If you are watching your weight or trying to limit your calorie intake, pizza is probably not going to be the first food to come to mind when you are thinking about what to make for dinner.
Diets can be pretty boring unless you know some tasty yet low fat recipes, but what about making a healthy pizza recipe? Pizza can be greasy, fat-laden, and calorific but it does not have to be, if you know how to make it nutritious and healthy.
Trimming the Calories Off Your Pizza
Of course, you could just have a thinner wedge of regular pizza than everyone else could but that is not going to be as satisfying as sinking your teeth into a good sized helping of healthy pizza. Starting at the bottom, your healthy pizza will need a healthy crust and this means a thin crust rather than a thick one. You can buy readymade whole-wheat pizza crusts or you can make your own.
Next, what type of pizza sauce do you like? A pizza does not necessarily have to have a sauce but what about using some tomato puree with basil as your sauce? This is a nutritious and fat-free sauce option. Choose something tomato-based rather than creamy.
If you like a lot of toppings, you can layer them on thick if you choose the right ones. Vegetables such as mushrooms, eggplant, onion, leek, bell pepper, chilies, broccoli, corn and more are all great toppings. Lean meats like chicken are good, as is seafood like shrimp. Use low-fat mozzarella instead of regular mozzarella and give your pizza plenty of flavor with fresh herbs and spices.
What about making a savory fruit pizza recipe? Add pineapple, banana, or apple to any savory pizza to add sweetness.
Ultra-Healthy Recipe for Grilled Eggplant Pizza
This recipe makes a really flavorful pizza. You can use readymade whole-wheat pizza dough for convenience and swap the eggplant for zucchini if you prefer it. A handy way to shave the parmesan is to use a vegetable peeler.
What you will need:
- 1 lb readymade whole-wheat pizza dough
- 1 minced clove garlic
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- 1 eggplant
- 3/4 cup marinara sauce
- Yellow cornmeal, for dusting
- 3/4 cup shaved parmesan
How to make it:
Preheat the grill to moderately hot. Cut the eggplant into rounds, which are half an inch thick and grill them for about five minutes, turning them once. Let them cool, and then slice them into strips. Turn the grill down to low.
Sprinkle the cornmeal over a big cookie sheet, then roll out the whole-wheat dough and put it on the cookie sheet. Slide the pizza crust on to the grill rack and cook it with the lid closed for a few minutes, until it is golden brown. Flip it over, and then spread the marinara sauce over it.
Top it with the basil, garlic, and eggplant and scatter the parmesan on top. Grill the pizza with the lid down for about eight minutes, or until the bottom of the crust is golden brown and the parmesan has melted.