Ever since I visited Italy, I have grown to really appreciate pizza. The way they prepare the dough and use high-quality ingredients really makes their pizzas exceptional. I now make the effort to make everything from scratch including the dough, sauce, and toppings. However, every now and again I just want to whip up a quick pizza. Here is where this chorizo and hummus naan pizza steps in. It's not an Italian-style pizza by any means, but a fun fusion one instead. Use naan as the base and top it with spicy chorizo, smoked mozzarella, peppadew peppers, and a bright arugula feta salad for an amazing pizza. Trust me, it's incredibly delicious!
Chorizo and Hummus Naan Pizza
Ingredients
Roasted tomato basil hummus
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 15 ounces canned chickpeas drained, liquid reserved
- ¼ cup basil
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 5 tablespoons reserved chickpea juice
- salt and pepper
Naan pizza
- 4 ounces uncured chorizo
- 4 naan
- 4 ounces smoked mozzarella
- ¼ cup thinly sliced red onion
- 8 peppadew peppers sliced
Arugula salad
- 2 cups arugula
- ¼ cup chopped castelvetrano olives
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
- 2 ounces crumbled feta
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 ½ tablespoons red wine vinegar
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Toss cherry tomatoes and garlic cloves with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes or until lightly charred.
- Combine roasted tomatoes and garlic with chickpeas, basil, tahini, lemon juice and reserved canned chickpea liquid in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth and season with salt and pepper.
- Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees F.
- Heat saute pan over medium heat. Add chorizo and cook until browned, breaking it up with a wooden spoon into smaller chunks. Remove from heat.
- Assemble pizzas. Spread hummus on naan and top with smoked mozzarella, crumbled chorizo, red onion, and sliced peppadew. Place pizzas on sheet pans and bake for 4 minutes or until cheese is melted and lightly browned.
- Meanwhile, make arugula salad. Toss arugula with chopped olives, parsley, oregano, feta, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.
- Remove pizzas from the oven and top with arugula salad. Serve immediately.
**Helpful tips and common mistakes
So you may be looking at the recipe and be thinking, "well, this still looks like a lot of work!" Yes, you still need to prepare several components; however, many of them can be prepared beforehand, including the roasted tomato basil hummus.
Let's start by making the hummus, First roast cherry tomatoes, and garlic cloves until lightly charred. Then, use a food processor or blender to puree the tomatoes and garlic with the remaining hummus ingredients. I always use the canned chickpea liquid to help puree the mixture so make sure to set that liquid aside!
This recipe makes a fairly large amount of hummus. You can either make half a batch or follow the recipe and use the remainder for another meal.
While the tomatoes are roasting for the hummus, cook the chorizo. Chorizo has a lot of fat so we want to render some of it out. Use a wooden spoon and break the meat into smaller chunks as it cooks.
Thinly slice the red onion and peppadew and we're ready to assemble the pizzas. You can prepare all of the toppings the day before if desired.
While you're at it, you can also make homemade naan. It's actually quite easy to do but it does take a couple of hours. Since I'm looking for a quicker meal, I stuck with storebought.
Spread the roasted tomato basil hummus on the naan. Then, tear up the smoked mozzarella into bite-size chunks and lay them on top. Sprinkle the chorizo, red onion, and peppadew and bake the naan pizzas for 4 minutes at 500 degrees F.
While the pizzas are cooking, go ahead and make the arugula salad. You can also prepare the salad beforehand and just toss it with olive oil and red wine vinegar right before serving.
Top the chorizo and hummus naan with the arugula salad and dig in!
I gotta say, I absolutely loved these fusion pizzas. The pizza alone has so much flavor from the spicy chorizo to the smoky mozzarella to the sweet peppers. However, the arugula salad on top really takes it to the next level. In fact, I went heavy-handed with the salad topping and I thoroughly enjoyed every bite!
For more pizza inspiration check out this roasted vegetable pesto flatbread!
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