Grilled Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onions Pizza
Surely I can’t give you a nice pizza dough recipe and not follow through with a great idea for toppings, now, can I?
What do you say to Grilled Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onions? Sounds good? Sounds so much better than pepperoni and cheese to me!
To think that I used to not really care for squash. Boy was I missing out!
If you’ve never tried it on a pizza, by all means, go ahead and do it! Along with the caramelized onions and sage, it’s a winning combination. And if you don’t care much for the caramelized onions, it also works great with tomato sauce.
But you know me and tomato sauce. I always have to find a way to take a different route. 😉
Speaking of different route, I think I’ll let the images do the talking tonight, for a change. Yesterday’s post was so long… it’ll give you guys a nice break from my usual giberring 😉
Don’t they say a picture is worth a thousand words?
Let’s hit it!
GRILLED BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND CARAMELIZED ONIONS PIZZA
INGREDIENTS
(for one 10-12 inch pizza)
DOUGH
¼ Whole wheat pizza crust recipe
TOPPINGS
- 1 large onion, sliced
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 125g sliced mushrooms (cooked)
- 1 thick slice leftover grilled or oven roasted butternut squash*, cut into 1” cubes
- 100g low fat Mozzarella cheese, grated
- 1 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
ADD-ONS (AFTER PIZZA IS OUT OF THE OVEN)
- 20g raw pumpkin seeds
- 1-2 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
*If you don’t have leftover roasted butternut squash (or pumpkin, or any other kind of squash), start by preheating your grill to medium heat, or oven to 400F. Cut the squash into thick slices and remove the seeds and skin. Lightly brush the slices on both sides with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt, pepper and dried oregano. If grilling, place directly on the grill and cook for about 5-8 minutes per side, or until tender, but firm. If baking, place on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, turning the slices halfway through the cooking process. Cool completely before cutting into cubes.
- Preheat oven to 500F.
- Heat a little bit of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook until very soft and caramelized, about 20-25 minutes. Add a few tablespoons of water from time to time to help deglaze the pan and soften the onion. Always wait until the water has fully evaporated before adding more.
- When the onions are done, set them aside and cook the mushrooms (with salt and pepper to taste) over medium high heat until nice and golden. Set aside.
- Roll dough into 10-12 inch disc and lay onto a baking sheet. Top with caramelized onions, cooked mushrooms and mozzarella cheese. Add squash cubes and fresh sage.
- 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 pumpkin seeds and additional fresh sage.
32 Comments on “Grilled Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onions Pizza”
Oh my goodness, are you serious right now?!? Do we have twin telepathy or something?!?! What are the odds to post a similar pizza on the same day!!! Our cravings must be in sync – haha!
Your pizza looks fabulous!!! I love the idea of grilling the squash and the gooey mozzarella makes me melt…DROOL! 🙂
Your pizza dough looks incredible too, like it could be sold at a restaurant! If it wasn’t made with gluten, I would totally make this!
I know, it’s just crazy! I couldn’t believe it when I saw YOUR post! Similar you say? It’s really like variations on the same theme, except yours is gluten free and mine isn’t. Freaky! 😉
HAHA I know, freaky is exactly right!
Wow! If this pizza doesn’t convert me into a butternut squash fan, I don’t know what will. This looks delicious! Thank you for sharing.
Looks delicious! Matt and I just had a seasonal special pizza at one of our local favorite pizza joints and it had puree’d roasted pumpkin, carmelized onions and spinach on it. It desperately needed something and we both said it would have been better with chunks of pumpkin instead of puree’d and that it needed some herb component–probably sage! And viola! Here it is! Of course we also would have added proscuitto but this is much healthier and probably less caloric!
Ooooh, see, I love the idea of pureed pumkin. This would be a great replacement for tomato sauce. Something to keep in mind for my next pizza recipe. Maybe with pecans and sage, of course, and spinach, or, even better, rapini! That could work!
Prosciutto would’ve worked beautifully with my butternut squash pizza. Funny, I remember loving it, but I don’t miss it all that much. See, I think pecans would work just as good, and would be much better for me (and wouldn’t require the sacrifice of a poor little piggie 😉 )
Now I’m wondering why I didn’t include pecans on this pizza… I’ll guess have to do it again, with pecans this time!
Absolutely fabulous! (did you ever see that show??)…. I love the idea of putting squash on a pizza and really, caramelized onions make EVERYTHING better. I might drizzle it this weekend with a little balsamic reduction 🙂
Not sure Kristy… I guess if it doesn’t ring a bell, it’s probably because I haven’t seen it. Which show is it referring to? Love the idea of balsamic reduction. With all the ideas that I am getting now, I think I’m really going to have to revisit that pizza soon! Before squash season is over, at least… 😉
That looks incredible! I’ve been craving a healthy, hearty pizza lately and this one fits the bill! I’ve never even seen squash on pizza (where have I been?), and I love that you completely substitute tomato sauce with onions. Beautiful photos as well!
Thanks Becky! You have to try squash on a pizza. It’s totally delicious, especially if it’s grilled or oven baked!
this looks so delicious… ! your blog and photos are truly lovely, and not to mention your recipes sound super good! glad i found it!
^__^
Thank you Lindsay, I really appreciate that! Glad you found me too! 🙂
This pizza looks fantastic! I adore butternut squash, and pairing it with caramelized onions on top of pizza is a fabulous idea =).
Ooo that looks so good! Can I come over for dinner? I’ve never had pumpkin or squash on my pizza actually but I love the idea with the onions.. Yum!
If you come over for dinner, Simone, you do the cooking. Or is it you take the pictures? Or maybe we both cook and then take pictures… Either way, I guess the end result will be the same: we’ll end up eating cold! 😉
I hope you try squash on your pizza! It’s really yummy!!! 🙂
I think this is actually my dream pizza. If you delivered, I’d be dialing right now. Great job! I have a giant onion…and a pepper squash needing to be used. I think this will happen this weekend!
For real? Thank you so much Lauren. If you didn’t live that far, I’d totally deliver! But it looks like you have everything you need to make your own. If you do try it this weekend, please let me know how you liked it!
Literally drooling…
hi! do you know where i can buy butternut squash? particularly in the metro manila. thank you!
hi !
I so much want to try this pizza! You mention roasted red pepper sauce, but not in the ingredients… Do you make it yourself? I didn’t read all comments, so I don’t know if you have already answered this question…
Ooops! Sorry, my bad! There is no red pepper sauce on that pizza. It was on another one of my pizza recipes and it ended up here thanks to the power of cut and paste. I removed it.
Thanks for pointing that out!
Ok! 🙂 Thanks!
I saw this lovely recipe made it onto Gourmet live! Congrats! Also, I posted my crack at it, with the spinach crust. It was VERY tasty. Thanks for the inspiration 🙂
I was looking at the recipe for the carmelized onions, do you need to add any sugar to carmelize the onions? Approximately how olive oil do you need to add to the pan. Also, with the mushrooms do you need to add olive oil first before you cook the mushrooms? Thanks.
Do you need to add sugar to carmelize the onions, and approximately how much olive do you need to add to the pan? Also do you need to add olive oil cook the mushrooms and if so approximatley how much? Thanks.
No sugar is needed to caramelize the onion, Shawn. There is enough naturally occurring sugar in the onion to take care of that. As for how much oil, I would say about a tablespoon. And if you feel you need to add more to cook the mushrooms, by all means, add a little more! Hope this helps! 🙂
I just have a few question for you about this recipe, I tried the dough recipe and it came out pretty good just not great. If you don’t mind I am going to pick your brain for a few minutes with a few questions.
Did you use vital wheat gluten in this recipe and if you have tried with out it, how did it turn out?
I rolled my crust out to the size the recipe said but it really came out to more of a flatbread style of crust instead of rising but I did roll it out to be pretty thin any suggestion on why that may of happpened?
How did you stretch your dough out, rolling pin, just stretch it out, or pat it down?
Instead of doing the last rise i cut the dough into six pieces and then let those balls rise individually for awhile I don’t know if that would have any affect?
One more for now, when you are mixing all the last doughs together do you not to add any water for the yeast to activate in the last mixing. I just always thought you needed to added water to the yeast?
thanks for any help you can give me, getting a little frustrated but trying not t give up.
Thanks,
Shawn
I really wish I could help, Shawn, but I haven’t made that dough in over 3 years now… I don’t really remember the details! Let’s see what I can get if I dig really deep!
I remember using extra gluten flour (like a couple of tablespoons) and being very satisfied with the results. Also, I would sometimes use a rolling pin and sometimes just stretch the dough by hand. That didn’t make much of a difference in the final product.
And you don’t need to add water in the last mixing, it was added at the beginning when making the biga.
As for cutting the dough into individual portions before to let it rise, I don’t think that it would make any significant difference.
Hope this helps, if only a little!