Gourmet Vegetarian (w/ optional chicken and bacon) Pizza

Papa Murphy's Gourmet Vegetarian pizza is one of my all-time favourite things to eat. There's not many things that I like so much that I'd care to keep eating it even when I'm full, but their pizza is one of those things. I first started making it myself when I was living back home in Canada (because we obviously didn't have Papa Murphy's there). I've started adding chicken to it for Christopher and usually just put it on 1/2-2/3rds of the pizza for him! And just trust me about the lemon juice because it really brings out the flavours!

* Note: Chris just recently started adding bacon to his half as well and now he can't eat it without the chicken and bacon.

Gourmet Vegetarian (w/ optional chicken and bacon) Pizza

Pizza Dough:

use your favourite or see our pizza dough recipe

Creamy Garlic Sauce:

1 cup Hidden Valley Ranch dressing
1 round tbsp minced garlic

This makes enough to cover 2 pizza's.

We use the Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning and Salad Dressing mix, following the directions to make 8 oz, then add the 1 tbsp garlic.

Toppings:

spinach, fresh is ideal, but frozen (and thawed) works as well

1 zucchini, thinly sliced

mushrooms *optional (Chris hates mushrooms so sadly we don't add them very often)

artichoke hearts, cut in half (I buy the marinated hearts from Costco in the large jar, then rinse and drain as many as I want to use)

1 large tomato, diced (or 2 Roma tomatoes)

1/2 large red onion, diced

2-3 chicken tenders (I usually poach the chicken and then cut them into bite sized pieces), *optional
bacon, cooked and broken in to bite sized pieces *optional

lots of shredded cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, etc)
parmesan cheese

Hand press or roll pizza dough onto large round pizza stoneware sprinkled with corn meal. You can also use a regular pizza pan.

Liberally spread the creamy garlic sauce on the dough. Then cover the dough with a layer of spinach, then a layer of zucchini, followed by a layer of mushrooms, then the artichoke hearts, then the tomato and red onion. If you're adding chicken and/or bacon, I'd suggest putting on here. Top with as much cheese as you'd like, but I suggest lots. You can also add a layer of cheese under all the veggies if you like a lot of cheese on your pizza.

Bake at 425 degrees on the bottom rack for 18-20 minutes, or according to your dough recipe, though please note it will take a little longer to cook due to all the veggies (wet ingredients).

After the pizza comes out of the oven let it sit for a couple minutes before cutting and serving it.

And here's the trick, sprinkle lemon juice and salt on the pizza!

Enjoy!