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Thai Pizza

Made the crust, made the sauce, shredded the cabbage, got lazy before chopping the peanuts.

Long long ago (I think it was high school?), I used to like to go to California Pizza Kitchen and get the thai chicken pizza. Since I stopped eating meat and stopped eating at CPK, this has left my life, and I kind of missed it.

I've contemplated trying to make it before, but I was stuck on two things: the sauce and the protein.

Sauce: Trader Joe's has a thai peanut dressing that I don't love as a dressing, but it's perfect as a pizza sauce and it's good for coating the cabbage. If I'm going homemade, I like Cookie and Kate's recipe: 1/3 c peanut butter, 2 tb rice vinegar, 2 tb soy sauce, 2 tb honey, 1 tb sesame oil, 2 cloves garlic, and 2 tb water.

Protein: I don't usually like meat substitutes, but a friend introduced me to Quorn and I was pleasantly surprised. The Quorn "Meatless Pieces" are fairly similar to the type of chicken pieces that one might find on a thai pizza. I rarely have any kind of craving for anything resembling meat, but thai chicken items are an exception. I just don't love tempeh or tofu in this context.

Cabbage dressing options: Usually, I just use 1/2 cup of the same peanut dressing to coat the veggies for the top. But recently, I didn't have enough (because I'd used some of the dressing the previous day for Vietnamese rice bowls, which I highly recommend), so instead I coated the cabbage in 2 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp rice vinegar, a pinch of sugar, and a pinch of salt. The result is a much fresher and lighter tasting pizza. Jess had a good suggestion: If you go this route, be sure to finely chop plenty of peanuts to go on top. It helps to tie everything together.


The Recipe:
1 pizza dough (Sally's Baking Addiction has my favorite dough recipe)
1 c plus 1/3 c thai peanut dressing
protein of choice (chicken? quorn? other?), diced
1/2 c shredded mozzarella
1.5 c shredded cabbage with some shredded carrots and green onions mixed in (cole slaw mix works too)
1/3 c peanuts, chopped finely
Optional: bean sprouts and/or cilantro for garnish
  • Toss cabbage with 1/3 c of the thai peanut dressing, and set in the fridge. (Or see "cabbage dressing options" above for a lighter option.)
  • Spread out the pizza dough and top with the remaining dressing, then protein, then mozzarella. 
  • Bake according to your crust's instructions; I do 425 for about 20 minutes.
  • Top with the dressed cabbage mix, peanuts, and optional bean sprouts and cilantro.

The Verdict:
Overall grade: A-
Overall reason: Yummy and brings back memories
Time to prepare: 35 minutes
Husband quote: (I thought the quorn had tricked him and I asked him what he thought of the chicken.) "Oh, I thought that was tofu..."


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