Healthy Calzone Recipe {Kale, Mushroom, and Ricotta}
Updated March 26, 2019
Homemade calzones are easy to make at home and you will love these veggie calzones! They are stuffed with kale, mushrooms, and ricotta cheese. Serve marinara sauce on the side for dipping! This calzone recipe is a dinner winner!
Family-Friendly Meatless Calzone
I always ask Josh what he wants for dinner. I really don’t know why I ask for his input because we rarely make what he wants. Don’t feel bad for Josh because he eats well:) I just don’t want to make for dinner every night. Josh always suggests pizza. He never gets tired of pizza.
Last week when Josh asked for pizza, I compromised and suggested calzones. Josh loved the idea. He asked what kind of calzones and I told him Kale, Mushroom, and Ricotta Calzones. I could see the look of disappointment in his face when I didn’t mention sausage or pepperoni. I told Josh to cheer up because these meatless calzones were going to be incredibly tasty and I was right! Even Josh didn’t miss the meat!
How To Make Calzones
You can make homemade pizza dough or you can use store bought dough for this recipe. If we are feeling lazy, we buy Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods pizza dough. Their refrigerated pizza doughs are excellent!
Once you have your dough, you can get started on the filling. I am on a kale kick and can’t get enough. I cooked the kale with onion, garlic, and tossed in some mushrooms.
Next, I stirred together ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese. A trio of cheese, please! I added in a little crushed red pepper, dried basil, salt, and pepper. I added in the kale and mushroom mixture and our filling was ready to go!
Josh rolled out the pizza dough into circles and we filled our calzones with the kale, mushroom, and ricotta filling. We folded the dough over the filling, pinched the edges, and brushed them generously with olive oil. Into the oven they went and 20 minutes later, our calzones were golden brown and ready to be devoured.
We served our calzones with our Easy Marinara Sauce. Our Slow Cooker Marinara Sauce would also be good with the calzones! We had fun dipping and dunking our calzones!
Kale, Mushroom, and Ricotta Calzones are perfect for Meatless Monday…or any night. Josh already asked if we could have these calzones for dinner again and I think I will have to say yes!
If you like this calzone recipe, give these pizza recipes a try!
Kale, Mushroom, and Ricotta Calzones
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh pizza dough homemade or store-bought
- 1 tablespoon olive oil plus additional for brushing
- 1/2 yellow onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups chopped kale ribs and stems removed
- 1 cup mushrooms
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- All-purpose flour for dusting the counter
- Easy Marinara Sauce for serving
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Make sure your pizza dough is at room temperature. Set aside.
- 2. To make the calzone filling, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, until translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the kale and mushrooms, cover and cook until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- 3. In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses. Stir in the kale and mushroom mixture. Add the dried basil, crushed red pepper, and season with salt and pepper.
- 4. Divide the pizza dough into 4 equal portions, and shape each portion into a ball. Lightly flour your work space. Start with 1 ball and roll it out into a circle, about 7 inches in diameter. Brush the edges of the round lightly with water. Place about a ½ cup of the kale cheese mixture on half of the round, leaving a 1-inch border. Gently fold the dough over so the edges meet and pinch the dough together with your fingers. Pierce the top of the calzone with the fork and carefully transfer to a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. Brush each calzone with olive oil.
- 5. Place the calzones in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let the calzones cool for about 5 minutes. Serve warm.
- Note-I like to use Trader Joe's Kale that is already chopped. Great time saver! And if you don't want to make pizza dough from scratch, we love Trader Joe's and Whole Foods refrigerated pizza dough.
Have you tried this recipe?
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I want this for dinner too!!
Maria,
These calzones look so yummy! A great way to get my kids to eat greens is to pair them with cheese, and with triple cheese? You can’t go wrong. Perhaps even some kale in the dough . . . for a double triple?
Thanks!
Love that idea:)
These look delicious! I love Calzones especially when they are fully loaded like this. I’m always let down when I bite into one without a lot of filling :).
Those calzones look really good! I am liking the mushrooms and kale combo in them!
This looks awesome! We eat a lot of spinach pies here in New England….Kale is such an excellent substitute!
I have been looking for new ideas for some dairy meals for next week. You have provided the makings of a meal. Thanks.
I’ve never thought to make calzones at home, you have the best ideas! This is def going on our menu for next week!
Do these freeze/reheat well? I’ve been wanting to make these and I’ve been looking for good freezer recipes to make because I’m about 6 1/2 months preggers and want to stock up on healthy meals I can make up quickly after the baby’s born.
Just made this for lunch and it was so easy and so delicious! I’m excited to serve this to future company.
Oh my gosh, I made these again, they are so rewarding! – Easy and super tasty! I refrigerated 1/2 and baked them next day; they turned out pretty much the same: Super tasty!
Glad you liked them!
How did you keep your filling so white? Ours got tan from the mushrooms and onions; did we maybe cook them too long?
Just wondering if anyone tried freezing these and cooking from frozen? I wouldn’t mind making a bunch and freezing them for those lazy days.
We haven’t, but I am sure it would work!
We made these for dinner tonight– they were great! You really don’t miss the meat at all 🙂
Made them for supper last night. Delicious!
Yay!
I made these for dinner a couple nights ago, and my husband, son, and I all loved them! My son LOVED being able to dip them in the pasta sauce! These were very flavorful and even the leftovers were good (even though they’re not as crispy when you get them out of fridge). I used the pillsbury classic pizza crust dough because I was feeling lazy 🙂 I added in a little spinach that I was needing to use up before it went bad. Also, I left out the red pepper flakes. Everything else was made as written. GREAT RECIPE!
Yay! So glad you like the recipe!
Why is there a vegetarian recipe on a vegan blog?
second time in three days making these. have had a bunch of fun substituting kale and mushrooms for virtually any other veggie we can get our hands on. thanks for sharing!
haha I thought Josh was a kid by the wording in this article