Ten Healthy Pizza Recipes

Drool. Pizza photo via Shutterstock

Who doesn’t like pizza? A crunchy, chewy crust, gooey cheese, and just the right amount of sauce can make us forget how many burpees we’ll need to do later to work off those calories. But we knew that with a little time and effort, we could find a way to make pizza healthy, so we searched the web to find the best healthy pizza recipes available.

A good way to make pizza easy on the hips, in addition to using fresh tomatoes for the sauce or loading it up with fresh veggies, is to make your own crust. Making a yeast dough takes some planning, but the process is easy enough. Some tips from the experts, though: Make sure the yeast is alive. Once it’s added to lukewarm water, the yeast will bubble and foam. If it doesn’t, then it won’t rise, so you’ll need to start over with a new batch. Also remember that you can’t rush rising dough. Let it do its thing in a draft free place, like a cold oven. If the pizza is a last minute decision, you can find pre-made whole wheat dough in most grocery stores.

1. Lemony Blackened Broccoli Pizza

via Spabettie

If you haven’t tried roasted broccoli, you’re seriously missing out. The heat of the oven takes the broccoli to a completely different level of flavor and it might just become your favorite way to cook it. Pair this pizza with a nice white wine for a special summer meal without the hassle. This recipe includes a gluten free pizza crust recipe, but you can use whole wheat crust, too.

2. Easy Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

via Pinch of Yum

Having a basic pizza dough recipe in your back pocket is key if you want to experiment with pizzas (or if you’re craving pizza in general). This recipe calls for 15 minutes of rising time, but you will want to make sure that the dough doubles in size. It could take up to 30 minutes.

3. Chicken, Broccoli and Goat Cheese Pizza

via The Healthy Foodie

This recipe is an easy crowd pleaser. If you have a guest who’s hesitant about healthy food, adding special ingredients, like kalamata olives, will keep the focus on how good the pizza tastes.

4. Paleo Pizza Marinara on Cauliflower Crust

via The Iron You

Cauliflower pizza crust started as a substitute for gluten free dieters, but when the rest of the world realized how delicious it was, recipes started popping up everywhere. This is a good dough recipe, and it calls for a delicious variety of olives and briny capers. Because cauliflower has a subtle flavor on its own, it can handle strong flavors like olives, bbq chicken and spicy peppers.

5. Grilled Peach and Prosciutto Pizza

via Dinner or Dessert

Putting fruit on pizza seems like breaking the rules, but it’s summer, and we swear that fruit can go with anything. Peaches add enough meaty sweetness to pair well with the salty prosciutto. Drizzle reduced balsamic over the cooked pizza to make it even fancier.

6. Individual Mushroom, Onion, and Arugula Pizza

via Cooking Light

Mini pizzas work in so many situations. They can be shared appetizers, a main course paired with a light soup, or simply dinner for the kids. Instead of using plain button mushrooms, jazz up the flavor by using oyster or shiitake mushrooms.

7. Clam Pizza

via Adventures Heart

Leave the sauce on the side and reach for vegetables and clams for a killer summer pizza. The recipe calls for canned clams, but use fresh when possible.

8. Grilled Veggie Pizza

via Taste of Home

The easiest way to make a healthy pizza is to pile on the freshest vegetables of the season. The beauty of this recipe is that the vegetables are up to you. Add eggplant, jalapeno, broccoli, asparagus, or anything else that suits your fancy.

9. Hula Pizza

via Shape magazine

Skip the hassle of making dough by using a whole wheat flour tortilla instead. This recipe is vegetarian but the addition of grilled chicken or cooked turkey sausage can go a long way by keeping you full for longer.

10. Shaved Asparagus Pizza

via Smitten Kitchen

This pizza is bright, full of flavor, and doesn’t go crazy with the number of ingredients. If you want to kick up the flavor, try using fontina cheese.