So today, I give you another one of my weird pizza combinations.
While I’m not extremely pleased with my pictures, I did like the pizza so much that I still have to share it with you.
It might sound a little strange really, but sweet potatoes on a pizza are just fantastic. They add so much flavor on their own, you don’t need much of anything else.
And look how pretty!
True to my good old self, I didn’t use any tomato sauce again. Just a little bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and fennel seeds.
Yep! You read that right. Fennel seeds. They worked perfectly well and helped bring the flavors to the next level!
Since sweet potatoes take a little bit of time to cook, I figured it would be best to give them a quick steam bath just to make sure they would be really nice and soft and creamy on top of that crust. The slices were so thin, however, I’m not even certain that it was absolutely necessary. I think next time I try this pizza, I will skip the steaming part.
Also, I chose to use poppy seeds to roll my dough in this time, as opposed to my usual cornmeal. What a nice crunch it added, not to mention a great addition of color!
I loved everything about that pizza, from start to finish!
Seriously, the more I make pizza at home and learn to create different and interesting combinations, the less commercial, greasy, “all dressed” pizza appeals to me.
When I get cravings for pizza now, I genuinely crave healthy pizza!
Like this one right here.
Dare to be different. Give it a try!
SWEET POTATO AND SPINACH PIZZA
INGREDIENTS
(for one 10-12 inch pizza)
DOUGH
- ¼ Whole wheat pizza crust recipe
- About ¼ cup poppy seeds to roll the dough
TOPPINGS
- 1 large sweet potato, sliced paper thin (ok, make that cardboard thin!)
- About 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
- ½ tsp whole fennel seeds
- 75g low fat Mozzarella cheese, grated
- 1 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
ADD-ONS (AFTER PIZZA IS OUT OF THE OVEN)
- A handful of baby spinach leaves, chopped
- 15g soft goat cheese, crumbled
- 15g walnuts, coarsely chopped
- ¼ tsp fennel seeds
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 500F.
- Peel and slice sweet potato as thin as possible (the use of a mandolin is strongly recommended here). Throw the slices in a steamer for about one minute, then lay them on a paper towel, very delicately, to remove any excess moisture. Be careful not to over cook the potatoes, else they will just fall apart. Keep a really close eye on them and remove them from the steam as soon as their border start to change color. Do not fully cook!
- Grind salt, pepper, rosemary and fennel seeds together using a mortar and pestle.
- Roll dough into 10-12 inch disc, using poppy seeds to prevent sticking instead of flour, and lay onto a pizza pan. Make sure you dust your pizza pan with flour as poppy seeds will not prevent sticking! Brush dough with olive oil and sprinkle ground spice mixture on top, followed by half the mozzarella cheese.
- Very delicately lay the potato slices in a circular fashion, making sure the slices overlap, until the dough is completely covered.
- Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese over the potatoes.
- Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes, until cheese is melted and starts to colour on the edge.
- Take pizza out of the oven and add chopped spinach, chopped walnuts, crumbled goat cheese and additional fennel seeds.
Hey Sonia, your Pizza is a Recipe Guessing Game on Knapkins. Think your friends can win? http://knapkins.com/guess_games/820?source=blog
I think the photos are great and your blog always inspires me
/Lise
Thanks Lise, I truly appreciate that!
That looks so interesting. I love the seeds on the crust, but those sweet potatoes look so good too. I’m all for weird combo’s right now, and that looks really good
I gotta start experimenting with pizza more!
I am loving the addition of poppyseeds in the crust, what a great idea! I bet the earthiness pairs well with the sweet potatoes and spinach – a GREAT combination! Your photos are lovely, no worries about that!!!
I made a spinach and sausage pizza with pumpkin sauce instead of tomato last week that ws yumm — although I love pizza in all forms (tomato or “white” oil based etc) I totally agree that the fun flavor combinations and healthier creations are the way to go!!!
Pizza with a pumpkin sauce??? OOOOOOH! I like!!! Did you post about it? I sure haven’t seen the post if you have. And if you haven’t, WILL YOU post about it?
Off to check out your site, just to see…
this looks fabulous…and easy to boot. the poppy seeds and fennel seeds are an interesting addition too;)
Oh, I love the poppy seeds on the crust. With the sweet potatoes and spinach too? Perfect. Glad to stumble upon your blog this evening.
A truly interesting combination.
This looks beautiful! Definitely going on must make list.
Made this for Valentine’s Day dinner along with the whole wheat dough. I must have done something wrong with the dough, because it definitely didn’t rise as much (maybe the type of yeast?), but it was still ABSOLUTELY delicious. Love, love, love this recipe.
Good to hear Samantha, glad you liked this pizza! Too bad about the dough… I too, would tend to blame the yeast. The little beasts in there tend to be extremlely finicky. With them, it’s always their way or the high way. Hope they cooperate better next time!
Well another version of sweet potato pizza. I have searched for some menus to enjoy sweet potato and it brought me to some sweet potato pizza menus. So far yours is the best. You have green veggies here. The poppy seeds will make the crust better than others. So far, your recipe is the one I want to make for this weekend.
Thank you so much for your kind comment! Glad you like and hope you enjoy the pizza if you end up making it!
I made this without steaming the sweet potato slices- just keeping the slices thin. It worked very well. It was a delicious combination of veggies and seeds. Love the idea of using seeds more often in my cooking!
Good to know, Wilma, thank you so much for sharing! I really appreciate that. Now that I think of it, I think it must be even better. Must add a little bit of crunch factor, for I assume the potatoes don’t cook exactly all the way through. Will definitely have to try! Thanks again!