Healthy PIZZA?! Yes, Please!
Who doesn’t love pizza? It is one of my favorite foods but can be pretty greasy, fatty and not so healthy. It is fine to indulge from time to time, but if you are looking for a pizza recipe you can have ANYTIME and not eat your entire days’ worth of calories at once, I have got you!
I start by making dough- this can be store bought, of course, but I am gluten free so it is more efficient for us to make it at home. It is a very simple recipe- start with 1/2 tsp of sale, 1 packet of instant yeast, 1.5 cups of water at 110 degrees, 3-4 cups of bread or pizza flour and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients. I start with 3 cups of flour and add slowly from there. Gluten free sometimes requires more water than the 1.5 cups, bit go slow. Mix until you have a non-sticky ball. Line a bowl with 2 Tbls of Olive oil, cover and let rise for an hour. I use the “proof” setting on my oven. Once its doubled, spilt it in half, cover and let it rise for 10 more minutes then roll out. We par cook it for 2-3 minutes in a 500 degree oven then add toppings. This makes a very rustic thin crust.
For this pizza, I used beet pesto from this summer rather than traditional red sauce. The pesto is SO easy to make. We had extras from our CSA this summer so we roasted them, then added them to a food processor with garlic, olive oil, parm cheese, lemon juice, and salt, to taste. We put it in jars and freeze it so we have it all winter. The roasting of the beets mellows them out so they don’t taste like clean dirt.
To make this pizza, I also baked a chicken breast with salt and pepper while the dough rose, then cut it into small pieces for toppings.
To build it: on the par-cooked pizza dough, add the beet pesto. On top of that, add chicken spinach and then goat cheese ( we used plain) or feta. We preferred goat cheese, but tried both. They were both yummy. We baked the pizza at 500 degrees for 8-10 minutes. When we pulled it out, we added arugula and a splash of balsamic vinegar on top. Next time, I will chiffon the spinach so it is in every bite instead of leaving it as a whole leaf, but otherwise, I would not chance a thing! This is a great meal full of protein, fiber and even fermented food with the vinegar. Beets are SOOOO good for you and this is a fantastic way to eat them without really tasting them.
These are super “rustic” but taste GREAT!
Before baking!
Ready to eat and enjoy!!