Chicken and Spinach Pizza Salad with Lemon Dijon Dressing

A simple garlic oil, mozza and tomato pizza forms the base for this great salad and pizza combo. I started making salads on fresh flatbreads years ago and still enjoy them very much but that idea eventually occasionally morphed into variations of this pizza salad recipe which I very often prepare when making pizza for the kids. I like it for lunch, supper or even as a starter course at a dinner party in a scaled down size.

Pizza Dough: MAKES ENOUGH FOR 6 -8 INDIVIDUAL PIZZAS
3-4 cups all purpose flour
I packet instant yeast
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 ¼ cups lukewarm water
½ tsp sea salt

Mix dry ingredients together except for one cup of the flour. Add the warm water and mix very well with a wooden spoon for about 5 minutes. Add the remaining flour a little at a time until dough forms. Remove to a floured breadboard or your counter top and knead for an additional 5 minutes. Allow dough to rest for ½ hour, covered in a warm place. Knead again for 5 minutes and split dough into portions and allow to rest for 20 minutes before rolling your dough into the desired size.

Garlic Olive Oil
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves chopped garlic

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a small saucepan. Add the chopped garlic and immediately remove from heat and allow the oil to cool.

To prepare the pizzas:

Preheat your pizza stone in middle rack of your oven for half an hour at 450 degrees F.
Stretch or roll your pizza dough into 8 inch rounds and place one on a wooden peel that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. The cornmeal will allow the pizza to slide off the peel (I’ve even used a thin piece of cardboard in a pinch if you do not have a peel.) Make sure your pizza is sliding on the cornmeal base before adding your toppings. Brush each dough round with:

1 tbsp garlic olive oil

Top each pizza with:

4 ounces grated part skim mozzarella cheese
Tomato slices (sprinkle each slice with a few grains of kosher salt)
Grind some black pepper over the whole pizza.

Shake your peel to make sure the pizza is not stuck. Slide the pizza onto the hot stone, shaking it slightly in a back and forth motion as you slowly retract the wooden peel.
Bake for 8-12 minutes depending upon your oven. Bottom and top should be nicely browned.

Allow the pizzas to cool for a few minutes then top with a spinach salad of

Baby spinach leaves
Red peppers
Red onion
Black olives

Top each salad with a grilled or pan fried, boneless, skinless sliced chicken breast. Drizzle the whole salad with Lemon Dijon Dressing and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper.

Lemon Dijon Dressing

½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons honey
Juice of one lemon
2 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
3 tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to season

Combine egg yolks, honey, ½ the lemon juice, lemon zest and Dijon mustard in a blender and process for about 10-15 seconds. With the blender still turned on, slowly start to add ½ the olive oil in a very thin stream. Add the remaining lemon juice and continue to slowly add the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Note: As always raw eggs are not recommended for elderly, pregnant or very young diners. You can make this dressing with a base of 3 tbsp commercial mayonnaise instead of the egg yolks if you prefer or just omit them completely for a vinaigrette type dressing using less oil as well.