7 Tips on How to Make Healthy Pizza at Home
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No one can deny that pizza can be heavenly. Do you want to make homemade healthy pizza? It may sound too good to be true, but you can enjoy a pizza that can be much healthier than what you would expect from a local pizzeria or delivery chain. Amazingly, you can even make a pizza that includes healthy ingredients, which will give you great benefits as far as nutritional value.
Since pizza is such a convenient item and people of all ages and locales enjoy it, read on for some amazing tips and techniques to create a perfect pizza at home that can be healthy and to your liking. After reading this article, you can make that pizza night a healthier one.
Can Homemade Pizza Be Healthy?
Homemade pizza can be healthy and even tastier than Domino’s if you do it right by researching your ingredients and being mindful of cooking ingredients, oils, salt, etc. For example, if you are looking to create a very healthy pizza, you can try using whole wheat flour for the crust. This significantly improves the level of healthiness as white flour is not very good for you.
One of the most universal offerings of pizza is the toppings. You can add any salad ingredients as a pizza topping and enjoy. It can be quite heavenly eating a slice of pizza with green peppers, mushrooms, onions, spinach, tomatoes, and even turkey bacon is a fairly-healthy option.
One of the biggest delights of a pizza can be the “meat lover’s special.” This presents an amazing opportunity for a healthy pizza by topping your pie with lean beef, turkey, chicken, or even tofu. When it comes to fats, you can choose to use healthier oils like avocado oil or even fresh olive oil. And, remember, a good pie starts with the pizza dough.
Why is Homemade Pizza Healthier Than Pre-Made Pizza?
There are many reasons why homemade pizza is healthier than pre-made pizza.
One of the most critical factors is that we are in control of all the ingredients and everything that goes into the pizza. Many pizza delivery services utilize products that are pre-made and often stored for long periods and preserved with various chemicals.
The high levels of salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats are much more prevalent in those pizzas that are manufactured by these highly-profitable pizza chains. The toppings used in homemade pizzas can be freshly cut vegetables or properly cooked lean meat rather than the pre-packaged, processed vendor options.
When you are at home, you are also more likely to be mindful of the size of portions. The pizzas from the delivery services are often very large, with excessive calories and fat.
How Can You Make Pizza Lower in Calories?
You can make pizza lower in calories by starting with the development of a good healthy base of pizza dough. By avoiding the high-calorie white flour and unhealthy high-fat cheeses, you are off to a great start in decreasing the caloric content of a pizza.
How Can You Make Pizza Higher in Protein?
You can make pizza higher in protein in a whole series of ways. The most powerful pizza protein packer includes ingredients like chicken breast and ground turkey. These are exceptionally high in protein and can increase the grams with a small amount, even though leaner options.
What is the Healthiest Way to Make Pizza?
Use a Lot of Fresh Vegetables
By using fresh produce and cutting up your vegetables, you are not only creating a healthier pizza, but you are also benefitting from many of the nutrients included in fresh vegetables.
Be Mindful of the Cheese
Since there are so many options available for cheese products, even cheese substitutes, you can increase the health value of your pizza by selecting one that has some nutritional value. Additionally, it is also beneficial to control the actual amount of cheese you include in your dough.
Use the Right Protein
Rather than overloading your pizza with sausage, pepperoni, or bacon, you can use low-fat ground beef, turkey, chicken, or even tofu. This is a significant saving on calories and fat and also adds nutritional value.
Pizza Pie Portions
When you prepare your pie, you can control the amounts and types of ingredients and also the portions that you consume. This is extremely beneficial as the extraneous calories lead to many unwanted circumstances, including weight gain, an increase in cholesterol levels, and even digestive issues.
Healthy Oils
Restaurants typically use low-grade, inexpensive vegetable oil that is high in fat and unhealthy elements. When you are at home making your pizza, you can use a healthy oil, such as avocado or olive oil.
Whole Wheat Flour
A good pizza starts with high-quality pizza dough. By using whole grains instead of white flour, you add fiber content which is beneficial in digestion and can aid in feeling full more efficiently. This is also significantly lower in calories and carbohydrates than white flour.
Herbs and Spices
One of the best-known secrets to a homemade pizza is that you can sprinkle on healthy food nutrients that do not affect the flavor but add significant health benefits. For example, you can sprinkle a multitude of different kinds of spices and herbs on your pie, such as fresh ground garlic, flax seeds, and a whole variety of garden-variety vegetables that provide a lot of nutritional value.
Example Healthy Pizza Recipe
One of my favorite sites for recipes focuses on quality cooking for kids. On SuperHealthyKids.com, you will find a plethora of healthy cooking ideas, including the one listed below for a healthy pizza.
Ingredients
For the dough
3 cups whole wheat flour, regular or white whole wheat, or a mix
2 ½ teaspoons active yeast
1 ¼ cups warm water
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon wheat gluten, optional but recommended
For the sauce
1 14-ounce can of tomato sauce
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 clove garlic, grated or a pinch of garlic powder
Topping ideas
Shredded Mozzarella
Grated Parmesan
Fresh veggies like bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, or spinach
Pepperoni, ham, chicken, or ground beef
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 425 and get your toppings ready in a bowl or bag.
Prepare the sauce and cheese and set it aside for later.
Mix yeast and warm water in a smaller bowl and set it aside.
Use a large bowl for mixing and add salt, flour and stir profusely. Then, mix in the mixture from step 3, along with honey and olive oil. Continue to stir.
Press and knead the dough until it becomes a decent, dry consistency.
When the dough is ready and mixed into a ball, spread some olive oil and cover the bowl while it rises (this can take up to two hours).
Once ready, begin to pound the dough and cut it in half.
Each slice of dough can be rolled into different balls in different bowls. In another 30 to 60 minutes, the dough should rise again.
Put some whole wheat flour on a cutting board or counter and flatten the balls with a rolling pin or similar type of utensil. You can also use your hands/fingers to shape the dough to your liking.
Now, put the dough on the baking sheet and put some additional olive oil on top.
Let the pizza bake for up to 15 minutes until the cheese bubbles and/or the crust is to your liking.
Final Thoughts
Pizza is an extremely versatile and convenient food that can be eaten at any time and is well-liked throughout the world. With all of the available options, pizza can be enjoyed by diverse groups of people with all kinds of tastes and preferences and is often viewed as a comfort food.
On a family night, when all else fails, you can always order a pizza. This food caters to many diets, including vegetarians, vegans, and meat lovers. During gatherings, parties, and events, pizza is frequently enjoyed as it can be a very social food, and there are very few occasions where a fresh pizza is not a nice accompaniment.
Many homemade pizza recipes are much lower in saturated fat, with a healthier pizza sauce that is the best alternative for your special pizza occasions. There are some amazing benefits to homemade pizzas, especially if you are working on counting calories. If you want to be creative, you can even create a homemade pizza on your dough or even a Better Bagel.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the healthiest pizza ingredients?
The healthiest pizza ingredients start with the whole wheat crust. The additional health benefits from whole wheat increase the fiber content and the overall nutritional value of a pizza.
Tomatoes offer many health benefits as well. Tomatoes contain lycopene, which is a very powerful antioxidant that is known to help with reducing risks of heart diseases and certain types of cancers.
Vegetables are the best for all kinds of increased health benefits. Broccoli, onions, mushrooms, and peppers add a ton of healthy nutrients that can turn a processed high-fat pizza into somewhat of a salad-based pizza increasing your intake of health essentials.
What cheese is healthier for pizza?
Some cheese types are healthier than others. Part-skim mozzarella is not only low-fat but also a low-calorie cheese that has a nice, mild flavor. Another example of a healthier cheese is goat cheese. Goat cheese is also lower in calories and fat and is a nice combination with vegetables. And, of course, if you want to create a dairy-free pizza, you can even top your pizza with vegan cheese.
What makes pizza unhealthy?
Pizza is typically very high in calories since it is cooked with cheese, meat, and toppings that can be very unhealthy and processed. Salt, fat, and carbohydrates are plentiful in a typical pizza, especially those ordered through delivery services.
Pizza crusts are manufactured with white flour, which is extremely unhealthy and loaded with refined carbohydrates and unhealthy oils. Because of the convenience of pizza, in many cases, the preparation involves low-quality ingredients that increase flavor and add texture while increasing the calories, fat, and sodium.
By creating your homemade pizza, you have a lot of power to make it a healthy one.
