Quick and easy ways to top your pizza for delicious and healthy results.
A favorite family dish, pizza is enjoyed by kids and adults alike. This popular Italian dinner has a plethora of delicious toppings available, to suit every palette. Sadly, many of these popular toppings, such as beef pepperoni, sausage, or Canadian bacon, can be unpopular for your waste line. Mountains of gooey and unhealthy cheese add taste, but also calories and unhealthy cholesterol.
But don’t despair. Here is a list of healthy toppings to satiate the taste buds of even your toughest in-home critics and promote a healthy waistline.
Table of Contents
Healthy Toppings for Pizza: Vegetables
Probably the healthiest item you can put on a pizza, vegetables are also full of filling fiber and delicious flavor. Below, is a list of scrumptious and heart-healthy vegetables you can pile onto your pizza crust.
- Spinach
- Onions
- Artichoke hearts
- Bell Peppers: Red, orange, yellow, green
- Mushrooms
- Tomatoes
- Sun dried tomatoes
- Garlic
- Pineapple (This is technically a fruit, but still makes for a great pizza topping.)
- Broccoli
- Olives (But in moderation. These are high in fat and often sodium.)
Try all these colorful and flavorsome vegetables in various combinations for delicious and healthy pizza.
Healthy Toppings for Pizza: Herbs
Herbs are a zesty and delicious way to forget you are eating something healthy. Whole fresh basil leaves are delicious on most pizzas, but fresh cilantro, parsley, thyme, oregano, or rosemary are also good too.
Healthy Toppings for Pizza: Meat
Meat is a favorite topping of many pizza lovers, but sadly is one area where extra calories and unhealthy fats can pile up. Below is a list of a few healthy meat toppings to satisfy your carnivore craving and taste buds while not compromising your waist line and health.
Chicken is probably one of the healthiest meats your can top your pizza with. A lean protein and lower in fat then most meat, this is a sensible and tasty compromise to your usual beef pepperoni.
Turkey pepperoni still isn’t a completely innocent alternative to regular beef pepperoni, but it is a much better alternative to its grease filled relative. Use in moderation to satiate your pepperoni cravings.
Ground, lean turkey can also replace your usual fatty sausage. Just season generously with garlic powder and Italian seasonings and no one can tell the difference. Very lean hamburger can also be a healthy alternative to sausage.
Healthy Toppings for Pizza: Cheese
This high fat topping is where many would-be healthy pizzas start to go astray. Cheese should be used in moderation. A lower fat mozzarella could be used sparingly. Small amounts of cheese with strong flavors are also a good idea. A small amount of parmesan or feta can give you the strong flavor of cheese, with less cheese.
This may seem horrific, but you could also try making pizza without cheese. Zesty herbs and delicious, flavorsome vegetables will give you enough satisfying taste you may even forget about this popular pizza topping. There are many very delicious vegan pizza recipes available, if you are open-minded.
For a delicious crowd-pleasing and fiber filling whole-grain pizza crust to top with all your favorite healthy toppings, see my recipe for Healthy Whole-grain Pizza Crust.
If looking for some tasty and healthy snacks to munch on, see my article Tasty and Healthy Snacks for Weight Loss, and for more tips on weight loss see my article Tips on how to Stay on a Diet and Lose Weight.
