Meatless Monday: Roasted Cauliflower and Chard Pizza

In the winter, I tend to get into a food rut. I buy the same ingredients at the grocery store, then make pretty much the same things every week for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Oh, how I miss summer bike rides to the farmer’s markets in Toronto. It’s so nice to leisurely browse for fresh ingredients, fill my basket with all the local produce on offer, take it home and get creative in the kitchen.

I wanted to bring some of that summer inspiration into my winter cooking, so instead of settling for my mundane grocery routine, I signed up for a bi-weekly organic fruit and veggie delivery service called Organics Live.

It’s amazing. My first basket was full of veggies and fruit that I wouldn’t normally buy myself. I set to work planning some unique meals for the coming week. This pizza was the first thing I made and OHMYGOSH was it ever delicious. I’m tempted to make it again, but I’ll just have to wait and see what gets delivered in my next box!

Ingredients

Fresh pizza dough (I used spelt)
1 can tomato sauce (I used Eden Organic)
1 large bunch fresh rainbow chard (or other dark leafy green)
1 small head of cauliflower, chopped
1 to 2 tomatoes, sliced
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsps dried oregano
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 F degrees. Mix chopped cauliflower with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until tender. Set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare your chard. Chard has two edible parts – the thicker stem (which takes longer to cook) and the leafy greens, which will cook more quickly when heated. Separate the two parts and chop both. (Note: This will seem like alot, but it really cooks down!).

Heat olive oil in a large pan on the stove. Add chopped onion and chard stems. Cook until the chard stems soften, then add one clove of garlic and the chard leaves. Sautee until leaves are wilted. Set aside.

Next, assemble your pizza. Roll out the dough and add the sauce (I used tomato sauce on one half of my pizza, and did an olive oil, salt and pepper base for the other half) – both were delicious!

Next, sprinkle with dried oregano, then add sliced tomato, the rest of the garlic and the roasted cauliflower. Top with the cooked chard.

Pop your pizza in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until edges are crispy. (*Note: You may want to slightly pre-cook your dough before adding the ingredients, depending on how long it needs to cook).

-Katharine Watts, associate web editor