I'm no stranger to eating unusual pizzas - remember the peach & escarole pizza I made last summer? I like unique so when I had just whipped up a batch of garlicky, lemony hummus I quickly realized that I wasn't in the mood for a dip. I wanted a meal and making pizza just seemed like the right thing to do.While this could be a completely vegan meal, I had some ricotta to use up so I mixed half of it in with the hummus and left the other half to dollop over the pizza before going into the oven. The toppings for this could definitely tweaked, for example, I think the addition of briny kalmata olives on this would be seriously to die for. Yup, totally.
The resulting pizza would probably have pizza traditionalists rolling in their graves, but my husband and I loved it. It was creamy from the hummus and ricotta and it felt healthy since it was packed with vegetables and wasn't dripping with oil (a side-effect from gloopy cheese). It also was quite filling, so we had plenty of leftovers which we happily ate over the next day or two. Plus, this is a kid-friendly meal – hummus & pizza with some much need vegetables thrown in? It's a win win!
Hummus Vegetable Pizza
1 1/2 cup hummus (homemade or store-bought)
1 cup ricotta cheese, divided
1 head broccoli, broken into florets & lightly steamed
1 red pepper, sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
flaky salt & freshly ground pepper
your favorite pizza dough (homemade or store-bought)
2 T cornmeal
1 T olive oil
Preheat oven to 425F.
Blend together the hummus and 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese until combined. Set aside.
After your pizza dough has risen, use 1 tablespoon of olive oil to grease up a walled cookie sheet. I use my hands for this. Sprinkle sheet with cornmeal and then push out or roll out your pizza dough until it spreads to all 4 corners.
Spread hummus evenly over pizza dough and scatter the steamed broccoli florets, red pepper slices and onion over top. Sprinkle with salt and give it a good grind of black pepper. Drop the remaining ricotta cheese over the pizza. Place in oven and heat for about 20 minutes or until the crust becomes golden. Slice and eat hot.
