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Blog - summer pizza

Healthy Summer Pizzas

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Who else is craving a pizza night? I don’t know about you, but I am not craving just any pizza night, but a summer pizza night. Oh and before anyone asks, yes, there is a difference. Summer pizza is often topped with fresh and flavorful, yet seasonal ingredients.

One of my favorite things about summer pizzas is how healthy they can be! I mean, as much as I love a good old fashioned pizza night, there is just not much you can do to make pepperoni and cheese healthy (no offense to my pepperoni fans out there). I love the idea that I can create a pizza with toppings of my choice (namely the ones fresh out of my garden), and with a crust of my choice! Trust me, my perfect perfect summer pizza is healthy and delicious.

Healthy Summer Pizzas

Whether you are making dinner for the family or inviting over some guests, you can rest assured that these healthy summer pizzas will be a hit. If you are on the hunt for a deliciously healthy summer pizza recipe that uses those flavorful and fresh ingredients that we were talking about earlier, we have you covered!

Because I am gluten free and trying to maintain a lower carb diet, I am especially loving cauliflower crust these days! If you haven’t yet tried cauliflower crust, here is a delicious and easy recipe for you.

Healthy Cauliflower Pizza Crust

These are a couple of my favorite healthy summer pizza recipes:

Margherita Pizza - When it comes to summer pizzas, I think my favorite just might be the classic Margherita Pizza. The only difference is that I make it on the cauliflower crust and then I love to top mine with fresh tomatoes from my garden. Oh my goodness, it is mouthwatering.

Curried Veggie Pizza - This one can also be served on the cauliflower crust and boy is it delicious! I love the flavors that burst through this one and since I have several vegetarian friends, this one is always a hit with them as well.

Zucchini Pizza - Is your garden overrun with zucchini yet? I don’t know about you, but every year my garden produces far more zucchini than my family could ever eat. Because we don’t just want it steamed night after night, we like to try out new zucchini recipes as often as we can. When I first tried this zucchini pizza recipe out, the family was skeptical, but one bite and they loved it! They now ask for this one regularly.

I have also been known to throw extra toppings on my already yummy pizza, or even create my own sometimes. It's pizza night after all, time to go wild!

How to cook the perfect healthy summer pizza

If you are still trying to perfect your pizza making skills, you may be wondering how exactly you can cook the perfect healthy summer pizza. I have some awesome tips for you here. Some of them may not be feasible for you, and that’s okay, but a couple of these tips can be used by everyone!

Use a Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Okay, you may not have the space or the budget for this tip, but boy oh boy does it create some amazing pizza! I have had several wood fired pizzas (some at restaurants, some at friends homes) and I am quite tempted to build a wood fired pizza oven myself so that I can make amazing pizzas at home. I even spotted this tutorial on how to build one. It doesn’t look so bad!

If you aren’t able to create a wood fired pizza oven for your healthy summer pizzas, I highly recommend using your grill.

Be Patient

Hey, I get it. Pizza is delicious and you are excited to eat it! Don’t pull it off too soon though, because it won’t be cooked just right. That being said, you can’t pull it off too late either. No one wants a burned pizza. You just need to be patient and pay close attention to the pizza during the cooking phase so that you know just the right time to pull it.

Use The Right Tools

Using the right tools makes all the difference in creating the best pizza. You have heard me say this before, but you absolutely have to use a pizza stone for cooking the best healthy summer pizza, or any pizza at all actually. A pizza stone allows you to get just the right amount of crisp and tenderness on your pizza crust. Trust me, a pizza pan is not enough. If you love pizza, you need a pizza stone in your life.

I have found that the best pizza stone for making healthy summer pizzas is the Sicilian Pizza Stone. The depth and the shape of the Sicilian Stone is just right for the summer pizzas and since many of us are making our pizzas outside during the summer, the silicone handles make carrying the pizza much easier.

I have also come to the conclusion that a pizza cutter is a must-have for the best pizza nights. I have burned myself one too many times trying to cut our pizza with knives. 

Now that you have the best recipes and you know the best tools, it is time to sit down, relax and enjoy your delicious and healthy summer pizza.