This salad is DELICIOUS!!! I’m really excited about this little creation. I was craving pizza but tired of that “I ate way too many carbs this week” feeling. So, I started thinking…. hmmm… I wonder if I could make a salad with all my favorite pizza toppings? I was blown away by how Pizza-ish this salad tasted and just overall how great it was. I tried it out on all the kids. Mo said, “not bad.” Then I sent Em over to take a bite and Mo wouldn’t share it. I guess “not bad” is teenager speak for “good enough for me to eat it all and not share!” Either way, I took that to mean it was pretty darn good. Mo is not exactly a salad lover to begin with. Both of the boys liked it and Cal said, “not to be mean, Mom, but I’m kind of surprised. It’s really, really good and I wasn’t expecting pizza salad to taste as good as that.” I’d love to hear if you try it and if you like it as much as we do. 🙂
Pizza Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 bag of spring mix or your favorite salad greens
- 1 package of baby bella mushrooms
- 1/2 cup chopped red pepper
- 1/2 lb. sausage sweet or hot, however you like it. I used sweet turkey sausage
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1 Tbsp. shredded parmesan
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil for cooking mushrooms and sausage
Dressing
- 3 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tsp. red wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder more if you love it
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 1-2 finely chopped Campari tomatoes or handful of grape or cherry tomatoes
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a small frying pan, heat up a little olive oil and sauté the mushrooms until golden and a little crispy in places. Set aside.
- In the same pan that you used to sauté the mushrooms, add a little more olive oil and cook the sausage until nicely browned. Set aside to cool a bit.
- In a small bowl, mix all the dressing ingredients and whisk with a fork.
- To assemble the salad, put the salad greens in a large bowl.
- Sprinkle with chopped red pepper and mozzarella cheese.
- Add the sausage and mushrooms.
- Top with the dressing
- Sprinkle the parmesan over the top.
This salad goes together fairly quickly and I think you could change up the toppings to include different combinations. Add your favorites. My favorite pizza is sausage and mushroom so that’s where the inspiration comes from for this recipe. I’m thinking black olives might be a nice addition, maybe a Hawaiian ham and pineapple combination. hmmm… the possibilities are endless. I think it’s the dressing that gives this salad the pizza flavor and it would probably taste great on more than just salad.
