The inspiration for this Copycat Lou Malnati’s Giardiniera-Topped Hummus with Pizza Dough Chips recipe comes from Trish, who really enjoyed this appetizer she had there recently & told me all about it. I figured, how hard could it be to make giardiniera hummus, right? Then when I picked up some half price giardiniera at Whole Foods today, it was clearly meant to be.
For my pizza dough chips here I used ready-to-bake Trader Joe’s pizza dough. When I originally bought this, I checked and saw it had less than one gram of sugar per serving — but then when I got home, I noticed that a serving is 1/8 of a pizza, or one small slice. I had two “chips,” thought they were too sweet, and called it a day on those — but that hummus, it is so very yum-us!
(My “chips” didn’t come out as crispy as the Lou Malnati’s ones, but that’s likely because I didn’t roll the pizza dough out thin enough; it’s a reallllly sticky dough and I’m easily frustrated, lol.)
Copycat Lou Malnati’s Giardiniera-Topped Hummus with Pizza Dough Chips
Ingredients
– for the pizza dough chips
One package refrigerated pizza dough
Olive oil
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
– for the hummus
8 oz container of hummus
1/2 cup giardiniera, divided
Directions
Dust parchment paper and a rolling pin liberally with flour and roll out your dough on the parchment into as thin of a rectangle as you can get it (without throwing it across the room when it sticks to… everything.) Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and place your rolled-out dough directly on the tray. Prick it all over with a fork, brush with olive oil, and top with Parmesan.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, until browned on edges and starting to crisp up. Remove from oven and cut into triangles.
Meanwhile, stir 1/4 cup drained giardiniera into your hummus. (If it’s larger, rather than the chopped gardiniera, chop it up a bit first.) Top hummus with the other 1/4 cup of giardiniera, and serve your giardiniera hummus with warm pizza dough chips.
Note: I used spicy giardiniera from ALDI for the stir-in and topped the hummus with a mild giardiniera for the garnish, because I couldn’t decide which to use. In the future, I’d definitely lean towards spicy — but that’s really a personal preference.
Giardiniera-Topped Hummus is where it’s at!
Giardiniera adds the crunch and kick that hummus has been missing all its life, so Lou Malnati’s is really on to something here! Whether you serve yours with pizza dough chips or any of the hundreds of other foods that go well with hummus, the spicy crunch really does kick it up a notch. You could also choose to make your hummus and/or pizza dough from scratch, but starting with the prepared versions makes for a quick & easy appetizer or snack.
Was this a hit? Let’s just say: After I took my original photos I had to run and pick up Mr. 9 from a school activity, and when I got back home just 15 minutes later, High School Guy had clearly quite enjoyed it quite a bit! Even using prepared dough and hummus, this frugal homemade version of giardiniera topped hummus with pizza dough chips ran about half of what you’d pay for the appetizer while eating out. (At the restaurant it does come with three small variety dips rather than just the hummus — but this recipe makes a lot more spicy hummus, so it all evens out in the end…)
Copycat Lou Malnati’s Giardiniera-Topped Hummus with Pizza Dough Chips, printable recipe
Copycat Lou Malnati's Giardiniera-Topped Hummus with Pizza Dough Chips
Ingredients
- for the pizza dough chips
- One package refrigerated pizza dough
- Olive oil
- 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
- for the hummus
- 8 oz container of hummus
- 1/2 cup giardiniera, divided
Instructions
- Dust parchment paper and a rolling pin liberally with flour and roll out your dough on the parchment into as thin of a rectangle as you can get it (without throwing it across the room when it sticks to... everything.)
- Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and place your rolled-out dough directly on the tray.
- Prick it all over with a fork, brush with olive oil, and top with Parmesan.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, until browned on edges and starting to crisp up.
- Remove from oven and cut into triangles.
- Meanwhile, stir 1/4 cup drained giardiniera into your hummus. (If it's larger, rather than the chopped gardiniera, chop it up a bit first.)
- Top hummus with the other 1/4 cup of giardiniera.
- Serve your giardiniera hummus with warm pizza dough chips.
Notes
More Frugal Homemade Ideas
If you’re looking for more frugal homemade recipes and ideas, read more here:
Anything else you’d like to see covered in these categories? Comment here!
seachicago
Thursday 26th of January 2017
How about making your own pizza dough? Then you control what's in there, and it's super easy, especially if you have a bread machine. Just toss the ingredients in and use the "dough" cycle. Otherwise, just use a dough hook on a stand mixer and let it rise for an hour. Or you could always mix and knead by hand, but that's too much work! :-) Here's my basic go-to recipe, and add in this order to a bread machine:
*3/4 cup warm water *3/4 teaspoon salt (& any seasonings/spices you want) *2 cups flour 1 pkg. yeast
If you want to get fancier, throw in 1 tablespoon olive oil with the water, and 1 teaspoon sugar with the flour. It does give it a little more flavor, but I don't think it's strictly necessary. Bon apetit!
rachel
Thursday 26th of January 2017
Thanks! Homemade is always better -- I was just going for super easy here, lol.