Yes, pizza CAN be a health food! This recipe for Thin Crust Spinach Pizza is ready in under 30 minutes and is filled with nutritious ingredients, vitamins, and minerals!
Spinach is awesome! And as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, I want to celebrate everyday like it’s national spinach day. And spinach, tomato sauce and cheese? One of the best combos. I’ve cooked up a super quick and easy dinner recipe for spinach pizza that I’d love to share with you. I’m a fan of healthy convenience – that means cooking from scratch when you can, shopping for healthy packaged foods, and using time-savers to get dinner on the table pretty darn fast. My shortcuts here? Frozen chopped spinach, jarred pizza or marinara sauce, pre-crumbled feta, and whole-wheat flatbread. No need to rinse, sauté, boil, mince, crumble, mess up six pots and pans, or roll out dough that clearly has no interest in flattening out. If you’d like to sub the shortcuts for homemade dough or fresh spinach or some other ingredients, I know it’s going to taste awesome, I have no doubts. But these shortcuts are great for busy nights and dishwashing-haters like me.
Indulge me for a second while I opine about spinach. I load this pizza up with the stuff. Why? Well, 2 cups is 89% water, which means it’s naturally low-calorie and filling. For just 129 calories, you get 15 grams of protein and 14 grams of fiber, which helps you feel satisfied, and supports muscle growth and development and bowel regularity. To get the same amount of protein, you’d need to eat 6 slices of turkey and you wouldn’t get any fiber. Plus, those 2 cups of spinach are high in calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamin A, and vitamin E, and a good source of zinc and vitamin C. And bonus – the vitamin C in the pizza sauce will enhance iron absorption!
So here’s the recipe. Perfect for a busy night. Fun to make with kids. Great for singles. Or couples. Or parties.
Thin Crust Spinach Pizza (Ready in under 30 minutes)
Yes, pizza CAN be a health food! This recipe for Thin Crust Spinach Pizza is ready in under 30 minutes and is filled with nutritious ingredients, vitamins, and minerals!
Ingredients
- 1 whole wheat flatbread or lavash (I used Trader Joe’s whole wheat lavash bread)
- 1/4 cup good pizza sauce or marinara sauce
- 2 cups frozen, chopped spinach, cooked. Squeeze out excess water.
- 3 artichoke hearts, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh buffalo mozzarella
- 2 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees FahrenheitLine a baking sheet with tinfoil.
- Pre-crisp the flatbread by baking it for 2 minutes on each side (4 minutes total).
- Spread the marinara on the toasted flatbread, leaving a 1-inch border of crust.
- Cover evenly with chopped spinach.
- Arrange the artichokes on the spinach.
- Add chopped mozzarella.
- Sprinkle feta cheese on top.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the goat cheese is slightly brown and the mozzarella has melted.
Caroline Kaufman MS, RDN is a Los Angeles-based Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, freelance writer, blogger and media spokesperson. Her advice has been featured in Health, EatingWell, Real Simple, Fox News, PBS Parents, upwave, and Food and Nutrition Magazine. Caroline loves to help busy people achieve their nutrition goals without adding stress; if you like the sound of that, check out her blog and follow her on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.