Veggie Pizza Pinwheels: Step by Step Recipe

This recipe here is one of the best ways to use up leftover pizza dough. These are basically veggie pizza rolls, that taste delicious and are really easy to make. They look like wheels when you cut and bake them, hence the name pinwheels. Whether you get the shape right or not, they taste incredibly delicious! I rolled out the dough a little on the thinner side, so they look more oval in shape, rather than being round like wheels. Nevertheless, I promise this will taste amazing and you must give it a shot! If you have kids, they will love eating this dish (not that adults won’t – they will equally enjoy this! 🙂 )

Personally, the favourite part of this dish for me is how the veggies tend to caramelise on top of the pinwheels. The onions especially caramelise beautifully and the taste is just beyond delish. Similarly for the bell peppers and the tomatoes – all veggies bake very succulently in this dish, so the pinwheels are actually juicy and moist without being soggy. The bread also bakes into the filling really fluffy and soft, so the combination of veggies, cheese, sauce and bread is mouthwatering!! 😀

Ingredients

• Garlic – finely chopped – 1 tsp
• Onions – 1, peeled and sliced thinly
• Green, red and yellow bell peppers (chopped finely) – 1/2 cup in total
• Jalapeños – 5 to 6 pieces
• Black olives – 1 tbsp, sliced
• Sweetcorn – 2 tbsp
• Italian seasoning – 1/2 tsp
• Red chilli powder (or red chilli flakes) – 1/2 tsp
• Ketchup – 1 tsp
• Leftover pizza dough (enough to make one medium-sized thick crust pizza)
• Cheese spread or cream cheese – 1 tbsp (optional)
• If using grated cheese, use enough to your liking.
• Salt to taste
• Melted butter – 2 tbsp (to brush on the rolls while baking)

Method

Making the filling:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan.
2. Sauté some chopped garlic.
3. Add sliced onions and sauté until translucent.
4. Add yellow bell peppers
5. Add red bell peppers
6. Add sweetcorn
7. Add black olives
8. Add jalapenos
9. Add green peppers
10. Saute for a few seconds. Add salt.

1. Add tomato sauce and chilli powder.
2. Add Italian seasoning to this and mix well. Filling is done now. Set aside.

Shaping the dough

1. Tip out the leftover pizza dough on a baking sheet or parchment paper.
2. Flatten it into a square-ish shape using your palms.
3. Use your fingers to shape into a square around the edges.
4. This is how it should look. do not make it too thin, as it will tear when you try to roll it. It needs to be at least the thickness of a paratha (which is ~half an inch).
5. Using a spoon, put some cheese spread on the dough (you can even use flavoured cream cheese). This step is optional, omit it if you please.
6. This is how it must look after you spread it evenly.

Assembly and Baking

1. Now tip the filling over the dough square.
2. Spread the filling evenly using a spatula. Take care to leave space around the edges.
3. Roll up the dough into a log using your hands. Take care to roll it a little tightly.
4. Now use a knife to slice the pizza pinwheels from the dough log. Make each of the pinwheels at least an inch thick.
5. Arrange the pinwheels on a baking tray lined with parchment paper or foil, leaving enough gap between them. Brush melted butter on the pinwheels.
6. Preheat the oven at 180 deg C for 10 minutes. Bake the pinwheels at 200 deg C for 35 minutes, or until golden. They will rise and expand in size slightly while baking.

Serve hot with a side of ketchup or mayo! Enjoy and let us know how it turns out 🙂

TIPS & TWEAKS

1. Cut the veggies into really small pieces. The pieces in my filling were a little big, so I had trouble cutting up the pinwheels, as the dough tends to tear. If you cut even-sized, small pieces of your veggies and cook them before spreading on the dough, you won’t have any trouble while cutting the pinwheels.
2. The filling needs to be moist, not saucy. If the filling is wet, you will have sloppy and leaky rolls (or pinwheels), and if not moist enough they will be dry when you bit into them. So do not add any water while cooking the veggies, just sauté them down in olive oil.
3. My pinwheels were a bit on the thinner side, so they were flatter when they baked up (they tasted amazing though). Like I have mentioned above, keep it about an inch thick, and you will end up with some height on your pinwheels as they rise while baking.
4. Other flavor combinations you could experiment with are tandoori paneer/paneer bhurji, pesto and cheese, tomatoes and cheese, margarita (cheese, tomato and basil), and jalapeño-sweetcorn with cheese. There are many, many more – the world is your oyster!

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