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This incredible Kale and Wild Mushroom Pizza recipe brings all the flavor of restaurant-quality pizza to your home oven. We’re keeping it simple by using a garlic oil base versus a classic red pizza sauce, to allow the flavors of the earthy mushrooms and savory kale to shine.
Kale is one of our favorite greens to use in pizza recipes. From Smoked Kale Chips to a great filler in soups, we use a lot of kale around these parts. And for kale pizza, the key for great flavor is to slightly cook them up in a pan first before making the pizza. This will both soften them up, and allow them to start to get slightly crispy.
This is a fantastic pizza for any vegetarian friends you have, or if you’re just trying to get a few more colorful veggies into your life!
Table of Contents
Ingredients + Substitutions for Kale and Wild Mushroom Pizza
See recipe card for exact portions. This kale pizza recipe assumes one 12-inch pizza dough. Adjust the recipe card portions to 1.5 times for anything over 12-inches.
- Pizza Dough – A Homemade Pizza Dough is best, or you can use a store-bought pizza dough. You can also make our Sourdough Pizza Dough if you want a little more flavor in the dough.
- Garlic Oil – Use two garlic cloves and 1/4 cup of olive oil for the base of one pizza.
- Rinsed and Dried Fresh Kale – We recommend curly kale, but you can substitute with whatever is seasonal. Lacinato Kale is also delicious. Just make sure to separate the kale leaves from the stem, and then roughly chop the kale.
- Cheese – Fresh mozzarella is our recommended cheese but you can substitute it with burrata, dollops of ricotta, goat cheese, or Oaxacan cheese. Just be sure it is cheese that melts well in the oven.
- Mushrooms – We use a wild mushroom mix, but you can substitute with your favorite mushrooms like cremini, shiitake, or chanterelles. Just be sure you have 1 1/2 – 2 cups total of mushrooms, before browning (they will shrink a lot while cooking!).
- Seasoning – Finishing salt, like Maldon, and red pepper flakes add nice flavor at the end.
Brown Mushrooms
Start with roughly 2 cups of mushrooms total, pre-cooked, before you chop and sauté. They will reduce to 1 cup and you’ll need 1 cup of post-cooked mushrooms to fill one 12-inch pizza dough.
In a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil. When the oil starts to smoke and bubble, add the mushrooms. Reduce heat to medium-low and allow the mushrooms to brown. Be sure they are not crowding the pan and steaming. After 6 minutes, stir and continue to brown the other side of the mushrooms. Remove when they are browned and set aside and toss with a pinch of salt for flavor.
Sauté Kale
We recommend having tongs for this step.
In the same pan as the mushrooms, add more oil over medium heat. When it starts to bubble and smoke, add the chopped kale. Using your tongs, lift and stir the kale so it starts to wilt and get crispy. This will happen quickly, so don’t leave the pan. When it’s wilted and starting to darken in color, remove the crispy kale from the pan and set aside. Depending on the exact kind of kale you use, this can take a couple of minutes, and up to 5 minutes. Thinner kale will cook quicker, thicker and more dense kale will take a little longer.
Chef’s Tip
After trimming the stems from the kale leaves, roll them up. With the palm of your hands, gently roll them and start to massage them. This rolling technique will break down the cell walls, making the kale more tender as it cooks. We do the same in our smoked collard greens recipe with amazing results.
Make Garlic Oil
In a small bowl, add the olive oil. Using a Microplane, grate one clove of peeled garlic into the oil. Stir to combine. If you are making multiple pizzas, we recommend two peeled garlic cloves for every 1/4 cup of garlic oil. You will use most of it for one pizza.
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How To Make Kale and Wild Mushroom Pizza
This kale pizza recipe is intended for an outdoor pizza oven. We also have recommendations for your home oven below. If you have a Neapolitan style dough, target the oven temperature at 900 degrees F, with the pizza stone at 700 degrees F. For a NY style or store-bought pizza dough target the oven at 700 degrees F, with the stone at 500 – 550.
- Preheat Oven: Prepare your pizza oven to the target temperature. For us, that’s setting the oven temp to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, with the pizza stone reading 700 degrees Fahrenheit using a good IR thermometer.
- Build the Pizza: Lightly dust a cutting board with flour and form dough into a 12-inch round. Coat the base with the garlic oil using a pastry brush within a 1/2 inch of the rim. Then evenly layer the kale, small chunks of mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, and red chili pepper flakes (if using).
- Cook Pizza: Launch the pizza into the pizza oven. Using a turning peel, rotate the pizza every 20 seconds until the pizza is cooked through. This can take up to 2 minutes. If using a grill, follow our guide on how to grill pizza.
- Remove and Serve: Remove pizza, add a pinch of finishing salt, and top pizza with microgreens as a colorful garnish. Slice and serve.
* Check out our full guides if you are new to using a pizza oven, how to grill pizza, or a pellet grill pizza.
Home Oven Modification: If using your home oven, we recommend making this kale pizza on a pizza stone. Preheat your oven to 550 degrees Fahrenheit with the pizza stone on the center rack. Launch the pizza onto the stone in the preheated oven using a pizza peel. Bake for 6 minutes and then rotate 180 degrees. Bake an additional 6 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the crust has turned golden.
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Pin ItVariations for Kale Pizza
Using this recipe as a base, feel free to add any swaps or adjustments to meet your desired flavors!
- Finishing Ideas – Add a drizzle of our Homemade Hot Honey after it comes out of the oven. Or add some truffle oil over the top for even more earthy flavors.
- Meat – If you want to add meat, consider pre-cooked Italian sausage, or pre-cooked pancetta like on our Sausage Pizza with chantarelle mushrooms.
- Sauce – If you like more of a sauce base, we recommend our White Pizza Sauce, vs a red pizza sauce as it drowns out the flavor of the kale and mushrooms.
Equipment Needed
If you own a pizza oven or grill, consider investing in some of these essential pizza tools that will make your life a lot easier and your pizzas better. But the following are definitely important for making great restaurant style pizzas at home:
- IR Thermometer to measure the pizza stone temperature.
- A pizza peel for making and launching the pizza, and a pizza turning peel for rotating the pizza in the oven.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, we recommend pre-cooking the kale for just a few minutes to soften it. If you put raw kale on a pizza, it will not cook all the way through and the texture will be rough, dry, and chewy and may burn easily when using a really hot pizza oven.
No, there is no need to soak the kale before cooking. Make sure you do roll out the kale and gently massage it before cooking though, just to break down the cell walls and make them more tender.
Any salad greens that wilt well in a pan are great on pizza. Spinach and kale work well. Arugula and Asian salad mix are all great on pizza after they are finished cooking. Use those as a topper vs cooking them.
Wine Pairing with Kale Pizza
The dominant flavors of the pizza are the garlic oil and the earthy mushrooms. The creamy and melty cheese is also important when pairing wine with kale pizza. For a white go for a Chardonnay, oaked or unoaked will both work.
For red, consider a Pinot Noir or Beaujolais since the mushrooms will complement the flavors of the wine.
Tried this recipe? Give us a star rating and we would love to see! Mention @vindulge or use the hashtag #vindulge on all the social media handles. And consider subscribing to our newsletter where we drop all our favorite ideas and inspirations every week.
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Kale and Wild Mushroom Pizza
Equipment
- 1 pizza oven
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped mushrooms, (We used a wild mushroom mix, but you can mix cremini, shiitake, chanterelle, or any mixture of mushrooms. Be sure you use 2 cups of pre-cooked mushrooms.)
- 2 cups chopped kale
- 275 gram pizza dough, (If using store-bought dough, you may be able to cut it in half for two pizzas)
- ¼ cup olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons each for kale and mushrooms.
- 2 peeled cloves garlic
- ½ cup fresh mozzarella
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Brown Mushrooms: In a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil. When the oil starts to smoke and bubble, add the mushrooms. Reduce heat to medium-low and allow the mushrooms to brown for approximately 6 minutes, then stir and cook an additional 4 minutes. Be sure they are not crowding the pan and steaming. Remove when they are browned and set aside.
- Sauté Kale: In the same pan add more oil over medium heat. When it starts to bubble and smoke, add the chopped kale. Using your tongs, lift and stir the kale so it starts to wilt and get crispy for about 3-4 minutes. This will happen quickly, so don’t leave the pan. When it’s wilted and starting to darken in color, remove the crispy kale from the pan and set aside.
- Prep Oven: Prepare your pizza oven to the target temperature. For us, that’s setting the oven temp to 900 degrees Fahrenheit with the pizza stone reading 700 degrees Fahrenheit using a good IR thermometer.
- Build Pizza: Lightly dust a cutting board with flour and form dough into a 12-inch round. Coat with the garlic oil within 1/2 inch of the rim using a pastry brush. Then evenly layer kale, small chunks of mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, and a pinch of red chili pepper flakes.
- Bake Pizza: Launch the pizza into the pizza oven. Using a turning peel, rotate the pizza every 20 seconds until the pizza is cooked through. This can take up to 2 minutes. If using a grill follow our guide on how to grill pizza.
- Finish: Remove pizza and sprinkle with finishing salt and top pizza with microgreens as a colorful garnish. Slice and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is great with a Neapolitan crust but you can adjust the cooking time down if you use a NY Style or store-bought. Be sure to increase the recipe ingredient portions for a larger pizza.