Pizza – Can This Be A Healthy Food?
Every component of pizza – crust, toppings, sauce and cheese are thought to be unhealthy. This is no longer the usual case today. Many pizza parlors today offer this delectable food in a new way – the use of organic ingredients only. Thus, every slice of organic pizza becomes healthy food.
Many of us believe that pizza is very unhealthy food because it contains ingredients that can add weight to the consumer. A slice of pizza has many calories, depending on its toppings and crust. This connotation will change if you know how the making of pizza had been modified by many people who advocate the use of healthy and organic ingredients.
You may believe that you cannot rely on pizza delivery and that the healthy kind can only be made available when you create it yourself. But you are wrong because today, many pizza stores had started to serve purely organic pizza. The making of a healthy pizza means using the right ingredients, all natural and organic.
Let us take a look at the different basic ingredients in the making of a pizza.
Crust
You can examine the dough which actually is the crust. You can have gluten-free dough. Many people find its taste horrible but then, your palate can adjust to this taste until you get used to it. The gluten-free pizza can either be chewy or crispy; you can have it thin or thick. Good pizza stores find the right balance between crispiness and chewiness to come up with a flavorful and good crust. This good recipe for crust blends together different types of flour. Tapioca flour, brown rice flour and sorghum flour, all organic and gluten-free varieties, can be used. Some ingredients like brown sugar, sea salt and olive oil can be added to add flavor to the crust. Depending upon your choice, you can have a thin or a thick crust. You can even have options for the shape, round or square.
Sauce
The sauce is another important part of a pizza. Organic ingredients can be purchased from farmer’s markets. This can be made of fresh tomatoes infused with fresh herbs and garlic. Then these ingredients are pureed in a food processor. There are different textures of sauce; with diced tomatoes, it can be a little bit chunky. You can opt for a spicy or sweeter flavor and to add more health benefits, this is made with low levels of sugar and sodium.
Toppings
There is a wide range of choices for toppings. To really make it ultra healthy, you can choose organic vegetables such as broccoli or cauliflower florets, mushroom, sweet bell pepper and more other choices. You can have some low-sodium organic ham, bologna and others meat toppings. Meat can also be organic now so this is the kind that is added to the toppings.
Cheese
Pizza is never complete without the cheese. You can use little amount of cheese or you can have lots of it. The most classic kinds are mozzarella and goat cheese. There are kinds that used skimmed milk and with this, you get less fat which is beneficial if your are conscious with your calorie intake.
With all these ingredients put together and baked properly, your pizza can be the healthiest of foods. The secret is just having purely natural ingredients to have a real organic pizza.