The best and healthiest pizza ever

By professional Interiors Photographer and non-practising Naturopathic Nutritionist (and a certified maven), Daniela Exley. 

Your pizza experience as you know it is about to change. Imagine having a pizza that is good for you and delicious too. Plus, there's no bloating like a normal pizza! This Green Socca Pizza recipe is ideal for a low-key gathering or a date night. One thing's for sure, you'll be using it again and again.

Who doesn’t want to eat pizza?

We all do, so get ready to have the best healthy pizza ever... my Healthy Green Socca Pizza.

Originating from Southern France, Socca is a thin baked chickpea flour pancake which I’m using as the base for my pizza. You can get chickpea flour from health food shops but you can also find it as Gram Flour in many supermarkets. Chickpeas are a great vegetarian source of protein, high in fibre, potassium and vitamin B6 helping to support a healthy heart and lower LDL cholesterol.

Chickpeas are also good to include in our diet to help maintain healthy bones as they are high in iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc and vitamin K which all contribute to healthy bone structure and health.

I love a home made pesto with lots of lovely fragrant basil, garlic and pine nuts, and this is the base sauce of my pizza. Basil contains many wonderful nutrients – iron for healthy blood, vitamin A for healthy eyes and skin and vitamin K for bone health and blood clotting factors.

Additionally it contains exceptionally high levels of beta-carotene, cryptoxanthin, lutein and zea-xanthin, compounds which act as powerful anti-oxidants and protective scavengers against oxygen-derived free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) that play a role in aging and various disease processes.

Garlic, in particular crushed and raw as in this recipe, has powerful anti-microbial and anti-viral benefits, just make sure to share this with anyone who you’re spending the evening with 😉

For the toppings you can really use whatever veg takes your fancy. I’m sticking with my green cravings and topped my pizza with some roasted courgette and red onion, then scattered rocket leaves, pine nuts, black olives and more fresh basil on top.

As a member of the Brassica family, rocket contains compounds such as indoles and isothiocyanates which research is showing to be beneficial to counter cancer cell growth, in particular they may offer protection against hormone related cancers. Also rich in folate, vitamin A, vitamin C and B-complex vitamins.

Green Socca Pizza Recipe

Pizza Base Ingredients:

150g chickpea flour / gram flour

250ml luke warm water

1 tbsp olive oil pinch of sea salt

Pesto Ingredients:

1 Bunch of basil

1 clove of garlic

pinch of nutritional yeast

pinch of sea salt

pinch of black pepper

20g roasted pine nuts

2 tsps Olive Oil (add more if needed)

Toppings:

1 courgette 1 small red onion

Method:

Add the flour to a mixing bowl and slowly add the water, whisking the mixture until it reaches the consistency of a thick pancake batter.

Add the Olive Oil and salt and mix in.

Pour the mixture into a greased or parchment paper lined oven tray and bake on gas mark 6 for 15-20 min. (This tastes best when baked really quite thin, around 5mm thick is best.)

Thinly slice, drizzle with some olive oil and roast in the oven for 30 min on medium heat.

This allows time to make the pesto ready for the next step. Simply blend together the pesto ingredients in a Pestle and Mortar or a food processor and set aside.

To assemble, spread the pesto on the socca, add the roasted veg then scatter black olives, fresh rocket and roasted pine nuts.

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Further Reading:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280244.php

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/basil-herb.html

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/arugula.html