A variation of pizza, stromboli is yeast dough rolled up around a yummy filling and baked until golden. This whole wheat kale and olive stromboli is filled with kale, arugula, and goat cheese.
Stromboli sounds like the name of that machine that grooms ice rinks, right? Zamboni—stromboli, close, in a fun roll-off-the-tongue word way. Stromboli, though, you can actually bite. Here’s a healthy whole wheat stromboli, filled with hearty greens, tangy goat cheese, and salty black olives.
To simplify the recipe and to save time feel free to purchase fresh pizza dough, readily available at many well-stocked grocers. Or ask your local bread baker.
If you are comfortable with yeast dough, make your own, it will save more time than a trip to the store. Prepare the dough, and while it rises, chop and sauté the filling ingredients. Be sure to preheat the oven so it’s hot when the stromboli is ready to bake.
It’s still hot here in Park City, but we had glorious rain showers 3 evenings in a row, to water our thirsty lawns and cool the night air. If I light the oven this week I don’t feel like I’m turning the kitchen into a sauna.
***This filling is a variation on an empanada or calzone recipe from my favorite cookbook author Deborah Madison. She adds paprika to her homemade dough, so I did as well.
Whole Wheat Kale and Olive Stromboli
Ingredients
Dough:
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 ½ to 1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon fine seal salt
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey or agave syrup
- Cornmeal as needed
Filling:
- 1 bunch kale or a combo of kale, arugula, spinach, beet greens or chard
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced, or ¾ cup chopped garlic scapes
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ cup pitted cured black olives like Kalamata, chopped
- 6 ounces goat cheese, or any good quality cheese for that matter
- sea salt, to taste
- 1 egg lightly beaten, optional
- 5 ounces warm water, (105 to 115° F)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk the yeast, flour, salt and paprika. Add the water, olive oil and honey, stirring with a wooden spoon. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead by hand about 5 minutes, until the dough is soft, smooth and elastic, adding more flour if the dough is too sticky to work.
- Place in an oiled bowl at least twice the volume of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Wash the greens, trim and discard the stems. Chop the leaves so the biggest pieces are no more than 2-inch square. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Sauté the onion and garlic about 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Stir in chopped greens. If they don’t fit in the skillet, add them in stages--we all know how much they will shrink.
- When the greens are tender, stir in the cilantro, red pepper and olives. Taste and season with salt if needed. (Cured olives usually add enough saltiness.) Remove from heat.
To assemble the stromboli:
- Preheat oven to 375° F. If you have a pizza stone, place that on the oven rack. Divide the dough in half, forming rectangle-shaped portions 7 to 8 ounces each. Cover one portion to keep it from drying out.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll one portion into a large rectangle, about 13 x 6 inches. Sprinkle, dollop or spread ¼ of the cheese down the middle. Top with about half of the filling. Top with another ¼ of the cheese. (You can brush the edges of the rectangle with beaten egg, if desired.) Gently stretch and fold the top half of the dough over the filling. Bring the bottom half up and over. Crimp the sides and the overlap to seal.
- If you put a pizza stone in the oven, sprinkle a wooden peel or upside-down sheet pan with cornmeal. Invert the roll onto the peel. (If you don’t have a pizza stone, invert the roll onto a baking sheet.)
- Brush with egg wash if using. Cut diagonal slashes, about 2 inches apart down the roll. Let sit about 5 minutes. Make another stromboli with the second rectangle.
- Letting the cornmeal act as ball bearings, slide the stromboli from the wooden peel to the stone. Otherwise, place the baking sheet within the oven. Bake 20 to 30 minutes, until the crusts are golden brown.
I’m a 64 yr old single granddad who lives alone and I made this a couple weeks ago following the directions to a tee. (kale and all)
I made two large stromboli that tuned out great. Easily ate one two nights in a row for dinner.
Anyway, I’m up for some more, so I found this recipe again, but this time I’m making with ground turkey seasoned like Italion sausage with red, green, and yellow peppers, black olives, onions, and homemade sauce.
If I ever need to come back to refresh my memory on the dough recipe I’ll post how it turned out… · 14 February, 2022
Wow! I’m stoked you like the recipe. One day I’ll update the photos. 😏 · 16 February, 2022