Monday

Healthy Mediterranean-Style Grilled-Veggie Pizza on My Best Crust Yet!



Eureka! I've finally hit upon my favorite homemade pizza to date ~ and the bonus is that it's relatively healthy and substantially lower in fat & cholesterol than most.



What I'm particularly excited about is that I've finally hit upon a whole wheat crust that I really like by tweaking a couple of other recipes that were in my recipe files.
The solution was simply a matter of adjusting the ratio of all purpose flour to whole wheat flour and water. It is much more like a traditional crust, but a wee bit more healthy than an all-white flour pizza crust.

In my family we like our crust crispy and flavorful, this one has everything I was looking for in a healthier pizza crust; flavor and sturdiness, and it can be mixed in the food processor or mixer and baked within minutes, or refrigerated, or frozen so it is ready when you are.
The other trick for a crispy, not soggy crust is using a well-preheated baking stone in a very hot oven, and pre-baking the crust for just a couple of minutes before adding any topping. This assures a crispy crust that can stand up to a load of healthy toppings. ouple of other recipes that were in my recipe files.
The solution was simply a matter of adjusting the ratio of all purpose flour to whole wheat flour and water. It is much more like a traditional crust, but a wee bit more healthy than an all-white flour pizza crust.


In my family we like our crust crispy and flavorful, this one has everything I was looking for in a healthier pizza crust; flavor and sturdiness, and it can be mixed in the food processor or mixer and baked within minutes, or refrigerated, or frozen so it is ready when you are.
The other trick for a crispy, not soggy crust is using a well-preheated baking stone in a very hot oven, and pre-baking the crust for just a couple of minutes before adding any topping. This assures a crispy crust that can stand up to a load of healthy toppings.



Sometimes a simple pizza with just a few toppings will do ~ but my goal was to practically eliminate the cheese, and also use up some of the abundance of zucchini we all seem to have at this time of year.


Sometimes less is more, and I DO like very simple pizzas, but this time we wanted a veggie-loaded pizza.
To make it I simply sliced the zucchini and red onion about 1/4-inch thick, brushed them lightly with olive oil, a sprinkle of sea salt then grilled them until slightly charred on the stove top grill. Grilling the zucchini adds a lovely depth of flavor, plus they give up some of their water content, thereby helping to avoid a soggy, mushy crust.


I made a simple tomato sauce (you can use your favorite commercial sauce), spread it on the partially baked crust, then layered with the grilled zucchini, red onion and baked for a couple of minutes.
Next (while the pizza was still in the oven) I added wedges of canned artichoke hearts, quartered olives, oven roasted tomatoes and allowed it to bake for a few more minutes.
Upon removing from the oven I sprinkled a little crumbled Feta cheese, some cherry tomato halves and a generous shower of fresh oregano and thyme leaves.

A delicious, and nearly guilt-free pizza!


Of course you can top it with ANYTHING you like ~ I think the real revelation here is the pizza crust.

If you would like a printable copy for my recipe, please click HERE.

If you try this pizza or the crust, I hope you love it as much as my family does.


Thank you so much for stopping by today!






26 comments:

  1. This looks absolutely scrumptious! I'll definitely be trying this one.

    Thanks for sharing
    Lorrie

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  2. I do believe you have a real winner here! I can't wait to get back to Florida in October and try this. That is where my stone and food processor are and my mouth will be watering until then. Thank you, but then, all your recipes are so over-the-top!!

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  3. The pizza looks wonderful! I am always looking for healthy recipes that are as lovely as they are good for you. I am going now to print this out.
    Thanks for sharing.

    Charla

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  4. I will be trying this recipe. Thank you!
    Carol

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  5. Oh Mary, you are killing me here. That picture is so perfect I feel like I could reach right through the screen and pick that slice of tomato and artichoke right off the pizza.

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  6. This looks so fresh and delicious! As always, I LOVE your pics!

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  7. What a beautiful and delicious-sounding pizza, Mary! I love all of the colors and flavors you've added :)

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  8. Your pictures are very beautiful!! All those vibrant colors : ) I also love making homemade pizza at home. I love how you can customize your pizza toppings. This is a wonderful healthy version that is guilt-free AND looks delicious! I love it!

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  9. Looks lip smacking delicious and I can't wait to make this. I just took a cooking class and the teacher told us to use 1/3 cup of WW flour and 2/3 white flour for each cup and it seems to be working nicely for a good balance.
    Joyce

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  10. This looks delicious, I get sick of pepperoni pizza and love what's on top of this one.

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  11. Mari, I can't wait to try this on my vegetarian son. He's away at college right now so when he makes a visit home, I will make his mouth water with this recipe! Thank you!
    Patti

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  12. This pizza looks wonderful!! I will try it!!
    thanks for sharing!!
    you get coupon for pizza at http://printable-coupon-cmc.blogspot.com/

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  13. Wow Mari, this pizza looks great... I love the tip of precooking de dough so it does not get soggy... thanks. I have to get round to using my pizza stone, Ive had it for almost a year .....

    If you or any of your readers want to pop round my blog I am doing a cookie cutter giveaway.....

    B

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  14. Looks so good! I had a quick question...will the pizza do alright if you don't allow it to rise like you say in your recipe. I've heard if you don't let it rise you'll end up with a tough crust...any thoughts? Thanks!

    -Ashley

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  15. Hey Mari, This looks wonderful.... Please come on over you won my GIVE A WAY.... And I have a new Give A way for October...
    xoxo
    Julie

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  16. Thank you for your comments everyone!!

    Hi Ashley, I haven't noticed it being tough; although the addition of the whole wheat flour makes a different textured crust that all-purpose white flour. As I mentioned, we like our crust crisp. If you're not sure you would like it this way you could divide the dough recipe into two balls and allow one to rise, and the other not then bake them off to see which you like best. I've done it both ways and actually prefer it without rising ~ but both are really good, imo. Thank for stopping by!

    Hi Bea and Julie, ooh goodie! Thanks for letting us know about your give-aways! How generous of you; I hope you get lots of interest!

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  17. This looks sooo delicious, Mari. Partially baking the crust is genius because I like a crispy crust too. And love all the veggies.

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  18. Its loaded with all the good stuff

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  19. I think I need to try the prebaking, because my crust is always soggy on top.

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  20. Ooooh I want to come over to your house and sample this FAB pizza... YUM!!! I'll bring a bottle of Chianti!

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  21. If that crust tastes half as good as it looks, it is delicious! I'm going to get the recipe. Thank you. laurie

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  22. This looks amazing...your photos are so appetizing, and of course the pizza fills almost every food need I have (except, maybe chocolate ;-)

    Thanks Mari...Diane

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  23. Hi Mari! Had a question about your pizza crust... I used your recipe, let it rise, rolled the dough pretty thin and pre-baked it in a 500 degree oven on a pre-heated pizza stone for about eight minutes. When I took the crust out it had a lot of bubbles in it. I almost felt like I made a pita! :) Any advice as to how I can fix this??? Thanks!

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Thank you for your comments, friends ~ they make my day!

A Sampling of my food . . .

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