Veggie Deluxe Pizza

We've been making pizza as a tradition every Friday night for years. Our family loves it. It's a quick and easy meal that no one complains about. If it's just our family of four, we usually make two medium to large pizzas. One for the kids that's always the same (pepperoni) and one for the adults. We like to experiment with the adult pizza and come up with a variety of amazing toppings. I've realized that I haven't shared too many of these amazing creations on this blog and I really should. It's been just recently that we've discovered that fresh finely minced garlic is one of the secrets to an amazing vegetarian pizza. We often make vegetarian pizzas for the adult pizza. Especially in the summertime when we have lots of veggies coming out of the garden. I love vegetarian pizzas, but I have loved them even more since we discovered the secret of the fresh garlic. We don't miss the meat when we use it. Try it! It's delicious.

Here's one of our favorite vegetarian pizzas ever: Enjoy!

Veggie Deluxe Pizza

Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Recipe Pizza Crust

Olive oil or whole wheat flour

About 1 Cup pizza sauce (Here's my favorite pizza sauce recipe)
1-2 Cups Mozzarella Cheese blend (or cheese of your choice)
sliced olives
thinly sliced zucchini
chopped Roma or other plum tomatoes (non-juicy tomatoes work the best)
thinly sliced young turnips, optional
2 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. roasted slivered almonds
dried oregano
Garlic Salt

DIRECTIONS:
Place pizza stone*(See Note below) on lower middle rack in the oven and preheat to 475 F. Sprinkle counter with olive oil or whole wheat flour. The oil will make for a little moister crust, but I also like pizza with the flour coating. Try both and see what you prefer. Coat rolling pin in the oil or flour on the counter. Roll out dough into a large circle (10 - 12” diameter) and place on parchment paper. Let raise for 5-10 min. While dough is rising, mix the sliced olives, sliced zucchini, chopped tomatoes, turnips, other veggies of your choice, and fresh minced garlic together in a medium bowl. Set aside. When dough has risen slightly on parchment paper, poke it all over with your fingers. Then brush dough with a generous amount of olive oil and sprinkle lightly with garlic salt. Add pizza sauce and cheese as desired. Then add combined toppings. Sprinkle roasted slivered almonds on top and sprinkle a light coating of dried oregano over the toppings. Bake on preheated 475 F pizza stone, for 6-10 min or until crispy and cheese is bubbly.

Note: If you do not have a pizza stone, I've had success making yummy pizza using this method.

Recipe Source: healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com