Roasted Radish Naan Pizza with Ricotta, Microgreens and Balsamic Reduction

In the last post I got on my little soapbox about how great pea shoots were. Today I'd like to humbly suggest that you save yourself some money and grow your own microgreens too. You have a porch or a sunny window, right? Then you can grow your very own microgreens!

I hate having to buy large amounts of sprouts at the store, only to throw half away. Even with two people in the house, we have a tough time finishing a box of alfalfa sprouts. By growing my own, I grow what I need with no waste, and no wasted cash. Win win.

It sounds like some additional research is needed based on what I could find, but initial indications are that microgreens can contain up to 40 times the amount of vitamins and nutrients as their grown counterparts, depending on what you're growing.

Trendy new "superfood"? Yes.
Delicious and packed with healthy goodness? Easy and cheap to grow yourself? Also yes!

You can buy sprouting seeds online. 4 oz. of seeds will go a looong way, and the options are endless. Personally, I can vouch for radish and alfalfa sprouting seeds. They're easy to grow and just take a few days. I ordered some red amaranth last week as well, so I'm sure you'll see those in a recipe soon enough.

This super fancy microgreen planter was made by drilling drainage holes in the bottom of an old plastic bowl.

Back to the recipe. I had some radish sprouts that were ready to use. I was really hoping to have some french breakfast radishes from the garden too, but they didn't turn out well. (Too hot, perhaps? It is mid-June.) So I settled on some purchased from the market. You win some, you lose some.

Anyway, so I had some things on hand, and needed to make lunch. Here's what I came up with. A super messy naan pizza (I suggest you have a fork handy) heaped with toasty roasted radishes, and a creamy peperoncini and roasted garlic spiked ricotta. (Mmmm...) For a little kick and a little crunch, this pizza is sprinkled with goat cheese and a generous helping of radish microgreens.

This recipe is for one piece of naan. I served this with a spring salad, so my guy and I split one piece. Adjust the ingredient portions accordingly depending on how much you need.

Ingredients:
1 c. radishes, sliced in half
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
1/2 c. low fat ricotta cheese
1/2 Tbsp. peperoncini, minced
3 cloves roasted garlic, although I'm sure regular garlic (minced) will work just fine, just saute it a bit first.
1 slice pre-packaged Naan Bread
1 Tbsp. goat cheese
a small handful of microgreens (I used the radish variety)
Balsamic reduction to taste

Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400F.

Arrange radishes on a baking sheet. Drizzle with 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, tossing half way through. The radishes are done when they're brown on the edges and relatively tender.

In a bowl, mix the ricotta, minced peperoncini and roasted garlic. Mash the roasted garlic in the mix as necessary.

Brush the remaining oil over the naan. Spread ricotta mixture on top, and add the roasted radishes.Sprinkle goat cheese over the pizza. Toss back in the oven for an additional 10-15 minutes.

Remove from the oven, and top with microgreens. Drizzle with balsamic reduction prior to plating, or just allow everyone to add their own.

Pea Shoot Pesto

Have you tried pea shoots yet?

They're my new favorite addition to the porch garden. These little greens are low maintenance, relatively heat tolerant, have a quick turnaround from planting to harvest, and are delicious!

The greens, as you can imagine, taste like peas!

An obvious choice would be to add them to salads and sandwiches. However as you can see, it's going to take a ton of salads and sandwiches to use all these pea shoots. I planted these, and we had several days of showers afterword that these guys just LOVED. I also have some green onions growing nearby, and since peas are climbers, I found I had to cut away the little tendrils that were pulling my onions!  Like I said, pea shoots grow FAST.

See the little tendrils? I didn't think I needed a trellis for baby greens!

So when life gives you rain, make some pesto.

Snag a few handfuls of pea shoots.

After a good rinse, chop coarsely. (I had roughly four cups of shoots, if you're measuring.)

Four cups down, and there's still leftovers! Talk about efficient gardening for small spaces!

Toss the shoots in a food processor with some toasted walnuts, Parmesan cheese, a sprinkling of kosher salt, and a couple cloves of garlic. Process while adding about 1/3 cup of oil, to the desired consistency.

You're drooling. :)

Add liberally wherever you normally use pesto: pasta, caprese salad, serve with bread and radish slices as a dip, just eat it out of the jar with a spoon...

It's that good, just trust me. This pesto is light and earthy, and just tastes like spring. Although don't let that stop you - I'm making this year round! You can bet I'll have pea shoots inside near a window this winter!

I've given this to friends who don't like the standard basil pesto, and they loved it! But if you'd like a little inspiration for what to do with the stuff, I'll add some recipes in the coming posts.

Pea Shoot Pesto

Ingredients:
4 c. pea shoots
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 c. olive oil
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Toasting the Walnuts
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and add walnuts. Toast for about 10 minutes.
I  usually just gauge it by smell. Crack open the oven around the ten minute mark. Do they smell toasty and delicious? Then they're good. Take them out and let them cool while you assemble the rest of the pesto.

Making the Pesto
Coarsely chop the pea shoots.
In a food processor, combine pea shoots, shredded Parmesan, garlic, and (cooled) walnuts.
Pulse until roughly chopped. Add salt to taste.
Further process the mix while adding oil. Continue to process until the desired consistency is reached.

This will keep for a few days in the fridge. Just spoon it into a jar and cover with some olive oil for storage. If you're like me and have more pea shoots than you know what to do with, you can also freeze the pesto if you wish.