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Want to make a pizza that will help a diet instead of hurting it? The three components of pizza to target when making it healthy are the crust, the sauce, and the toppings. Any of the healthy options below can be mixed and matched to make eight different kinds of delicious and healthy pizza.

Healthy Pizza Crust Recipes:

The main reason that pizza crust is unhealthy is its use of highly processed white flour. To make crust healthier, use whole wheat flour instead of white flour. Because whole wheat flour is especially dense, either use half whole wheat flour and half white flour, or substitute 7/8 cup of whole wheat flour for every cup of white flour the recipe calls for.

An even better option than using whole wheat flour is to make pizza crust using squash or zucchini instead of flour. For every 2 cups of grated zucchini or yellow summer squash (with liquid pressed out of it), add 1/3 cup of whole wheat flour, 1 egg, and a little salt and pepper. Press the mixture into a thin layer in a lightly greased and floured pan, bake for a half hour at 350, and the pizza crust will come out ready for sauce and toppings to be added.

Healthy Pizza Sauce Recipes:

Basic red sauce is actually quite healthy, if it is not over-salted or sugared. Rather than using pizza sauce, which often has sugar added, consider using low-sodium pasta sauce, or just buying cans of plain tomato sauce and adding spices. Basil, oregano, thyme, garlic, and onion are all good additions to tomato sauce. Another healthy option is to use thinly sliced fresh tomatoes and chopped fresh basil instead of sauce.

A sauce that tastes wonderful with mixed vegetable pizza is a garlic white sauce that can be made from scratch in just a few minutes. To make a cup of sauce, melt 1 tablespoon of butter or margarine in a small saucepan and saut a clove of minced garlic in it. Then mix in 2 tablespoons of flour, cook for a few minutes, and stir in a cup of skim milk. Heat the sauce to a boil, stirring frequently until it thickens. Other spices and seasonings such as ginger, crushed red pepper, oregano, and a little salt and pepper can be added as well.

Healthy Pizza Topping Recipes:

Before dumping a heavy layer of mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce, stop for a minute. Cheese adds calories and fat to pizza, and it is best to find ways to enjoy pizza with little or no cheese. If cheese is a necessity, purchase low-fat mozzarella and use half as much as usual. One way to cut down on cheese is to put it on last so it is just a sprinkling to top things off, rather than a full layer between the sauce and the toppings.

A set of pizza toppings that works well without any mozzarella cheese is spinach, mushrooms, and feta cheese. Arrange fresh spinach in a layer on top of the sauce, scatter sliced mushrooms over that (saut them beforehand for softer mushrooms), and sprinkle a little bit of feta cheese on top, perhaps with some dill and parsley as well.

For a colorful, delicious, and healthy vegetable pizza, use thin slices of red onion, orange or yellow bell pepper, and steamed asparagus tips. Meat can be added to this as well, but it is important to use small pieces of lean meats. Chopped cooked chicken, shrimp, or even small cubes of Canadian bacon are all good additions to get some meat on the pizza.

Learn more about this author, Kristen Miller.
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