Mixed Greens Salad Pizza on Lavash Bread

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

It’s for everyone who thinks crust is the best thing about pizza and loves a salad. This recipe is a two for one with leafy greens and golden brown crunchy crust. I like to think of it as a better version of a salad with a bread basket.

No longer on the menu, this recipe is inspired by the Tricolore Salad Pizza at California Pizza Kitchen. I used to love ordering it at CPK. While I wouldn’t call this a copy cat recipe, it takes inspiration with the parmesan melted on the crust and a simplified Italian chopped salad on top.

Store-bought lavash is an easy way to make pizza crust. There’s no mixing, waiting for dough to rise and you don’t have to roll it out. Of course, I know that cracker pizza might not work with every topping combo, but it does with salad greens. 

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Lavash is a soft, thin flatbread found in Armenian and Middle Eastern cuisine. You can use it as a wrap or toast it into a crisp cracker, which is what I do for this pizza. It comes in rectangles or rounds—whole wheat or white. I usually buy mine at Trader Joe’s.
• Mixed greens: Look for a mix that has romaine lettuce because it will give you the crunch of a chopped salad. I also like radicchio and frisee because they’re pleasantly bitter. You can also substitute with baby arugula if you like that peppery flavor.
• Tomatoes: The salad has halved cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes. If you are making this when it’s not tomato season, you can use sun dried tomatoes. 
• Avocados: I love the creaminess that avocados add to the salad. Also with the crisp lavash bread pizza base, it will give you moments that will remind you of avocado toast.
• Red onions are my go-to salad onion. Make sure to finely dice them, so they are a sharp accent throughout the mix of leafy greens. 
• Parmesan: I sprinkle the lavash with grated parmesan, so it melts into the thin crust. Then I take my vegetable peeler to slice shavings from the block, which makes the Parmesan more prominent in the salad.
• Olive oil: You will need oil to brush the lavash to help it brown and get crisp in the oven. It’s also the base for the dressing, so use high quality extra virgin olive oil for the best taste. 
• Lemon vinaigrette: The dressing is classic and simple with minced garlic, whole grain mustard, honey to round out the acidity of the vinegar, kosher salt, black pepper, fresh lemon juice and olive oil. 

Optional Additions & Variations

The best part about a chopped salad is that it is customizable. Make changes based on dietary preferences or what ingredients you have in your kitchen:

• Chicken: Roasted, grilled or shredded rotisserie chicken will all work. 
• Hard-boiled eggs: Give each person a whole egg on the side or chop a few and toss them into the salad.
• Cucumbers: English cucumbers or Persian cucumbers are better than regular because they have more delicate skins and less seeds.
• Chickpeas or white beans add plant-based protein to the recipe. 
• Salami: Dice it or slice it into skinny strips for any meat-lovers.

Serving

This is my dream lunch salad because it is a big salad that’s fresh and satisfying. You can also serve it as a side dish for dinner with a vegetarian main dish like BBQ tofu vegetable skewers or roasted Mediterranean veggies and halloumi. I like it with vegetable-packed mains that are roasted or grilled. 

Make-Ahead Tips, Leftovers & Storage

With any salad, my advice is to think ahead. If you aren’t going to eat the entire recipe in a single meal, then don’t toss that portion of the greens in the vinaigrette. Also, wait to dice the entire avocado or it will brown. That won’t effect the taste, but it won’t look as nice and green.

Store the salad and vinaigrette in separate airtight containers in the refrigerator. Let the dressing sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes to give the oil time to turn to liquid again, assuming it has hardened in the chill of the fridge.

You can make the dressing and toast the lavash bread up to 2 days in advance. Wrap the toasted lavash or put it in an airtight container at room temperature, so it stays crisp. 

If you have leftover salad pizzas that are fully assembled. Put all the salad in its own container. The lavash will have dressing on it, but store it separately at room temperature. Then when you assemble it again, toast the crusts in the oven for a few minutes at 400 degrees F.