Monthly Archive for January, 2015

There’s no getting around it: Steph and I are big time pizza sluts. Huge. Over Xmas we devoured our collective weight in dough and cheese, with zero consideration for how this might make us look a couple weeks later. Note- we like texting each other pix when we’re about to get down:

 Nacho cheese and pizza.  Babies and pizza.

But now that we’re back and reality’s hit us over the head like a stack of bricks, I thought we could use a healthier pizza recipe that’s SO easy to make, and totally not bad for you! BEHOLD THE MOST DELICIOUS, healthiest pizza ever: Zucchini Crust Pizza. No, this ain’t no hippy sh*t. This is delightfully satisfying pizza without the wheat bloat.

Here’s what you need, and need to do:

~~INGREDIENTS~~

For the crust:

• 2 eggs
• About 3 small-medium zucchinis
• 1.5 cups grated parmesan or mozzarella
• salt

For the toppings:

Anything you like on a pizza!  What I use:

• Tomato sauce OR pesto
• Grated mozzarella or parmesan cheese OR sliced fresh mozzarella cheese
• Ricotta cheese or goat cheese, for small dollops on top (optional)
• Assorted veggies. Pre-sauté for extra flavor, especially if you’re using onion, garlic and mushrooms. A little italian parsley or basil is nice too; the basil can be added fresh after the pizza is cooked, and the parsley is nice in the sauté. Arugula’s yummy. Finely chopped greens are nice. Fresh tomatoes can be added after the pizza is cooked too.
• Meat if you like/eat meat on pizza: Crumbled sausage would work well. Pre-sauté. Ground chicken would be tasty, cooked with lots of garlic.
• Olive oil, black pepper

~~DIRECTIONS~~

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
• Grate zucchini.
• Sprinkle salt on the zucchini and stir. Let it sit a few minutes.
• Squeeze the water out of the zucchini by wrapping in cheese cloth or paper towel, or pressing the zucchini on one plate and pressing another plate on top of it. Or, you can put it in a colander and press a bowl or paper towel into it.
• Mix the zucchini with egg and shredded cheese (*Steph mixed hers with half a cup of cheese and half a cup of almond flour):

• Spread parchment paper on a pizza stone or baking sheet. Spread out your dough batter about 1/2 inch thick into a circle.

• Bake in the oven until it has browned, about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, as it’s cooking, sauté any toppings you want cooked. I sautéed garlic, mushrooms, parsley and tomatoes

• Take the browned bottom crust out of the oven.

• Layer with whatever sauce you want (in this case, pesto)…

• …plus whatever toppings you want. I used the tomatoes and mushrooms, plus arugula
• Bake again until the crust edges are more brown and the cheese on top (if you placed some on the pizza) melts into toppings.

• Take out of oven and add drizzled olive oil (or truffle oil if you real fancy), grated black pepper, and optional fresh tomatoes and fresh basil. Voila!

So there you have it. A pretty healthy alternative that doesn’t make you feel all bloated like after housing a normal pizza. And you can literally put whatever you want on it!

Though let’s be honest.  The two of us will never completely abandon Papa:

PS – For other healthy recipes, check out:

• The Coziest, Healthiest Chicken Soup here
• Autumn Ingredient Salad here
• BBQ Turkey Meatballs over Cheddar Corn Quinoa here
• Pappardelle with Kale Pesto + Turkey Meatballs here

xoxo,