This life-changing vegetarian arugula pumpkin pizza with caramelized onions is packed with fall flavors and is the perfect Friday night dinner!
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This arugula pumpkin pizza with caramelized onions may be the best recipe I’ve ever created. I’m not joking. Every ingredient has a purpose and comes together to create the most flavorful, incredible fall pizza. While I love all my recipes, every once and a while you know you’ve struck gold. This pizza is one of those times.
Ingredients for Arugula Pumpkin Pizza
Pizza Dough: I like to buy the pre-made refrigerated dough from Trader Joe’s. You could also buy a pre-made pizza crust, but it may change the cook time. If you’re feeling ambitious and want to make your own, I like this recipe.
Pumpkin Apple Cider Vinaigrette: The best sauce ever! See this post for all the deets on this delectable life-changing vinaigrette.
Mozzarella Cheese: It’s important to use low-moisture mozzarella here! If you don’t, you may notice a pool of water form in the middle of your pizza as it bakes, which will make it soggy. No one wants that!
Goat Cheese: For some extra umami and tang.
Arugula: This slightly spicy green is a perfect complement to all the other flavors in this recipe.
Yellow Onion and Olive Oil: This is where the real labor of love is in this recipe. Caramelizing the onion in some oil takes 20-30 minutes, but I promise you it is WORTH IT. It elevates the entire dish.
All-Purpose Flour: Just a dusting to help with forming the pizza dough.
Pizza Tips & Tricks
Making pizza, even with pre-made dough, can be a bit of an art. I have learned the hard way through trial and error, and am here to pass on my knowledge. I must also shout out my mother and her tireless efforts to make the perfect homemade pizza, as I have gleaned much wisdom from her.
- Pizza Dough: First things first: let your pizza dough sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. This gives the gluten a chance to relax and will make forming the dough easier.
- Flour and Water: I like to fill a small bowl with lukewarm water and lightly dust my workspace with all-purpose flour as I’m forming the pizza dough. I dab my fingers in the water as needed to relax the gluten, and the flour keeps the dough from getting too sticky.
- Pizza Stone: You can use a metal baking sheet, but I highly recommend investing in a pizza stone. The real key to success with the pizza stone is placing it in the oven while it pre-heats; this will ensure the crust crisps up evenly.
- Low Moisture Mozzarella Cheese: This is essential to making sure your pizza doesn’t come out soggy!
- Adding the veggies: I don’t add the arugula or onions until the last 5 minutes, because they will burn otherwise.
- Use both oven racks! For best results, bake your pizza on the bottom rack for the first 8 minutes before transferring to the top rack for the last 4-5 minutes.
- Resting and Cooling: It’s best to let the pizza sit for at least 5 minutes after it comes out of the oven. This will allow everything to settle for optimal flavor and texture!
If you make this arugula pumpkin pizza with caramelized onions, be sure to leave a rating and review! This helps others decide if they want to make the recipe too and means so much to me.
More Fun Dinners:
- The Very Best Easy Weeknight Turkey Burgers
- Amazing Vegetarian Barbecue Stuffed Bell Peppers
- Fig Grilled Cheese with Balsamic Reduction
- Vegan Kale Caesar Pasta with Crispy Chickpeas
- Easy and Healthy Cauliflower Gnocchi Bake
Arugula Pumpkin Pizza with Caramelized Onions
Equipment
- pizza stone or large metal baking sheet
- Blender or Food Processor (Optional)
Ingredients
- 1 lb pizza dough (I got mine from Trader Joe's)
- ⅓ cup pumpkin apple cider vinaigrette (recipe below)
- 2 cups low moisture mozzarella cheese shredded
- ½ cup goat cheese crumbled
- 1 cup arugula
- 1 yellow onion sliced thinly in half moon shapes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- all purpose flour and warm water as needed to shape the dough
For the Pumpkin Apple Cider Vinaigrette:
- ½ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup canned pumpkin purée
- 2 tbsp honey (maple syrup works too!)
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 clove garlic peeled and minced
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450° F. If using pizza stone, go ahead and put it in the oven at this time to warm it (this will ensure your pizza cooks evenly).
- Remove pizza dough from refrigerator and let sit on counter for approximately 20 minutes.
- Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat until shimmering and add onions. Sauté occasionally, checking every 5 minutes or so until they are caramelized and golden brown. This takes about 20-30 minutes.
- While the oven is preheating and your onions are caramelizing, make your pumpkin apple cider vinaigrette! Place all ingredients in blender or food processor and blend on high for 30 seconds to 1 minute to ensure everything is well-combined and emulsified. Alternatively, you could place all ingredients in a mason jar with lid tightly shut and shake until all ingredients are well-combined.
- When pizza dough has sat out for 20 minutes, form it into a 10-12 inch circle (this doesn't need to be perfectly symmetrical!), using all-purpose flour and dabbing fingers in a small bowl of warm water as needed to shape the dough.
- When all components are prepared, remove pizza stone from oven carefully with oven mitts, lightly coat with olive oil and transfer shaped pizza dough to stone. Spread out ⅓ cup of pumpkin apple cider vinaigrette evenly and top with mozzarella and goat cheese. Put back in oven on bottom rack for 8 minutes.
- Pull out pizza at 8-minute mark and add onions and arugula. Bake for 4-5 more minutes on the top rack, removing when arugula has wilted and cheese and crust are golden brown. Let sit for 5 minutes, slice into 8 pieces, and enjoy!
Notes
Photography by Hope Agresti
Oh my goodness!!!! This is perfection!!!!
No joke this is the best pizza with the best toppings I’ve ever had. This pizza gives you a ratatouille moment, It’s bursting with flavor goodness!