Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Mediterranean Pizza


I found this recipe HERE on Allrecipes.com and it has become one of our favorite routine dinners. Not only does it taste amazing but it's also relatively healthy. It's got a ton of veggies including an entire bag of spinach dumped on it. Healthy never tasted so good.

In addition, it doesn't use any pizza sauce or any heavy cheeses. Replacing the sauce is a mixture of pesto sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, herbs, a little bit of Parmesan cheese, and olive oil. Then you just pile on the toppings and bake! I'm going to provide the original recipe below with my healthy alterations in parenthesis.

Mediterranean Pizza (Originally: Pizza Without the Red Sauce)

Servings: 8 (More like 4 to be honest)
Time: To Prepare- 10 mins To bake: 15-20 mins

Ingredients:
- 2 TBSP butter, melted (I use margarine and cut to 1-1/2 TBSP)
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- 3 TBSP minced garlic
- 2 TBSP sun-dried tomato pesto (or 1 TBSP sun-dried tomato in oil and 1 TBSP pesto)
- 1 tsp dried basil leaves
- 1 tsp dried oregano leaves (I use an Italian herb blend instead)
- 1 TBSP freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 unbaked pizza crust (I use wholewheat crust from Fresh and Easy)
- 1 tomato sliced (I omit because I don't care for tomatoes much)
- 1 (6-ounce) bag of spinach (I use organic prewashed)
- 1 sweet onion (I use half or so of a red onion)
- 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped (This tastes kinda weird. If you want heat, used crushed red pepper instead- about 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp depending on desired level of heat)
- 1 6-ounce container crumbled feta cheese (I use about 4-5 ounces)

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat oven according to pizza crust directions.

Step 2: In a bowl, combine butter, oil, sun-dried tomato pesto, Parmesan, garlic, and herbs (if using crushed red pepper instead of jalapeno, add to mix as well). Lay out pizza crust and spread mixture evenly over it.


Step 3: Arrange tomato, onion, feta, spinach, and jalapeno on top of pizza. I like to place the toppings at different levels, some on top and some under the other toppings. It will look like a heaping mess but don't worry, it bakes down nicely.

Step 4: Bake according to directions on pizza crust container.



1 comment: