Healthy Pizza: Yellow Pepper & Lemon Asparagus

Yellow Pepper & Lemon Asparagus Pizza from Stirlist.com

I’ve been on a quest to figure out how I can use asparagus & pizza in the same sentence and by George, I think I figured it out! It only took 2 (ok maybe 3) attempts to get it right, but after making my friends, husband, and parents taste each attempt, I think we finally have a winner. And I say “we” because it certainly was a group project.

I wanted to make a homemade pizza that wasn’t swimming in a salt bath. Let’s face it….pizza is pretty awesome, but it can be really high in sodium because of the canned tomato products, cheese, and meats like pepperoni or sausage. In fact, even one slice of veggie lovers pizza is almost 600 mg of sodium! Now you can find low sodium tomato sauces and cheese, but instead I took out the red sauce out all together and just used part skim ricotta cheese.

Yellow Pepper & Lemon Asparagus Pizza from Stirlist.com

And bonus….asparagus is in season right now. As I was conducting this pizza making experiment, I was kind of surprised at how cheap it actually is to make your own pizza at home. Seriously, the ingredients for this pizza cost hardly anything. Now I know what you’re thinking…time equals money Amber. I know, I get it. But it actually didn’t take that long to make the dough and you can always make the dough, freeze, and grab it when your ready to bake. This is just another way to save time, money, and calories.

Yellow Pepper & Lemon Asparagus Pizza from Stirlist.com

The recipe for the pizza dough actually came from my friend Chris, who finally started his own blog. Chris makes a lot of homemade pizza, so I knew his recipe would be good. Special thanks to him for sharing his secret recipe! And special thanks to all of you for reading!

Healthy Pizza: Yellow Pepper & Lemon Asparagus

50 minutes
17 ingredients
5 steps

Ingredients

Dough:
7 oz Bread Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast (not instant)
4 oz warm water
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
Topping:
1 container part skim ricotta cheese
1/2 pound asparagus (trimmed and sliced in half)
Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1/4 red onion, diced
3 garlic cloves

Instructions

Dough: Combine warm water and sugar. Stir until sugar is fully dissolved and then add the yeast. Let that mixture sit for about 10 minutes. In a mixing bowl combine flour and salt. Using a standing mixer with a dough hook, add your wet ingredients to your flour mixture and then add olive oil. Mix on low setting for about 12-15 minutes. Test the dough. It should be tacky, not sticky. If it’s too sticky, add a little flour to the mixing bowl and mix another 5 minutes. Remove from mixing bowl and let rise about an hour or two before baking. If using the next day, put in the refrigerator. (When using the next day, let the dough sit for an hour after removing it from the refrigerator before rolling it out.)
Once dough is ready, roll out and place on pizza stone or pizza baking sheet. You can also add more flour here if you need to. I like to bake this before I put the topping on, just to make sure the dough is nice and crispy. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 then remove, add the topping (see below) and then bake another 15 minutes.
For the topping: Using your hands combine asparagus, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, lemon juice, lemon zest, and 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. It’s best to massage the ingredients with your asparagus. Set aside.
In a sauté pan heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Then add yellow pepper, red onion, 1/4 teaspoon salt and garlic. Sauté until peppers and onions are slightly caramelized.
After pizza dough has cooked for 8-10 minutes, spread the ricotta cheese over the top. Then spread your asparagus/lemon pieces over the top followed by the peppers and onions. Bake another 15 minutes.

Healthy Pizza: Yellow Pepper & Lemon Asparagus

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