Spinach Mushroom Pizza is an easy, simple and delicious meal that is perfect for lunch, dinner or any occasion. Taking less than 30 minutes to prepare, this might just become your kitchen staple!
Garden-fresh spinach entangled between melted mozzarella, chewy mushrooms, and tangy olives will serve your taste buds just as they would your foodie soul.
For more easy pizza recipes, check Roasted Vegetable Pizza and Pizza Fritta.
Bored of your regular frozen or take-out pizzas? This pizza will give you the fresh herby twist you've longed for.
What is Spinach Mushroom Pizza?
It is a homemade delicacy, for times you’d like to savour something yummy without the added guilt of it being completely unhealthy. But where did these flatbreads with variant toppings come from? We're all well aware that the roots of pizza lie somewhere in Italy.
Baker Raffaele Esposito from Naples is often addressed as the creator of the magnificent flatbread. Oh, the blessings he must receive up in heaven!
However, many historians mention that vendors on the street sold flatbread with various toppings for many years before Esposito.
Why this recipe?
Because it's a stress-buster, best-in-kitchen comfort food, and an absolute people pleaser. This Spinach and Mushroom Pizza is a dream for impressing guests, a cute date, or just yourself on a rough weekday night.
We all love pizza, but take-out or frozen pizzas are unhealthily consumed regularly. Besides, while your body craves some carbs, your soul craves some earthy ingredients. This Spinach Mushroom Pizza is the best of both worlds.
Ingredients
- Pizza dough: Use homemade or store-bought pizza dough.
- Olive oil: Extra virgin olive oil is a healthy choice.
- Pizza sauce: Whipped up at home or store-bought. You can use tomato sauce instead.
- Fresh Garlic: Peeled and finely diced.
- Mozzarella cheese: Pre-grated or grated straight on the pizza.
- Mushrooms: Choose your favourite; shiitakes, morel, portabella or others.
- Baby Spinach: Freshly picked.
- Black olives: Use kalamata olives, cut into halves.
How to Make Fresh Spinach Mushroom Pizza
Before beginning, preheat the oven to 220 C and lightly grease a 22 cm baking pan with oil. Only then proceed to the following steps:
One: In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat, add garlic, and let it simmer for 30 seconds. Once Sautéd, go ahead and add the mushrooms.
Two: Next, sprinkle the ingredients in your pan with salt and black pepper to taste.
Three: Continue to Sauté it for 5-8 minutes or until the mixture is softened.
Four: Add the spinach to the mixture, cook for 1 minute, then remove from heat and set it aside.
Five: Put the pizza dough into the baking pan you had greased earlier; use your fingers to spread the dough in the pan.
Six: Spread your pizza sauce all over the dough.
Seven: Top the unbaked good with the mozzarella cheese, distribute the sauteed spinach and mushrooms evenly and drop some black olive rings on top.
Eight: Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cheese is melted. Remove from oven and top with fresh basil leaves and red pepper flakes.
Ta-duh! Your favourite comfort food is ready to be devoured. Keep reading for some serving suggestions we provide in this blog as well.
Top Tips!
These tips aren't just great for THIS pizza but can be applied to ANY pizza you'd like to perfect:
- Leave about 1-1.5 inches of space from the outer corners of the pizza for the crust.
- The secret to a perfectly baked pizza resides in placing the uncooked pizza in an oven already flaming hot. So don't skip the preheating stage.
- If you're using store bought dough, don't forget to take it out from the fridge half an hour before you start prepping. This makes sure that the gluten is relaxed and easy to work with.
- Don't roll your pizza dough because it'll only deflate it, leaving you with cardboard pizza. Instead, place the dough ball on a floured surface and pull it from the centre. Use your curved fingers to shape it and lift it from the surface so that gravity does the stretching of the dough for you. Don't worry too much about the shape. Pizzas in Italy don't look as perfect as you may think.
- Before placing the pizza in the oven, you may gently brush the crust with olive oil. It'll give your pizza crust great crisp and flavour.
Recipe Variations
- If you'd like to make your dough from scratch, kudos. Check this homemade pizza dough recipe.
- Not a fan of the tangy red pizza sauce used in the recipe? Try this topping variation instead: white sauce, feta cheese, onions and some sundried tomatoes.
- If vegetarian pizzas don't float your boat, we love this combination of toppings: mushrooms and sausage. Most people love this combination thanks to the stringy cheese, variety of protein, and chewy mushrooms that go on top of the pizza.
- If mozzarella isn't available, use parmesan cheese, goat cheese, ricotta cheese or cheddar cheese instead. Or make it extra cheese and use more than one type of cheese.
- Top your pizza with your favorite fresh herbs such as basil, cilantro or parsley.
- Add more veggies such as bell peppers or red onions.
The Dough Keeps Sticking To My Pizza Peel. What Do I Do?
Is that so? Don't worry; follow the following steps, and this issue should be resolved.
First off, prepare all your toppings beforehand. As the longer the dough sits on the peel, the more the chances of the dough sticking to it. Once all your toppings are ready, dust the surface you're working on with semolina or regular flour. When working with the pizza dough to stretch it out, feel for any wet and sticky spots and dust them with some flour as well.
After dusting the pizza peel with a thin layer of flour, place the dough and add your toppings quickly. Remember, we don't want the dough to sit on the pizza peel for a long time. We want to place it in the oven as fast as possible.
Shimmy the uncooked pizza a little before placing it in the oven for baking. If the pizza has already begun to stick to the pizza peel, take out a spatula. Dust the spatula with some flour and slide it under the uncooked pizza, slowly separating the stuck parts.
Now, proceed to place it in the oven. By following the steps above, you will have an easier time working with the pizza, which won’t stick to your pizza peel.
Serving Suggestions
Although no side dish can ever take away this main course's attention, there are still some great appetisers that make this pizza even more worthwhile. A carrot salad, coleslaw, garlic bread or soup of any kind perfectly complements this Spinach Mushroom Pizza.
Storage
To store: Leftover pizza can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge. It will keep fresh for 1-2 days.
To freeze: Pizzas freeze beautifully, slice the pizza and put parchment pepper between the slices, put in an airtight container in the freezer for 2-3 months.
Recipe FAQs
Don't chop the spinach leaves or chop them roughly before placing them in the skillet to Sauté. You want to keep the leaves whole to spread on the pizza, but you don't want the long stems, which will only make the spinach hard to work with whilst placing it as a topping on the pizza.
Yes, this recipe is vegetarian as long as you don't use any of the non-vegetarian options we've mentioned in the "recipe variations" part.
This recipe is not vegan. However, if you swap out the mozzarella cheese for any plant-based cheese derived from soybean or coconuts, it can be made vegan. We’re not sure what that would taste like, though. So, if you do make this recipe vegan, make sure to mention it in the comments below so others can benefit from it!
You can use any type you want. However, the most common mushrooms for pizza are white button mushrooms, portobello mushrooms, shitake and cremini mushrooms.
Yes, you can. However, you need to thaw it and get rid of all the excess water, then pat it dry before using it.
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Recipe Card
Fresh Spinach Mushroom Pizza
Equipment
- Pizza pan
Ingredients
- 1 pizza dough , homemade or store-bought
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon pizza sauce
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- ½ cup mozzarella cheese , shredded
- ½ cup mushrooms , sliced
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- ⅓ cup black olives , cut into halves
- fresh basil , for topping
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220 C, lightly grease a 22 cm baking pan with oil.
- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat, add garlic, Sauté for 30 seconds, then add mushrooms, sprinkle with salt and black pepper.1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, ½ cup mushrooms
- Sauté for 5-8 minutes or until softened.
- Add the spinach, cook for 1 minute, then remove from heat and set aside.1 cup fresh spinach
- Spread the pizza dough into the baking pan, spread the pizza sauce over.2 tablespoon pizza sauce, 1 pizza dough
- Top with the mozzarella cheese, then distribute the cooked mushrooms and spinach and sprinkle black olives on top.½ cup mozzarella cheese, ⅓ cup black olives
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until cheese is melted.
- Remove from oven and top with fresh basil leaves and red pepper flakes.fresh basil, ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Notes
- Leave about 1-1.5 inches of space from the outer corners of the pizza for the crust.
- The secret to a perfectly baked pizza resides in placing the uncooked pizza in an oven already flaming hot. So don't skip the preheating stage.
- If you're using store bought dough, don't forget to take it out from the fridge half an hour before you start prepping. This makes sure that the gluten is relaxed and easy to work with.
- Don't roll your pizza dough because it'll only deflate it, leaving you with cardboard pizza. Instead, place the dough ball on a floured surface and pull it from the centre. Use your curved fingers to shape it and lift it from the surface so that gravity does the stretching of the dough for you. Don't worry too much about the shape. Pizzas in Italy don't look as perfect as you may think.
- Before placing the pizza in the oven, you may gently brush the crust with olive oil. It'll give your pizza crust great crisp and flavour.
Nutrition
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Charlotte
Delicious! I added some leftover chicken and drizzled it with ketchup.
Poppy
Do I have to use pizza crust? I mean, can I just use flatbread in making the pizza?
Radwa
Actually, I never tried it with flatbread; however, feel free to try it and let us know how it turned out.
Katrine Max
Wow, This is super tasty and healthy spinach mushroom pizza. I love it.
Farah
Can I use frozen spinach in making this pizza?
Radwa
Yes, you can; just make sure to get rid of all the excess water from the frozen spinach.