Latest info, recipes, tools & gadgets to create a healthy diet
Eating Healthy & Having Your Pizza, Too!
Yum! Plunge into a delicious healthy pizza!
After writing about our awesome homemade pizza I got a request for the recipe, so here it is.
Once we made the commitment to eat a truly vegetarian diet we ran into one huge problem. No pizza! This was because some cheeses are processed with cheese cultures that are derived from cow stomach linings. We went for months without any pizza. Not life threatening, for sure, but we really enjoy an occasional pizza and wanted to find a way to enjoy it vegetarian style.
We thought the biggest problem was in preparing a crust. Knowing that yeast breads take a lot of time and care, to come out with a nice loaf, we just assumed (not a good idea) that pizza crust would be the same. Come to find out pizza crust is about as simple as tying your shoes. Very, very simple. The only difference is that you need to allow time for the dough to rise. Here’s the best pizza we’ve ever had (and we’ve had some pretty awesome pizzas).
Pizza Recipe
Crust
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat white flour
1/8 cup vital gluten
1 tsp salt
1/8 sweetener (to feed yeast)
Photo 1
1 tsp active dry yeast
8 oz very warm water
For Pizza Pan
Olive oil
Parchment paper cut to fit
In a medium bowl put in all the dry ingredients and mix. Pour in the 8 oz of very warm water and mix thoroughly, but not excessively. Cover bowl, put in a nice warm place and allow to rise for 1 to 1.5 hours until it is about double in size.
Photo 2
You can do this in a bread baker if it has a dough setting, too.
Pineapple and Olive Pizza Topping
1/2 cup tomato puree
1/2 chopped olives
5 slices of canned pineapple cut into chunks
1 T mixed Italian spices
1 tsp salt (opt)
Photo 3
1/2 lb mozzarella cheese, shredded or crumbled
Putting the Pizza Together
Take the pizza pan, cut parchment paper to fit and coat with a very thin layer of olive oil. Once the dough has risen, dump it on the pizza pan and gently spread it evenly over it. This will take a little time as the dough will be very elastic, just keep working it until it covers the pan.
Pour the puree over the pizza and spread it around with a spatula. The covering should not be thick. The dough will show through in places, but that’s fine. Too much sauce makes a soggy pizza. (photo 1)
Sprinkle both the salt and pizza herbs over the puree. (Photo 2)
Photo 4
Arrange the pineapple chucks evenly over the surface of the pizza. Sprinkle the olives over the pineapple. (Photo 3)
Top the pizza with an even layer of mozzarella cheese. (Photo 4)
Bake in a preheated over at 350 deg for 20-25 minutes until the crust is golden brown, and nice and hard around the edges. (Photo 5)
Enjoy!
You can make lots of variations on this using any fresh veggies or fruits you want. One we enjoy a lot is tomatoes, artichoke hearts, fresh basil leaves, and black olives.
Another is tomatoes, broccoli, zucchini (or yellow squash), and red bell peppers.
Photo 5
You can even try different herb combinations. We ran out of Italian spices one time, so I grabbed a chaat mix from the shelf and sprinkled it over the puree. It was delicious.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Sadaajit on February 16, 2012 at 11:56 am, and is filed under Dinner, Lunch, Main Dish. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
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So how do you make sure that your cheese is rennetless? You started with the problem of no cheese, then in the recipe you call for cheese but don’t explain how you resolved it.
about 2 months ago
Great catch. Let me look up the link to the web site that has all that information. I see you have de in your email, so I’m assuming you’re in Germany. I’m not sure how you would find that out other than to contact the companies and ask. Maybe your local health food store could help you.
Here in the US some of the manufacturers are actually putting non-animal rennet, or plant based cultures on their labels. So people can look for that. I’ll look up the site and put the answer up here for everyone to see. Sometimes you’ll see vegetarian on the label, which then means they haven’t used any animal product other than the milk to produce the cheese.
about 2 months ago
Here’s the information you were looking for. Of course this is a list for cheeses found in the US. As I said, outside the US you’ll probably have to contact the company or find a natural food store that can help you out.
http://cheese.joyousliving.com/
This is a very extensive listing, but I’ve found it very helpful when shopping.