UPPER CRUST
Healthy foundations for pizza or quiche
ove pizza, but want to cut calories? Choose an alternative … crust, that is. “You can easily save 135 calories per slice just from the saturated fat,” said chef Libby Mills of West Chester, a registered, licensed dietitian-nutritionist and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “Crusts also represent a great way to add extra nutrition – whether using vegetables or whole grains.”
Get creative. Some possibilities: brown rice and flaxseed, cauliflower, beet, zucchini and potato.
“It really is a great base for whatever you want to top it with,” she described.
“Just give it a try,” agreed food and nutrition blogger Judy Matusky of Ardmore, also a registered, licensed dietitian-nutritionist. “If you like the vegetable you’re using, you will like the pizza.”
She makes a white pizza with a cauliflower crust, goat cheese and truffled mushrooms.
“You can eliminate all those refined carbohydrates from flour that typically show up in crust,” Matusky said. “It’s not going to be like your regular pizza crust, but the flavor is very nice, and it holds together pretty well.”
Remember to steam the cauliflower and squeeze out all the liquid. (Mills saves that liquid for stock.)
“It’s an important step,” Matusky advised. And “you do have to bake the veggie crusts first.”
The concept works for quiche too. Her mushroom and spinach quiche, featuring a spaghetti squash crust, is “easy to pull together” and “slices well.”
“Quiches are typically made with a pretty high-fat crust,” she explained. “Here you can lighten it up, and I find this one to be a little more filling” thanks to the extra fiber.
“It’s a win-win.”