Loaded with roasted potatoes and chickpeas, my Pesto Flatbread Pizzas are a delicious and filling meal any night of the week.
Pesto Flatbread Pizzas with Potatoes and Chickpeas
February 18, 2020 Updated May 28, 2022 Jump to Recipe
I’ve shared my pesto obsession and Classic Pesto Pasta recipe with you. Here’s another of my favorite ways to enjoy this delicious Italian sauce: Pesto Flatbread Pizzas!
My Pesto Flatbread Pizzas are a meal I always look forward to. I actually end up eating flatbread pizzas of some sort for lunch several days out of the week. I’ve got countless variations and easy ways to enjoy flatbread pizzas, and I’ll share them all very soon, I promise! But these pesto flatbread pizzas are probably my favorite because of, well, the pesto!
Unique Toppings for Flatbread Pizzas
And as the title of this simple recipe states, roasted potatoes and chickpeas are the toppings on these delicious flatbreads. (And tomatoes, but putting that in the title would have made this recipe name too ridiculously long…!)
Do roasted potatoes and chickpeas seem like unique pizza toppings?
Maybe they are. It’s a pizza topping combo I came up with during my vegan years. As a vegan, you learn to get pretty creative with your food! But I’ll tell you, roasted potatoes and chickpeas are AMAZING pizza toppings! You’ll just have to try my pesto flatbread recipe and see for yourself. After one bite, I’m sure you’ll agree with me!
Shortcuts for Pesto Flatbread Pizzas
These flatbread pizzas are a great way to use your leftover pesto. I usually make these the day after we’ve had my Classic Pesto Pasta for dinner. Don’t ask me why, but putting that leftover pesto to such delicious use makes these flatbreads even more pleasing. They make a great snack, or an excellent main course when served with a nice green salad.
You could make your own crust for these flatbreads—you could even make them with my quick and easy pizza dough (just leave out the herby seasonings in my recipe)—but one of the things that makes these flatbreads so convenient is that you can use store-bought flatbread. Pita bread, pizza crust, you could even go crazy and make these French bread pesto pizzas instead of flatbread pizzas!
But my absolute favorite way to enjoy these pizzas is with Trader Joe’s Naan bread.
Have you tried these Naan flatbreads before? They are soo good! You can find them in the bread aisle of any Trader Joe’s. If you have a Trader Joe’s nearby, you’ve got to give these Naan flatbreads a try!
Take Your Flatbread Pizzas to the Next Level
Offset Spatula: the Time Saving Tool!
And before I send you down to the recipe, I have to recommend my favorite kitchen tool for evenly and easily spreading the pesto onto each flatbread. I use my offset spatula every time. I absolutely love my offset spatula set [aff. link].
Offset spatulas are a fantastic tool for anytime you need to spread something, whether it’s cake batter, frosting on cakes or cookies, smoothing out the top of a casserole or baked mashed potatoes, or putting condiments on sandwiches.
I use one of my offset spatulas just about every day. If you don’t already have this affordable tool in your kitchen, here is my favorite on Amazon [aff. link]. It comes in a set of three—small, medium, large, and I get so much use out of each one!
Fleur de Sel: the Elegant Finishing Salt
Ok, and lastly, I finish my flatbread pizzas off with fleur de sel. After I take my flatbread pizzas out of the oven, I just give them each a little sprinkling of fleur de sel.
Fleur de sel is a French finishing salt, and these little salt flakes really elevate so many dishes. I sprinkle fleur de sel over just about everything before serving, from these flatbreads to pasta dishes. Fleur de sel is also great for those marvelous sweet and salty desserts if you’re a fan of salted treats like I am! You can find this affordable, quintessential French finishing salt on Amazon [aff. link].
One of My Favorite Classic Hollywood Chefs: Sophia Loren!
Ok, I’m done! Now go make some pesto, or use up some leftover pesto, and enjoy these heavenly Pesto Flatbread Pizzas!
And if you’re like me, as you make your flatbread pizzas, you’ll wish you could look as glamorous as the lovely Sophia Loren, pictured below, who, in addition to being an International Screen Legend, is also a fabulous cook!
Pesto Flatbread Pizzas with Roasted Potatoes and Chickpeas
I've shared my pesto obsession and Classic Pesto recipe with you. Here's another of my favorite ways to enjoy this delicious Italian sauce: Pesto Flatbread Pizzas!
Servings: 6
Print RecipeIngredients
For the potatoes:
- 1 ½ pounds potatoes, diced to ½ inch pieces (preferably a non-peel potato variety, like Yukon gold)
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1/8 tsp pepper
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
For the pesto:
- ¾ cup pine nuts
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 4 cups basil, rinsed
- 1/3 cup Pecorino, freshly grated or ground
- 1/3 cup Parmesan, freshly grated or ground
- ¾ cup olive oil
For the cheese:
- 8 oz mozzarella, freshly grated
- 2 oz parmesan, freshly grated or ground
Everything else:
- 1 15 oz can garbonzo beans, drained
- Handful of Cherry Tomatoes, sliced
- 6 flatbreads
Instructions
Prepare the potatoes
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Place the diced potatoes on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the top, then drizzle the olive oil over the top as well.
- Toss the potatoes, salt, pepper, and olive oil together until the potatoes are evenly coated with all the seasonings. Now spread the potatoes out on the baking sheet with enough space between each piece so they aren’t touching. (If the potatoes are too close together, they will steam, not roast!)
Roast the potatoes
- Roast the potatoes for 15 minutes.
- Take the baking sheet out of the oven, toss the potatoes so a different side of each piece is face down on the baking sheet. Roast for anther 15 minutes. Potatoes are done!
- While the potatoes roast, you can slice the tomato, grate the cheese, and make the pesto.
Make the pesto
- In the bowl of your food processor (or preferred blending/processing device), add the pine nuts and garlic cloves.
- Pulse a few times, then process until the pine nuts and garlic are smooth and combined.
Add the basil and sea salt
- Now add the basil and sea salt to the pine nut/garlic mixture. Process again until a green paste forms.
Add the cheese and olive oil
- Now add the Pecorino and Parmesan. Process again until the cheeses have completely incorporated.
- Lastly, add the olive oil to the food processor. Process until the olive oil incorporates completely into the rest of the ingredients. Pesto is done!
Assemble the flatbreads
- With an offset spatula, spread a nice amount of pesto onto each flatbread. Now sprinkle on the mozzarella and Parmesan. Next distribute the potatoes and garbanzo beans evenly across each flatbread.
- Last, put a few tomatoes on top of each flatbread, and sprinkle a little more parmesan, if desired.
Bake the flatbreads
- Bake the flatbreads at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
Broil the cheese!
- Now, keeping the flatbreads in the oven, turn the oven heat up to broil.
- Broil the flatbreads until the cheese begins to get some brown bubbles. In my oven, this happens after 2 minutes, but start with 1 minute of broiling time as all ovens are different, and you don’t want to burn the flatbreads!
- Once the cheese on each flatbread has a few browned cheese bubbles, take the flatbreads out of the oven. Sprinkle each flatbread with a little fleur de sel.
Serve and enjoy!
- Allow the flatbreads to cool for a few minutes before serving.
- Serve alone as a snack, or make it a meal with a nice green salad. This is a great meal for lunch or dinner.
Notes
This recipe can be made vegan if you omit the cheese from the pesto, and use your favorite vegan cheese in place of the mozzarella and Parmesan on the flatbreads. This recipe can be gluten free if you use a gluten free bread option instead of the flatbread. As always, I strongly STRONGLY recommend that you don't use anything but freshly grated cheese! Grate all the cheese in this recipe yourself. It takes a little bit more time than using pre-grated cheese, but I PROMISE you'll taste the difference!
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This Post Has 6 Comments
We absolutely love flatbreads here, too, Shannon! The flavors you’ve got going on here sound delicious…right up my alley for sure! I have actually had pizza with roasted potatoes (surprisingly tasty), but the chickpeas are a new one. I’ll have to try that sometime. This would be a fun way to mix up the dinner routine. Plus, pesto! Oh, and I second your comment about the offset spatula. I have a couple in different sizes, and I use them for everything from dessert to pizza! 🙂
Thank you David! I am basically obsessed with flatbreads 😆. Always fun to find another flatbread fan! Oh you must try the chickpeas on your next flatbread, they make a phenomenal topping! And aren’t offset spatulas lifesavers?!!! Never spreading sauce or frosting with another tool ever again! 😆
I love flatbreads. I’ve had pesto on pizza and love it. Never chickpeas, though. That sounds interesting!
Thanks Jeff! Isn’t pesto amazing on pizza?!!! It’s hard for me to make a pizza without it these days! Definitely give the chickpeas a try! They are such a delicious pizza topping.
I love this! I’m all for mixing carbs like this. We’ve never been vegan, but my husband was a vegetarian for many years and I loved adding legumes like chick peas to pasta. I used to make black bean pizzas, too. Beans are so versatile, but so are potatoes! Love these pizzas!
Thank you Mimi! That is awesome that your husband was vegetarian! You are definitely no stranger to the unique, but totally tasty, pizza toppings vegetarians and vegans come up with! I have to try adding black beans to my pizza, that sounds delicious! 😋