Organic Recipes: Easy and Healthy Pizza From Scratch
No matter what they say, pizza doesn’t have to be junk food. With minimal effort and just a few ingredients you can make a delicious healthy pizza from scratch.
Here is the recipe which has never failed me:
To start making your pizza prom scratch, you need to make the dough first. You need: 3 cups of organic unbleached white or bread flour, salt, 2-2 and a half spoons of active-dry yeast and water.
1. Mix flour with salt.
2. In a separate bowl dissolve yeast in ¼ cup of warm water.
3. Mix flour and yeast together. Add ¼ to a ½ of warm water and make dough. If you accidentally put too much water, don’t panic. Just add some extra flour and it should be fine.
4. Put your dough in a warm place and let it rise. I usually slightly preheat my oven and let the dough rise there for an hour or two.
In the meantime, make sauce. For the sauce you need: basil, oregano, organic tomato paste, olive oil, onion, garlic, salt (sea salt) and water.
5. In a small to medium skillet cook chopped onion and garlic until slightly golden. Add 5 table spoons of organic tomato paste and ½ to a cup of water to make your sauce the consistency of ketchup. Add salt, basil and oregano. Cook together for 5 minutes. Set aside.
6. After your dough has risen (it should at least double in size), get it out, put it on a pizza pan and try forming pizza. I usually put a few drops of oil on the pan and form pizza with my hands.
7. When your pizza dough is nice and round (or square if you prefer), evenly spread sauce on it.
8. The rest is up to your fantasy and imagination. Of course, shredded cheese is a must to put on top, but other than that you can put whatever you find in the refrigerator. On our pizza we often put mushrooms, peppers, more garlic (it is never enough for me), tomatoes, black olives, ham and even bacon (Yes, there are uncured organic varieties out there).
9. Put pizza on the middle shelf of your oven and let it bake for 20-25 minutes at 400F.
10. Enjoy your healthy treat and make sure you don’t overeat, because it is always a problem in our house.
You see, making pizza from scratch is not an art. Anyone can do it.:-)
If you are interesting in healthy cooking, here is a great e-book called Healthy Urban Kitchen Cookbook. You will find information not only how to cook healthy foods, but how and what to cook to lose weight.
Just curious is there such a thing as organic
wheat flour and if so why r u using unbleached
flour?
Is wheat flour more healthy?
Neither have chemicals or MSG etc?
Hi Felicia,
Yes actually there is organic wheat flour. King Arthur brand is probably the most popular one, but it is not available at every store. It could be ordered online.
Here is the information from whatscookingamerica.net, regarding bleached vs unbleached flour:
“Flour that is bleached naturally as it ages is labeled “unbleached,” while chemically treated flour is labeled “bleached.” Bleached flour has less protein than unbleached. Bleached is best for pie crusts, cookies, quick breads, pancakes and waffles. Use unbleached flour for yeast breads, Danish pastry, puff pastry, strudel, Yorkshire pudding, éclairs, cream puffs and popovers.”
We prefer to use whole wheat flour, because it is MUCH more nutritious than white. Here is why: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090115051741AAWi9ZV
I try to make everything from wheat or bread flour. I wasn’t sure about wheat pasta at first, but it grew on me and now we buy only wheat. My kids love it and it makes me feel good, because I know they are getting more vitamins. If you have any Giant food stores or Wegmans in the area, they have pretty cheap organic whole wheat pasta for a little over a $1-$2 per box. They often put in on sale too. That’s when we stock up.
I have never seen organic flour on sale though.