Bright Palette Pizza
We’ve talked here before about the health benefits of a colorful diet. A wide variety of fruits is easy to assemble into a salad that is both tasty and healthy. But what about vegetables?That’s easy as well. But, don’t think boring old salad.
Think pizza.
As you make your brilliantly colored meal, think about the health benefits of your palette.
Green is wonderful for cleansing and detoxification as well as promoting cell rejuvenation and fighting cancer cells.
Red and orange vegetables contain loads of Vitamins A and C. They also often contain minerals that help with the synthesis of collagen and other antioxidants which help slow the aging process.
Yellow vegetables promote healthy fats and blue or deeply green or nearly black grass vegetables are loaded with calcium.
Neutral colors or brown colored peas and beans ensure your diet is rich in fiber, potassium, folates and an array of vitamins.
Bright, crunchy and easy to make, this pizza can be ready in ten minutes if you plan ahead or twenty if it’s a spur of the moment thing. That isn’t much longer than it takes to make a frozen one…and it’s so much better for you and, often less expensive.
If you’re feeling adventurous, throw on a few fruits as well for a different sort of taste.
There’s not a lot of cheese on this pizza because we’re focusing on the vegetables, so experiment with stronger flavors – like feta.
This is the sort of dish you can customize. Don’t like broccoli? Leave it out. Love yellow squash? Add as much as you want. Just try to have representatives of all the color groups.
Bright Palette Pizza
1 roll of pizza dough (or make your own if you have the time)
¼ cup each of a variety of vegetables, including (but not limited to) spinach, broccoli, green pepper, scallions, asparagus, leeks, red onions, red peppers, tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, red chilies, carrots, yellow peppers, yellow squash, sweet potato, kale, black olives, black beans, pineapples, figs…all cut into tiny pieces.
½ cup or more of a soft cheese, grated or crumbled.
· Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
· Roll out the dough and put it onto a prepared pan. Spray the top with a little cooking spray and bake for 7 minutes while you prepare the veggies.
· When the crust is just starting to brown, pull it out and put down a thin layer of cheese. (If you’re lucky enough not to be counting calories, go ahead and add a thicker layer.)
· Mix all your vegetables together in a bowl and toss with just a few drops of olive oil and season with pepper to taste.
· Toss the veggies onto the crust and pop the whole thing…chessed crust and veggies into the oven for another few minutes, until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted.
¼ cup each of a variety of vegetables, including (but not limited to) spinach, broccoli, green pepper, scallions, asparagus, leeks, red onions, red peppers, tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, red chilies, carrots, yellow peppers, yellow squash, sweet potato, kale, black olives, black beans, pineapples, figs…all cut into tiny pieces.
½ cup or more of a soft cheese, grated or crumbled.
· Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
· Roll out the dough and put it onto a prepared pan. Spray the top with a little cooking spray and bake for 7 minutes while you prepare the veggies.
· When the crust is just starting to brown, pull it out and put down a thin layer of cheese. (If you’re lucky enough not to be counting calories, go ahead and add a thicker layer.)
· Mix all your vegetables together in a bowl and toss with just a few drops of olive oil and season with pepper to taste.
· Toss the veggies onto the crust and pop the whole thing…chessed crust and veggies into the oven for another few minutes, until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted.
