Satisfy Your Pizza Craving with this Heart Healthy Pizza

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Cooking With Anadi

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I was up for a challenge and went for it: Can I really make a healthy pizza? Yes, you see those recipes for makeshift pizzas all over the Internet for everyone who’s looking to go on some sort of diet. However, I wanted not only to make a healthy pizza, but to make one that is true to my style of cooking and is still tasty.

I believe with this Healthy Pizza that it’s mission accomplished! I’m still using my favorite pizza crust and toppings with only a few modifications (and believe it or not - additions!) to make this pizza delicious and great for your health. If you want to make a lifestyle change but don’t want to cut pizza out of your life, then there is no reason to do so! Depending on your situation, you can easily incorporate this Heart Healthy Pizza any time you would like! I mention in my free motivational guide to explore your potential in the kitchen, Make Cooking Fun!!, that being realistic with your goals is key. While I am referring mostly to cooking, this can also mean to cravings. Cutting things out of your diet entirely is a recipe for disaster, but allowing yourself flexibility to enjoy tasty foods will help tremendously. When you see that you have the power to cook delicious food that is actually nutritious, you’ll be amazed!

Definitely be sure to love your heart with this healthy pizza recipe as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge. You can get started for free by signing up to my email newsletter today, and you’ll receive all of my latest recipes right to your inbox!

For a step-by-step visual of how to make the pizza dough, topping and broiling the pizza, be sure to watch the video! If you’re not already, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, and press the bell button to be notified when all of my video recipes are live! Let’s get cooking!

Can a Pizza Really Be Healthy?

Depending on where you’re from in the world, you know pizza as an epic dinner. It’s the preferred choice for family gatherings and parties. You may think that there’s no way a pizza can be healthy. Well, let’s see what we can do to modify that!

After wanting to all my life, I finally went to Italy, and I observed how the pizzas were prepared there. The crusts are definitely on the thinner side, and toppings aren’t overloaded, especially the cheese. While it’s not the crazy social media cheese pulls or a loaded stuffed crust pizza, I really enjoyed the light pizzas so I could taste all the flavors!

• Homemade crust: A homemade pizza is truly the language of love, in my opinion. Using your own crust really makes a difference! You have the choice of the type of flour you’re using and the thickness of the crust, plus you’ve got no preservatives. Now, you may be asking: whole wheat or white flour? Everyone praises whole wheat to be the ultimate nutritional choice, but if you’ve got lots of veggies on top, then the fiber you wouldn’t get from the whole wheat crust is negligible. Plus, if you want to stick to your healthy lifestyle, then you have to enjoy it! If you prefer white flour, then go ahead and do that. What will actually really help our health in this homemade crust in particular is the fermentation, coming from the “poolish.” This step is preliminary to making the dough.
• Size: The smaller the portion the less calories you will eat! If you want the satisfaction of eating an entire pizza, simply use less dough to make it. This pizza is smaller than the usual pizzas I make. Of course, just to be clear, depending on what your body needs and your current health status, I’m not giving a blanket statement to eat the whole pizza.
• Homemade sauce: To be fair I always make my own pizza sauce, and that’s the way to go! You avoid preservatives, artificial color dyes, and who knows what else. Plus, it’s easy and tasty!
• Moderate amount of cheese: Yes, cheese pulls are fun, but even part-skim mozzarella cheese is high in calories and saturated fat, and each little bit will add up quickly.
• Olive oil: Although calorie-dense, olive oil is excellent for your heart health. This reduces bad cholesterol and raises the good one. We’ll be brushing some olive oil on the crust and drizzling it over the pizza.

Other Topping Ideas

• Vegetables: You could also do cherry tomatoes, other pepper colors, mushrooms, or zucchini.
• Greens: Spinach or kale.
• Protein: For vegetarians, you can do tofu. For meat-eaters, another lean protein is extra lean ground beef, turkey breast, or pork tenderloin. For pescatarians, shrimp is a lean protein choice!

Tools Needed to Make Heart Healthy Pizza

• Baking steel and/or baking stone
• KitchenAid
• Wooden pizza peel and a metal peel
• Bench scraper
• Pizza wheel cutter
• Mixing bowl
• Whisk
• Garlic press
• Cutting board
• Basting brush
• Paring knife
• Ramekins

Ingredients for a Heart Healthy Pizza

Scroll to the bottom of this post or press the “Jump to Recipe” button for FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD that has all ingredients and their quantities, plus you can save the recipe for later. You’ll also be able to scale the recipe based on how many pizzas you’re looking to make so that you have the right amount of toppings!

For the Pizza Dough

• 00 flour or bread flour: The preferred choice is 00 flour, but if for whatever reason you can’t find it, then feel free to substitute with bread flour.
• Instant Yeast
• Salt
• Lukewarm water (60-70F) + ~200 g/mL lukewarm water (60-70F)
• Extra virgin olive oil

For the Sauce

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Passata or tomato puree
• Garlic cloves: Minced
• Dried oregano
• Tomato paste
• Chili flakes
• Salt to taste

For the Healthy Pizza

• Mozzarella cheese: Part-skimmed mozzarella is key here so that you get the flavor of a classic pizza but without overdoing the greasiness.
• Chicken: We’ll first pan-fry our chicken breast and then we’ll cut this into small pieces to add over the pizza.
• Vegetables: Tomatoes, green peppers, and onions.
• Arugula: Some greens to be added at the end so that you keep the crunch!
• Olive oil & minced garlic: To brush on the crust when the pizzas have finished baking.
• 00 flour or bread flour: As required for dusting.

How to Make Heart-Healthy Pizza

For the Poolish

Add the yeast and water to a bowl and whisk well until the yeast is dissolved and you see bubbles at the top. If you don't see bubbles, the yeast is dead and you need to restart with a fresh batch of yeast.

Add flour and mix well with a spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Cover with a plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft free place for 18 hours. If you will not be using the poolish immediately after, store in the fridge. Before using, allow the poolish to come to room temperature by setting the poolish on the countertop for at least 30 mins.

For the Pizza Dough

Add yeast and 70 g of lukewarm water to a bowl and whisk until water is bubbly. Mix until you see no granules of yeast floating on the water. If the yeast doesn't dissolve, the yeast is likely dead and you will have to start over with fresh yeast.

Add flour to the bowl of your kitchen aid mixer and add all of the yeast-water mixture. Then, slowly add most of the cold water while continuing to knead with the dough hook. Add the remaining cold water back in the bowl of yeast water and swirl and add to the dough.

Knead until the dough comes together and there is no dry bits of flour. Stop the mixer and add the poolish, continue to knead until you have a soft, pliable dough which is not sticky to touch. Add more flour/water as required to reach this consistency.

Stop the mixer and add the salt. Knead on low speed for 1 minute.

Stop the mixer, add the olive oil and knead on low speed for 1 minute. After 1 minute, remove the dough from the dough hook, place in the bowl of the mixer and knead for 30 seconds to a minute.

Then, transfer the dough to your countertop and continue kneading, stretch and fold the dough for 1-2 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and set aside on the countertop/bowl. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rest for 20 minutes.

Then, portion the dough into 3 equal parts and for each portion fold the dough onto itself to create a tight surface tension as you seal/pinch the folds. Be careful not to de-gas the dough too much. The portions should resemble a ball of fresh mozzarella. This is a great time to freeze any dough you are not planning to use right away.

Transfer the dough portions to a baking sheet or plate and cover with 2 layers of plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for at least 24-72 hours in the refrigerator.

For the Sauce

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for the sauce, mash the tomatoes and mix well. Adjust with salt for seasoning.

For the Toppings

Place one baking steel/stone on the second highest rack of the oven and another one at the bottom most rack. Preheat oven at 500 F for 1 hour. Remove the pizza dough and sauce out to come up to temperature while the oven preheats.

Dust your countertop with flour and starting with one portion of dough at a time, add the dough ball over the dusting mixture. Starting from the center of the dough, press down on the dough and create a rim around the side.

Continue pressing down the center to stretch the dough. Then, hold the dough from the rim and rotate to let gravity stretch if further. You can also you use knuckles to stretch the dough, until the diameter is about 10 inches.

To Cook the Pizzas

Set oven to Broil mode, let top steel/stone heat for 8-10 minutes.

Dust a wooden pizza peel with flour and place the stretched dough on the peel.

Add 1/3rd of the tomato sauce and spread until the edge of the pizza. Add the mozzarella and spread evenly.

Add the chicken, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and olive oil. Spread evenly over the pizza.

In a swift push and pull motion, place the pizza on the top baking steel/stone.

Bake for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes or until the crust has some char or brown spots and the cheese has molten.

Then transfer the pizza to the bottom steel/stone to finish off the crust of the pizza, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Remove the pizza from the oven and top with garlic oil. Slice the pizza and then top with arugula.

Serve hot and enjoy!

Tips for a Tasty and Nutritious Pizza

• If the yeast doesn’t dissolve after mixing, the yeast is likely dead. As a result, it’s best to start over.
• Avoid degassing the dough too much as you are folding the individual portions onto itself. If you over-work the dough, it will start to resist as you start to stretch the dough for the pizza.
• To continue on your pizza-making journey after this recipe, I highly recommend you invest in a baking steel and/or baking stone. They are cheap, and an essential tool for pizza makers.
• You want to preheat your oven to its highest temperature for at least one hour before baking the pizza. This will mean that your baking steel and/or baking stone is hot and ready for pizza, giving you the crispiest crust.
• Use a pair of baking steels/stones if possible, setting up one of them towards the top rack of the oven and the second one at the bottom.
• Turn the oven to the “Broil” mode 10 minutes prior to cooking the pizzas (I do this right before topping the pizza) to make the top steel/stone scorching hot. This will help rapidly cook the crispy crust.
• Finish the crust by transferring the pizza to the bottom stone/steel.
• Keep the arugula chilled in the fridge until ready to serve to keep it nice and crisp.

What Makes This Pizza Heart Healthy?

A pizza does not become healthy by becoming joyless — it gets there through a series of small decisions, and this recipe makes most of them at the ingredient level. The dough is 460 g of flour split across three pizzas, so the carbs land at a sensible portion rather than a whole-tray blowout, and the calories follow the portion size. The 3 cups of shredded part-skim mozzarella spread across those three pizzas keeps the saturated fat in check, and cheese is where most of the unhealthy fats on a pizza actually live. The protein is diced cooked chicken breast, one of the leanest proteins you can put on bread. And the toppings do real work: tomatoes, peppers, onions and a handful of arugula added after baking bring vitamins and nutrients a plain cheese pizza simply does not have.

Sodium is the one to keep an eye on, and it is worth being honest about it. Between the 10 g of salt in the dough, the salt in the sauce and the mozzarella, this is still a salty meal — and sodium is the dietary factor most closely tied to blood pressure. If that is something you are managing, hold back on the salt in the sauce and use a little less cheese rather than trying to make up for it elsewhere. As a healthy dinner this works best as one pizza per person alongside a salad, not two on their own.

Whole Wheat, Cauliflower and Gluten-Free Crust Options

The crust here is a Napoletana dough built on 00 flour and an 18-hour poolish, and the post already raises the whole wheat versus white flour question. The practical answer: swapping the whole 460 g for whole wheat pizza dough gives you the whole-grains and the fibre, but a denser, less airy result, because the bran cuts through the gluten strands as they form. Replacing about a third of the 00 flour is the compromise most people prefer — you get a nuttier whole wheat pizza crust that still puffs at the rim. Whole wheat also drinks more liquid, so expect to add a splash beyond the 200 ml of cold water.

A cauliflower crust is a different recipe rather than a modification of this one, and the same goes for gluten-free. Neither behaves like a poolish dough on a 500 F baking steel, and both want a par-bake before the toppings go on. If a healthy crust is the goal and gluten is not a problem for you, the thin, well-fermented crust in this recipe is already doing most of the work — the 24 to 72 hour cold ferment develops flavour and lets you stretch the dough thinner, which is the real difference between a Neapolitan base and a thick takeaway one.

Vegetarian, Vegan and Other Topping Swaps

Vegetarian pizza: leave the chicken off and add tofu, or simply lean harder on the vegetables — bell peppers in any colour, mushrooms, zucchini, olives and cherry tomatoes all sit well on this base.

Vegan pizza: use a dairy-free cheese in place of the part-skim mozzarella and skip the chicken. Dairy-free cheeses brown differently under a broiler, so add them slightly later or accept a paler top.

Baby spinach: the arugula goes on after baking to keep its crunch, and baby spinach can go on the same way. If you would rather it wilt, tuck it under the cheese before the pizza goes in.

Parmesan cheese: a light grating of parmesan over the mozzarella buys a lot of savoury flavour for very little volume, which is a useful trade when you are keeping the cheese moderate.

Pesto: a spoonful thinned with olive oil and drizzled over after baking, rather than used as the base, keeps the tomato sauce where it is and still gets you the basil.

Balsamic glaze: a thin zigzag over the arugula right at the end is the classic finish, and it adds sweetness and acidity without adding fat.

Red pepper flakes: the sauce already takes chili flakes to taste, so keep more at the table if you like the heat sharper on the plate than baked in.

Saute onions: the diced onions go on raw and cook through in the minute or two under the broiler. If you prefer them sweet and soft rather than sharp, saute onions in a little olive oil first and let them cool before topping.