Italian Chopped Salad Pizza

This post is sponsored by Revolution Farms. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Ask me about my favorite food and without missing a beat, I’ll tell you pizza! Traditional tomato, bbq, alfredo, veggie, and so on – the variations are endless when it comes to pizza and I love them all!

Pizza and salad is on our dinner menu at least once a week. It’s simple, easy, delicious and everyone in our family eats it without complain (kids, amirite?). Today I’m sharing one of our favorite variations that is a simple twist on the traditional tomato and cheese pizza, but loaded with lots of fresh, crispy veggie deliciousness: italian chopped salad pizza!

Italian chopped salad pizza combines crispy pizza dough, savory tomato sauce, ooey gooey cheese and top with a crisp and crunchy salad and it’s a match made in pizza heaven. I get it, some of you might be like “Why combine them?” instead of just serving the salad alongside pizza. There’s something that’s so good about biting into the crisp crust and being hit with that rich tomato goodness and zesty italian dressing of the salad that just hits you with mouth-watering flavor!

For this recipe, I stuck to a traditional tomato sauce and mozzarella pizza with an Italian inspired salad, but you can switch it with lots of different variations:

• BBQ chicken pizza with a Southwest inspired salad
• Chicken alfredo pizza with an arugula blend
• Hummus and mediterranean salad topping
• Skip the cheese and simply top with salad of your choice!

While there are so many fun options, I continue to come back to the traditional flavors of this chopped salad pizza. The tangy homemade vinaigrette is made with simple ingredients and the flavors just combine together with the cheesy goodness of pizza so well.

You can add your favorite veggies to this salad pizza combo and adding a big handful of chopped salami is a delicious way to add a burst of flavor. You can go with a thick crust or a thin crust for this pizza, but a crispy and crackly thin crust is the absolutely best with this!

To start, prepare your pizza and pop it in the oven to start baking. While it’s baking, start to chop and mix all your salad ingredients. The more veggies, the better! A few of my favorite toppings are red onion, tomatoes, black olive, pepperoncini peppers, and salami, but you can add bell peppers, capers, garbanzo beans, pepperoni and more! Add all those yummy ingredients to your salad mix (Revolution Farms Great Lakes Gourmet is my favorite).

For my Michigan readers, I have to share my secret to the best salads: Revolution Farms salad greens! Revolution Farms salad greens are grown right here in Michigan and they freshest and crispest greens you can find.  Each greenhouse grown GMO-free lettuce leaf are protected from pests and detrimental weather for the best salad you can find this side of the “Mitten”.

Since it’s grown locally, their salad blends spend less time in transportation which is not only more eco-friendly, but results in fresher and more nutrient dense greens (the longer the period from harvest to plate can cause nutrient degradation). Greenhouse farming is a great solution to many of the sustainability challenges that companies face as it allows Revolution Farms to use 90% less water and 90% less land when growing their greens. Since they deliver regionally (many grocers and will be in Meijer stores soon – you can check for a store near you here), Revolution Farms salad greens travel 95 percent fewer miles in a truck than other leading year-round lettuce farms currently supplying Midwest stores.

Once your veggies are all set, add all those goodies to a bowl and move on to making your vinaigrette. The vinaigrette is super simple to make with pantry staples! If you want to take out a step, simple sub in with your favorite Italian dressing, but I promise that this vinaigrette has the perfect tangy flavor to piece everything together. A few minutes before your pizza is done cooking, mix your vinaigrette (you won’t need to use all of it as there may be extra) and salad together and let sit for a few minutes.

Once the pizza is all set, top with your delicious chopped salad and get ready to dive in. It’s messy, but oh-so-good! Grab a fork, some extra napkins and enjoy!

What’s your favorite kind of pizza? Have you tried salad pizza?