She has also had 16 wellness books published by major publishers including the bestselling Easy GI Diet, The Macro Method, Quit Alcohol (For a Month) and Eat 5. Her books have sold over one million copies.
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One of the best ways to cut back on takeaways is to have a quick, easy recipe you can fall back on. To work it needs to be easy to make, flexible and, feel a bit like a treat – and our 10-Minute Cheat’s Pizzas tick all the boxes. Here’s how to make them…
What is a 10-Minute Cheat’s Pizza?
Easy – it’s a pizza, but instead of dealing with pizza dough or even pizza bases, you make them with either pitta bread, tortilla wraps or any other bread you have in the house. French bread works, large baps work, and you could even use a burger bun at a push.
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This has a couple of benefits – it cuts the portion size, it’s likely something you’ve always got in the house, and, if you use a thinner base like a pitta or tortilla wrap, you can’t laden on too much topping or gooey cheese, or it all falls to bits, which keeps the calories and fat down. The recipe here will see you making a pizza for around 200 calories. Add a huge side salad to it and you’ll be full for the rest of the evening.
Plus, did I mention you can make it in ten minutes?
We have these in our house at least once a fortnight and have actually decided it’s nicer than all of the pizzas we get delivered – plus, it’s ready faster and hasn’t been to visit three of the neighbours on the way, so it’s not cold when it arrives!
It’s also considerably lower in calories than anything you can order from the takeaway.
Before we get to the recipe, though, here’s some shocking news.
Pizza Can Be Healthy
Pizza actually contains a few extremely healthy ingredients.
The first is that tomato sauce that you add to the top. This is a potent source of the antioxidant lycopene that has been linked to improved heart health. According to researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, pizza topping is one of the primary sources of lycopene in the American diet.
Next up, oregano. It gives pizza a distinctly Italian taste, and if you want to make a pizza with health benefits, you should also use it.
Oregano is packed with vitamin K (a nutrient linked to good bone and heart health), heaps of antioxidants – and also has some antibacterial activity.
It’s also been directly shown to have anti-inflammatory benefits, and with inflammation contributing to most modern diseases, the more you can do to fight your levels, the better. Even just a teaspoon of it provides benefits.
If you use a wholemeal base for your pizza base, the antioxidant levels increase even higher.
Making it Even Healthier
If you want a really healthy pizza, though, you do need to adjust a few things. Starting with cheese.
It’s a high-fat food – and saturated fat at that. This also means it contains plenty of calories.
And while there is some evidence (which I like to firmly believe) that the fats in dairy products are potentially less harmful than the saturated fats in some other foods, it’s a good idea to go easy on the cheese – especially if you’re using this recipe as part of your weight loss efforts.
As we said, if you replace a traditional pizza base with something thin like a pitta or wrap, you can’t laden it on too much anyway.
Now, let’s talk pepperoni, ham, bacon, chorizo and all those other processed meats that pizza is so often topped with.
We don’t like to damn foods here, but we do have to mention that a fair bit of recent evidence does seem to suggest that high levels of processed meats have negative effects on health, so if you do use them, only add a small amount (again, the small size of the pitta base actually makes that more likely) – or just keep your pizza veggie.
10-Minute Cheat’s Pizza
So, now you’ve read WHY you should eat the pizza, here’s how to make the pizza – and trust me, it couldn’t be easier.
Also, as you can see from the picture of my end result…I am not a chef and I’m definitely not a food stylist – but I always say if I can make something taste good, anyone can!
Ingredients Per Pizza
One 7-10 cm pitta bread, wrap (or other bread for a base) – ideally wholemeal (extra antioxidants)
1 tbsp tomato paste
A handful of chopped vegetables – ie onion, mushroom, red pepper, sweetcorn, spinach – I usually use whatever is left in the fridge.
A sprinkle of dried oregano
A few jalapenos or chilli flakes if you like spice
12-25g low-fat mozzarella – grated (or cheat like me and use ready grated).
Method
- Preheat the oven to 220c, fan-forced.
- Put the pitta base on a pizza crisper or other baking tray if you don’t have one.
- Cover the pitta with the tomato paste and sprinkle on the oregano.
- Add the other veggies toppings and jalapenos if using
- Sprinkle on the cheese.
- Place in the oven near the top for 10-12 minutes. Do check on it at about 8 minutes though. It cooks very fast in a hot oven.
So, there you have it – the perfect Cheat’s Pizza recipe made in 10-15 minutes. Trust me, you’ll love it.
Who is The Wellness Nerd?
My name is Helen Foster, and I’m a health journalist and wellness author. Publications I’ve written for include Women’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Body and Soul, Good Health at the Daily Mail, and more. I have also written 16 books on health and nutrition.