Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Kale Pizza with Cheese & Bacon


Jaisa's Pierogi Casserole from yesterday is a tough act to follow, especially since I am not known for my "hungry" posts, but bear with me for this incredibly easy and delicious meal.  Also, it's super healthy.  Because it features kale.  Haven't you heard that every dish with kale is automatic health food?

Here's what you'll need:

kale
mozzarella cheese
bacon (optional)
garlic
olive oil
salt & pepper
pizza dough

The beauty in this recipe is that you can use as much or as little of the ingredients as you like.  I used an entire bunch of kale, which sounds (and looks) like a lot but it cooks down SO much and about three cloves of garlic.  

First, wash your kale and let it dry (or pat dry).  Place it in a bowl and drizzle with some olive oil, adding your garlic, salt, & pepper.  Mix the whole bowl up with your hands so all of the kale is coated.  

Turn out your pizza dough (I stretched mine out to cover a cookie sheet but you can easily make a round pizza if you're more into the dough-twirling-in-the-air scene.  AKA if you have better hand-eye coordination than I do).  A note on pizza crust: there are many amazing recipes out there but I usually buy uncooked pizza dough from my local pizzeria.  It's like $4, saves time on making the dough, and turns out consistently delicious.

Plop the kale/garlic mixture on top of your dough.  It'll be a HUGE pile of kale.  It cooks down, so don't worry...


Add some slices of fresh mozzarella cheese and bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until your kale is cooked down, the cheese is bubbly, and your crust is crispy and golden.

While the pizza was cooking, I decided to add on a little chopped bacon to half the pizza for Jesse and his friend who was visiting for the evening and probably didn't expect to be part of one of my kitchen experiments.

("It smells really good in there, for, like, a vegan meal," said Jesse.
"I'm pretty sure she's cooking bacon," said his friend.)

Once the pizza is out of the oven, top with the bacon...



...or keep it nice and vegetarian, as my half was...



Top with some parmesan cheese or a squeeze of a lemon and enjoy!  Stay hungry, my healthy, kale-loving friends!

1 comment:

  1. Yummmm! I'm obsessed with kale. Just made kale and sausage last night.

    ReplyDelete

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