Eggplant, Goat Cheese and Olive Pizza

I suddenly have this obsession with Mediterranean food! My kids are less than thrilled, but the taste is so flavorful, and the health benefits are off the charts! Since Pinterest, I haven’t found the need to actually purchase too many recipe books, BUT I ran across this GEM the other day and couldn’t resist. I’m glad I didn’t pass it up. It’s called “Healthy Mediterranean Recipes”. I’ll link the book below if you are interested in checking it out.

What drew me to this book to begin with were all the vibrant pictures throughout. I’m the type of person who can be easily turned off by a bunch of words in a recipe book without a picture to draw me in. I’m pretty visual. The variety throughout was not lacking. The book is broken down by snacks, salads, veggies, soups, pasta and grains, poultry and fish, breads and sandwiches AND sweets and treat! It’s FULL of recipes.

I found this Eggplant, Goat Cheese and Olive Pizza on page 114. With all the ingredients being some of my top favorites I had to try it out! It did NOT disappoint me one bit.

Recipe Summary….

Eggplant, Goat Cheese and Olive Pizza

• First you need to make your homemade yeast (or store bought)

I make homemade pizza every Friday so if you’d like my recipe read below

HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH
add one package of active yeast into 1 cup of warm water and let sit until dissolved (all of a few minutes)
One tsp of sugar
2 1/2 cups of flour of your choice (I use 1 cup of whole wheat and 1 1/2 cups of white flour)
Mix thoroughly and cover
Let it rise (at least 1-1 1/2 hours)
I leave mine all day

• cut up and roast eggplant pieces (I roasted mine at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes)

• chop up white onion and garlic and sauté in oil

• blend a half a cup of roasted red peppers up (this will serve as the sauce)
• roll out your dough and bake on 375 degrees for about 18 minutes

Take your pizza out of the oven and cover it with the sauce (roasted red pepper blend). Top with roasted eggplant, onion/garlic mixture. Add olives, crumbled goat cheese and fresh rosemary. Stick it back in the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes. I truly really enjoyed this recipe and plan to make it again soon! I think it might be a great thing to put together on the weekend for a weekday lunch! 🙂

The only alteration I made to this recipe was I threw in a bunch of smoked almonds to blend up with the roasted peppers! It gave the pizza a grainer sauce, but I enjoyed it! Happy experimenting! 

Healthy Mediterranean Recipes