Pizza, Pizza, Pizza……are you a pizza lover but wish that pizza didn’t pack all the loaded calories and carbohydrates????? Guess what….. I have a great recipe for you!!! As seen on Nashville’s News Channel 5 Talk of the Town, my “Zucchini Style” crusted pizza offers a lower calorie form of this popular meal providing a variety of nutrition plus it taste pretty amazing! Lets just spend a little time on some zucchini 101. First, it is a great summer vegetable to keep as a kitchen staple because it is such a versatile veggie for recipes. Zucchini is packed with water making the veggie filling but extremely low in calorie and carbohydrate. The beautiful green skin of the zucchini offers a good punch of vitamin C,vitamin A, and potassium as well. I personally keep zucchini as a veggie staple pretty much year around. I love to not only make my zucchini crust pizza but I love them raw dipped in hummus, roasted in the oven with other colorful veggies, in salads, and they make great zucchini zoodles…. more on that later! This pizza can be personalized with the toppings of your choice but for this recipe I am sharing a personal pizza favorite. So the next time you have that pizza craving nagging at you give this healthy version a whirl…… you will love it I promise! Here is your recipe!
Healthy “Zucchini Style” Pizza:
Zucchini Crust ingredients:
•6 cups finely shredded zucchini-strained
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1 cup shredded Parmesan
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 eggs ( or can use just 1 egg)
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour ( or almond flour)
• 1 tsp dried Oregano
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
Process:
Using a large food processor, place 6 sliced zucchini in processor and grind to finely shredded consistency. Using a Cheese cloth and bowl to strain excess liquid from the zucchini place all shredded zucchini in cheese cloth and gather cloth together so zucchini is secure. Squeeze the zucchini in the cheese cloth over a large bowl to drain the excess liquid until zucchini feels more dry. Remove strained zucchini to clean bowl and add all other crust ingredients. Mix all together well until the mixture is zucchini “doe like”. Hear oven to 450 degrees and prepare pizza pan with parchment paper. Place the zucchini doe mixture on pizza pan and prepared parchment paper. Bake in oven for approx. 20-25 min or until crust becomes slightly golden on the top.
Remove crust and place all featured toppings to the crust. Recommend toppings featured. One the topping a are complete pop pizza back in oven for an additional 10-12 minutes. Of using fresh Basil, wait to place fresh basil leaves just after pizza is removed from the oven to avoid the basil from burning.
Topping Ingredients:
1 cup Pizza Sauce- used Muir Glen Organic pizza sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella divided
1-2 small tomatoes sliced
6-7 sliced fresh mozzarella
1/4 cup Turkey Pepperoni -(optional, used Applegate Turkey Pepperoni)
2-3 tbsp sliced green olives
Fresh Basil leaves
Process:
Add pizza sauce and spread cover to pre-cooked zucchini crust, sprinkle 1/2 cup of the mozzarella on top pizza sauce, start to layer with the sliced tomatoes, fresh sliced mozzarella, turkey pepperoni, green olives, and too with remaining 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella . Place pizza back in oven at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until all ingredients look cooked/melted on pizza. Turn oven off once pizza is done and sprinkle the basil leaves on warm pizza, let pizza sit in cooling oven for 1-2 minutes to warm the basil leaves on the pizza, this will keep the fresh basil from burning. Remove pizza, slice pizza style and enjoy!!!
Recipe by: Jenny Beth Kroplin RD, LDN, CLC www.jennybethrd.com
