Veggie Reuben Pizza

My mom's favorite sandwich is the reuben.  While I do like some components, sauerkraut and swiss cheese turned me off of these sandwiches at an early age and I never gave them a chance.  With some pumpernickel dough in the freezer, I started brainstorming and came across this recipe for a veggie reuben sandwich.  It intrigued me enough to morph it into a grilled pizza, and boy am I glad I did!! This pizza was absolutely fantastic and full of flavor.  My only wish is that the gruyere was coarsely grated, and perhaps there was a little bit more of it :)

Grilled Veggie Reuben Pizza

inspired by and adapted from Brussels Sprouts for Breakfast (seen on food52)

Serves 2-4

Since there were a few components to this dish, I prepared the cabbage, mushrooms and sauce ahead of time and stored it in the fridge.  The pizza dough was also made a few months ago and kept wonderfully in the freezer (wrapped tightly in saran and placed in a ziploc bag).  I defrosted the pizza dough in the fridge, and on pizza-making day, took the dough and toppings out of the fridge 1-2hrs before making the pizza so that everything was room temperature.

While I grilled this pizza, you could also bake this in a hot (450deg) oven!  I love my pizza stone for a nice crispy crust- preheat with the oven, then remove and add the dough and toppings.  Bake until cheese is bubbly, ~8-12min.

pumpernickel pizza dough  (I used ~1/3 of the recipe)

1/2-1c coarsely grated cave-aged gruyere

For the sauce:

2T olive oil mayo

2T 2% plain greek yogurt

1/4c grainy dijon mustard

1/4c diced pickled green tomatoes (or relish)

For the pickled red cabbage:

1/4 head red cabbage

~1T extra virgin olive oil

1/4c apple cider vinegar

2T horseradish

For the sauteed mushrooms:

1lb sliced button mushrooms

~1T extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

To prepare the sauce, add ingredients to a small bowl and mix well.  Set aside.

For the mushrooms, heat oil in a pan over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms, and cover for 1 min.  Remove the cover, stir add garlic, salt and freshly ground black pepper and continue liquid has cooked off and the mushrooms have begun to brown.  Remove mushrooms from the pan and set aside.

In the same pan over heat oil over medium.  Add cabbage, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and cook for a ~5min, until it starts to soften a bit.  Then add the vinegar and horseradish and cook another 5-10min, until the cabbage has broken down.  Remove from the heat and set cabbage aside.

Preheat the grill on high.

To prepare your dough, flour the surface.  Start stretching the dough with your hands and then continue with a rolling pin until it's ~1/4" thick (I like it on the thin, crispy side).  Spray one side of the dough with cooking spray (or use a paper towel with some oil) and add, oiled side down, to the grill.  Grill for ~4min, until cooked (you'll see nice grill marks, and perhaps some bubbles in the dough).  Flip dough over, then top evenly with sauce, followed by the cabbage, mushrooms and finally gruyere.  Cover the grill and turn down heat to medium-high.  Cook a few minutes, until the cheese is melted.  Carefully transfer cooked pizza to a cutting board (be sure to use heat-safe spatulas!) and serve.

Are you a fan of reuben sandwiches, or perhaps maybe you'd rather try this version?