the bottom of two 10-inch cast iron skillet or round cake pans. Place 1 ball of dough in each pan and turn to coat evenly with oil. Press the dough around the pan, flattening it slightly and spreading oil around the entire bottom of the pan. Cover with a tight-fitting lid or plastic wrap and let the dough sit at room temperature for two hours. After the first hour, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 550°F.
  6. For Pizza: While the dough is in the final hour of rising, heat a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add turkey and cook, breaking up the meat as it cooks, until browned all over. Drain excess fat from the pan (if there is any). Add tomato paste, chili powder, oregano, paprika, garlic powder and onion powder. Stir to combine and pour in water. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to medium and cook until the liquid is almost gone and meat is fully cooked, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
  7. After two hours, dough should be mostly filling in the pan up to the edges. Use your fingertips to press it around until it fills in every corner, popping any large bubbles that appear. Lift up one edge of the dough to let any air bubbles underneath escape and repeat, moving around the dough until there are no air bubbles left underneath and the dough is evenly spread around the pan.
  8. Top the first round of dough with half of the warmed refried beans, followed by half of the cooked turkey. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese. Transfer pan to oven and bake until top is golden brown and bubbly and bottom is golden brown and crisp when you lift it with a thin spatula, 12 to 15 minutes. Immediately sprinkle with 2 tablespoons additional cheddar cheese. Remove the pizza from the pan and transfer to a cutting board to cool slightly.
  9. Top pizza with half of the corn, red cabbage, savoy cabbage, kale, chips, radishes and carrots. Drizzle with as much of the Chipotle Ranch as you like, and serve more alongside.
  10. Let the oven come back up to temperature before repeating with the second pizza.

Notes

Original Recipe by Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen – Ashley Covelli (Dough very slightly adapted from Serious Eats

Big Flavors Rating: 5 Stars

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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