I swear to you, I was the biggest pizza fan that ever existed. It was our cheat meal almost every Friday night. About a year and a half ago, I realized that it wasn’t pizza that I loved, it was the flavors piled on top of the crust. There is no real flavor in the crust, it’s just a vehicle for the tastiness on top. I haven’t had a pizza, in the traditional, or even paleo-ified sense, since. So here you have it, instead of picking off the toppings during this year’s Super Bowl party you can eat an entire bowl full of ‘salad’.
Ingredients
- 1 7 oz. package of Applegate pepperoni slices, chopped or sliced*
- 2 bell peppers, choose your favorite color, chopped or sliced
- 1 eggplant, diced
- 1 red onion, diced
- 6 oz mushrooms, sliced
- chili flakes, to taste
- olive oil
- black or green olives, roughly chopped
- banana peppers, roughly chopped
- fresh basil, torn with your hands into small pieces
- any other pizza-like topping you dig
For the Dressing
- 3 T pizza sauce
- 1 T red wine vinegar
- 1/4 c olive oil
Method
Over medium-high heat, saute the pepperoni pieces until they’re crispy. Remove from the pan and let them hang out in your serving dish. Add some fat to your saute pan, along with peppers, onion, eggplant and mushrooms. Let all the ingredients sweat it out together, until they’ve softened and developed some caramelized-like color. Add the veggie mixture to your serving bowl, along with the chili flakes, olives, banana peppers and basil.
For the Dressing
Whisk all the ingredients together. Drizzle over the pizza salad and toss to combine. Serve the salad hot–though cold pizza salad is just as yum in the tum.
*I only mention this brand because it’s free of preservatives like sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, BHT, etc. Feel free to substitute (or add!) bacon, sausage or any ground meat.
24 Comments
Stacy
January 31, 2011 at 6:17 pmThat looks good. I’ve done a primalish pizza with a parmesan/egg/almond flour crust, which is actually pretty good and very filling considering how dense the crust is. But this looks easier, and top it with some mozzarella and stick it under the broiler for a couple of minutes, and you’ve basically got all the best parts of the pizza.
I am concerned that this is the sort of thing that would make hubby say “she made me eat Paleo” (or, knowing him, he’d just make some toast and put this on top). Maybe if I didn’t mention pizza, and just called it pepperoni salad or something. 🙂
Brandon Keatley
January 31, 2011 at 9:45 pmjust tell him it is a yummy meat bowl. then he’ll say…”hey, this yummy meat bowl tastes like pizza!” thanks stacy.
JQBancroft
February 3, 2011 at 10:38 amAs I have just made my third primal pizza crust, and decided that no crust will ever satisfy what the real crust did for me, I think this idea is fantastic. I’d be much happier eating the toppings alone than trying to make them work with a crust that will never be the same. I’m eager to think of hot salads that represent my favorite topping combos. One of our favorite pizzas, greek pizza (spinach, tomato, onion, green olive, olive oil), would be fantastic for this. I’ve eaten greek salad cold a bunch, but hot will be my new favorite!
megan keatley
February 3, 2011 at 2:43 pmi completely agree. any bread product whos consistency is produced from gluten (crusty breads & pizza crust)..are NOT going to work without it. it’s just not worth the effort, in my opinion. i agree, this recipe could definitely traverse many culinary lands…
Brian
February 4, 2011 at 3:12 pmThis looks awesome! I can’t wait to try it. This site has been unbelievable as I am learning my way to a mostly Paleo diet. I have tried a couple recipes here (once I did 3 recipes in the same day) and have loved them all! I figured if I wanted my wife to play along with me I would have to jump in a cook meals for her that she would enjoy
This sounds great for a non-salad salad as I have gotten a little bored with throwing last nights chicken/steak over some romaine. Also, I have really grown to love sauteed onions and peppers that I used to detest. Paleo has done great things for me as has this site, thanks so much!
megan keatley
February 6, 2011 at 6:15 pmtoo funny..b/c i’m the say way! used to HATE peppers & onions and love them now. i get pretty sick of lettuce based salads too. i’ve always needed a high ‘goodies’-to-lettuce ratio in my salad, or i don’t really like it. lettuce is just water and flavorless, to me anyway. thanks brian!
JQBancroft
February 9, 2011 at 9:19 pmUpdate: I made my first hot pizza salad today! It was AMAZING. Best paleo “pizza” I’ve had since I’ve gone primal. Wow. I altered the method and ingredients a little, so for others who are interested: I roasted pepperoni, bell pepper, and mushrooms at 400 on a cookie sheet since I didn’t want to babysit the stove while I got ready for work. I reheated it in the microwave at work for dinner, and it was still fantastic. Everyone said what I was eating smelled good and wanted to know what it was! 🙂
megan keatley
February 10, 2011 at 4:35 pmso glad you liked it jb…thanks for sharing the tips!
Erica
March 8, 2011 at 9:13 amHey, how many servings does this make?
megan keatley
March 10, 2011 at 12:40 pmi’d say about 4-5. i always hesitate to put servings on our recipes b/c i just never know how much someone considers a serving–and who am i to decide. ya know?
megan keatley
March 25, 2011 at 12:27 pmcongrats to erica for being featured on marksdailyapple.com today! what a great success story!
bev
March 17, 2011 at 5:56 pmDo you have a recipe for a pizza sauce by chance?
I love all the recipes I’ve tried here so far. This is my #1 stop for stoner paleo food! <3 😀
Kiley
March 17, 2011 at 10:19 pmI made this tonight for a small dinner gathering including kids and non-paleo folks. I had never made it before so I was a little hesitant but it turned out soooo amazing. Because I had a few more people I added more peppers, used sweet turkey sausage (without the casings), and baked bacon (cut into pieces). I doubled the dressing because of the extra veggies and meat. Everyone ate this and had more. The kids had no idea they were eating so many veggies. It tasted just like a gourmet pizza, but without the guilt and upset tummy later. Love love loved it. Thank you! Somewhere in the comments it was said that this served 4-5 people. I would agree. We served 3 adults with seconds and 2 small kids.
xtina
March 22, 2011 at 10:23 pmLOVE this recipe! Just found your website a few weeks ago and I have made 4 recipes, all with great results!
Made the pizza salad just now- my son loved it and it’s one of my new favs!
megan keatley
March 25, 2011 at 12:26 pmthanks so much xtina!
Tasha
August 14, 2011 at 1:04 pmThis has become a goto comfort food kinda meal for me. About to make it right now! Thanks for all you guys do.
CHRISTINE
September 16, 2011 at 7:00 pmI loved this recipe!! I have just started on the paleo journey and this really was a filling and tasty meal. I also have been enjoying your “tator tot” recipe. Thank you so much for freely sharing your great ideas with the rest of us!
megan keatley
September 21, 2011 at 3:51 pmyou are very welcome. thank you christine!
Scott
September 27, 2011 at 12:23 amI just made this dish this afternoon and just had it for my “lunch” tonight and WOW!!! This is the second meal I have tried and both of them were awesome. thanks so much!!!
megan keatley
September 27, 2011 at 4:37 pmso glad you enjoyed scott. thanks for the kinds words!
Holly Snyder
January 26, 2013 at 6:12 pmthis was delish, thanks for creating. I also added some ground beef to the recipe and it was great! The dressing MAKES the salad. Keep the recipes coming, you guys are awesome!
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