Healthy Pizza Dough Recipe

So you love pizza but are committed a low-carb, heart-healthy diet, eh? Well no problem there, thanks to this delightful dish created by chef and recipe developer Miriam Hahn. Follow the steps below and you can make a pizza from scratch that will certainly scratch that pizza itch. 

"This recipe is super simple," Hahn says, but she does offer a bit of caution: "It is important to stick to the flours that I have used — there are so many flours available on the market now, but they aren't always interchangeable. I chose these two flours mainly because they are gluten-free and very nutrient-dense. Almonds and quinoa both have fiber, magnesium, iron, and zinc ... and they are far superior to white processed flour."

As for the rest of that pizza? "For toppings, the sky is the limit," says Hahn. For herself, she usually goes with a classic red sauce or green pesto, plus anything from mushrooms, roasted red peppers, olives, spinach, basil, onions, pineapple, or garlic. And of course, cheese is a must. "There are many vegan cheeses on the market, so you can offer both types if any guests eat plant-based," Hahn adds. But for now, let's focus on that dough.

For this pizza dough, you'll need almond flour and quinoa flour (as noted, you really should stick with those specific flours), plus salt, psyllium husk, olive oil, and water. That psyllium husk is a bit of a magic ingredient, here. "It acts as your binding agent, so the dough doesn't dry out," Hahn says, adding that it is also "a powerful pre-biotic and great for the gut."

To start off, preheat the oven to 400 F. As it warms, in a large bowl, whisk the two flours, salt, and psyllium husk. Add the olive oil and water. Stir to combine everything well, then knead the dough into a ball with your hands.

At this point, if you're not using the dough right away, you can go ahead and wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and store in the fridge. "I love making several of these ahead of time for entertaining, and then setting up a pizza toppings bar so everyone can doll up their own," Hahn says. (Invite us next time!)

Once you're ready to proceed, lay parchment paper down and place the dough on top, shaping it into a disc. Lay another piece of parchment paper on top. With the dough sandwiched between the two sheets, roll it out into an 8-inch round. Remove the top layer of parchment paper.

Transfer the dough, along with the parchment paper it's rolled out on, to a baking sheet. Bake the crust in oven until the edges are lightly golden (about 8 to 10 minutes). Remove the dough from the oven and add any sauce, cheese, and toppings you want. Once the pizza is assembled, toss it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

If you happen to have any extra pizza (a rarity, in our case), Hahn says that leftovers "are fine cold or warmed up." If opting for the latter, she suggests using an air fryer, though the oven would be perfectly fine as well.