Pizza is super easy and fun to make and is a great way to get the kids to eat lots of veggies.  This pizza is high in fibre , vitamins and minerals and low in sodium.  If you’re not going overboard with the amount you’re eating, and your toppings are fresh and mostly veggies then pizza can be healthy.

I made my own base and sauce but you can get them ready made.  Try to avoid the bases and sauces with too much salt, preservatives and additives in them.  Lebanese bread is a good option as a base, or you can buy spelt and gluten free bases from some supermarkets or online. If you don’t want to use tomato sauce, you can use a pesto made with basil and/or coriander (again, avoid preservatives) or make your own pesto – below is the ingredients for both sauces.

Ingredients

To make 2 large pizzas

Pizza Base

1 7g sachet dry yeast

1 tsp honey

3-4 cups spelt flour or strong unbleached flour

Tomato Sauce

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1kg tomatoes

Handful basil

Salt and pepper, to salt

1 tsp dried oregano

Pesto Sauce

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

½ cup packed fresh coriander leaves

2 tbsp sunflower seeds

2 tsp capers

4 kalamata olives, pitted

4 sundried tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Pinch of sea salt

Pizza Toppings

Add as many veggies as you can, this is a great way to get some extra veggies into the kids.

Choose from:

Finely chopped kale, Onion, Capsicum, Eggplant, Shiitake mushrooms, Swiss brown or button mushrooms, onion, thinly sliced sweet potato, thinly sliced and chopped radish, olives, chopped green beans, corn, broccoli, spinach, asparagus.

Top with mozarella cheese or a vegan alternative such as tofutti

Method

To make the dough:

Start this at least 90 minutes before.

Dissolve yeast sachet in a glass or pyrex (not metal) bowl with a glass of warm water and a tsp honey.  Add 1/2 cup spelt flour and stir.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes to activate the yeast, it should become bubbly and foamy.

Gradually stir in the rest of the flour until it becomes a good dough consistency (smooth and stretchy, a little sticky but not too wet).  Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or let your food processor knead it for you with the dough hook.  If you’ve used the food processor, transfer the dough back to a glass bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil to stop it drying out, then cover the top of the bowl with a plate.  Let it sit somewhere warm for at least an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Separate the dough into 2 pieces and pull into a rough circle shape.  Roll out so it’s a few mm thin.  If you’re talented you could throw it around like this guy.

To make the tomato sauce:

Cut a cross over the top of the tomatoes. Blanch them in boiling water for one minute so the skin is easy to peel off. Allow them to cool and then peel the skin off, discard the seeds and roughly chop the flesh.

Gently fry the onion over a medium heat until soft in a little olive oil.  Add the garlic and fry for a futher minute.  Add the tomatoes and oregano and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for approximately 30-40 minutes.

Puree with a stick blender until smooth.  Season to taste and add the finely chopped basil.

To make the pesto sauce:

In a food processor, combine basil, coriander, sunflower seeds, capers, olives, sundried tomatoes, and garlic; pulse a few times.  Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream with the food processor running.  Stop to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula.  Add a pinch of salt to taste.

Assembling the Pizza

Preheat the oven to 200C.

If you are making the dough from scratch and like me you’re not amazing at throwing dough around so it’s crazy thin, you’ll need to precook the dough for 10min so that the dough isn’t soggy.

Once you’ve done that, spread on your chosen sauce, and layer on heaps of veggies.  Sprinkle with cheese and cook until it’s golden brown.

 
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