Possibly one of the most loved foods of all time, pizza tends to have a reputation for being, uh, not exactly the healthiest thing you can fuel your body with. And while blotting the grease off your delivery slice helps slash those calories, making your own pizza-inspired meal will add a new dimension of wellness to your favorite food.
Healthy Zucchini Pizza Boats
By replacing carb-filled pizza dough with zucchini, you not only cut calories but you add the immense benefits of this green veggie to your diet. Manganese and Vitamin C help to promote eye-health, while the low calorie value of zucchini means you can eat even mroe. Instead of boats, you can make adorable pizza bits too!
Deep Dish Skillet Sausage Pizza
The thick, lovely layers of dough make deep-dish pizza considerably worse for you than it’s thin-crusted cousin. This recipe incorporates both almond and coconut flour to give you a low-carb, gluten-free imitation of the famed Chicago-style masterpiece.
Bell Pepper Pizza
Filled—quite literally—to the brim with veggies, these Bell Pepper Pizzas contain virtually no carbs, so they perfectly fit into a low-carb diet. Additionally, bell peppers provide a potent dose of antioxidants and help combat cancer. The wiggle room in this recipe allows you to add whatever toppings you want, so pile on the health benefits!
Pizza Wrap
Using part-skim mozzarella cheese and lightened pizza sauce allows you to kill pizza cravings without going overboard with calories and fat. Wrap it all up in a low-calorie tortilla—picking corn-based instead of flour-based is a good way to start—and you’ll have a quick, effortless pizza-inspired meal.
Broccoli Pesto Pizza Muffins
Perfect if you aren’t super keen on the idea of ruining a delicious pizza with “healthy food,” these Pizza Muffins hide broccoli beneath the savory, fresh flavors of pesto. Plus, they’re baked right in muffin tins, which are amazingly portable and convenient for any meal.
Sweet Potato Kale Pizza
There’s just something about gorgeous food that just amps up the taste of any recipe. Not only is this pizza stunning and elegant, but it has numerous health benefits from the kale—hello, vitamin K—and sweet potato, which contains more vitamin A than any other vegetable. Say hello to glowing skin and a happy stomach!
Broccoli Flatbread Pizza
With just a toaster oven, you can create your own pizza that’ll be sure to keep your body—and your wallet—light. This recipe is insanely simple, requiring only four, easily-obtained ingredients, but don’t let it fool you — the broccoli will help keep your body cancer-free and your waist thin.
Pizza Salad
The words “pizza” and “salad” will probably never coexist in the lifetimes of most people, but trust me when I say that you’ll miss a wonderful experience if you pass up this pizza-inspired salad.
Cauliflower Crust Pizza
A good way to turn you pizza into something healthy is to forgo the traditional crust entirely in favor of wholesome imitation. This pizza-inspired cauliflower crust offers all the flavor and nutrition without the guilt.
Gluten Free and Vega Pizza
Living a vegan or gluten-free lifestyle? You don’t have to give up pizza entirely—playing around with the crust allows you to have a glorious slice of pizza without breaking away from your dietary restrictions.
Quinoa Pizza
Like the recipe above, this pizza-inspired meal utilizes quinoa in order to create a healthy, gloriously gluten-free food. This creative crust is also packed with protein and iron, and has nearly twice as much fiber than ordinary pizza dough made from flour.
Other Tips
While you can rely on any of these recipes to give you a healthy spin on everyone’s favorite food, Greatist has some great tips on how to make your pizza less detrimental to your health. Giving their article a read will definitely help you whip up a pizza to rival those of the local chains.