Butternut squash Pizza

Pizza is a food group, its own food pyramid. This is a fact and we can’t deny it. Pizza is a love child between the naughtiest foods everyone loves. We love it, we hate that we love it, and love that we hate it. Either way, this guy is popular, and he won’t be leaving anytime soon.

If we should give credit to the Queen consort of Italy, Margherita for being the muse to the creation of the Margherita pizza, and bringing it to the fancy lime light, is still a mystery unsolved. Either way, we are grateful for the pizza!

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Over time pizza has taken on all kinds of fancy twists and turns. From traditional to cray cray. We now have cheese stuffed crusts, white pizzas, calzones, dessert pizzas, big ass slices. Pizza have even caused heated debates over pineapples as a topping. Which, in my opinion, they totally are! Pineapples on everything.

Some people say “never mess with a classic”, and I can agree. But with a dish like pizza, so simple, yet so elegant, it’s almost impossible to not draw outside the edges and create new yummy food sensations.

In this recipe I’ve taken the healthy approach on our traditional cheesy pizza. If you find it offensive that I’m even calling it a pizza, we can call it a flatbread. With a thin gluten free crust, and a creamy butternut squash pure as the base, this new guy hits the spot when you want that explosion of crispy freshness in your mouth.

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Ingredients:

Ezekiel bread (for GF option) or normal pizza dough.
Butternut squash puree.
Kale.
Crimini mushrooms (or mushrooms of choice).
Eggplant.
Salt.
Pepper.
Basil (fresh or dried).
Oregano.
Paprika powder.
Cayenne pepper.
Nutritional yeast.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bring out your Ezekiel bread or pizza dough, take your butternut squash puree and spread it out nicely on top of the dough. Sprinkle over your spices and blend them in nicely together with the puree. Add the kale to the pizza and cut your mushrooms and eggplant into thin pieces. Place them in a nice pattern on top of the kale. Get creative, do a little smiley face or something.  Make it your own, you feel me? The final touch is to sprinkle on some nutritional yeast. It will make the pizza taste more cheesy, and give the kale a nice crispy, cheesy zest to them. Like kale chips on a pizza. That’s fancy health right there.

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