MEDITERRANEAN PROTEIN PIZZA
I don’t know about you, but pizza is one of my favorite foods! I’ve always preferred a thin and crispy crust rather than thick and doughy. I’m all about that sauce and the toppings! This Mediterranean Protein Pizza crust is gluten free, and higher in protein than carbs, making it a great option for those of us who are gluten intolerant or on a high-protein diet. It can be made dairy-free and Paleo too if you swap the Parmesan cheese for more almond flour! Don’t expect this to be like Dominos or your favorite take-and-bake crust, though – it’s definitely more of a humble low carb vehicle for yummy toppings.
The protein pizza crust
For the crust, all you need is egg whites, coconut flour, almond flour, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. Cream of tartar is an optional egg stabilizer (since this recipe has a lot of egg).
If you don’t have Italian seasoning, you can make your own using one quarter teaspoon each: garlic powder, dried basil, dried oregano, marjoram, and thyme or rosemary. Instead of almond flour, you can use just coconut flour (five tablespoons for the whole recipe) for a slightly lower calorie, lower fat version, but I prefer the flavor with almond flour. You can also use ten tablespoons of almond flour and no coconut flour.
Feel free to swap out the Parmesan for almond flour too. Some similar pizza crust recipes call for up to a cup on mozzarella cheese folded into the pizza “dough,” but I opted to use cheese for topping instead. Plus, that’s just a lot of cheese! I can imagine it’s pretty tasty though 😉
The toppings
Instead of regular pizza sauce, I went with Hummustir Village Style DIY hummus. This hummus is unique in that the chickpeas, tahini, and spices all come in separate pouches that keep in the pantry until your ready to mix them all together for a hummus party. Just add everything to the tub and stir! Every flavor of their hummus I’ve tried is simply delicious, every bit as good as refrigerated hummus. The one thing that’s a bit tricky is squeezing all of the tahini out of it’s pouch (it’s pretty thick).
Next, I layered the hummus with thinly sliced organic tomatoes, organic spinach, red onion, Kalamata olives, and crumbled feta. Fresh basil would have been a nice addition but I didn’t have any. Oh well, next time! There will definitely be a next time 😉 You can really use any toppings you like – the possibilities are endless!
Here’s the printable recipe for this Mediterranean Protein Pizza. I’d love for you to comment below if you try it 🙂
Mediterranean Protein Pizza
Ingredients
Crust
- 3/4 cup (6 large) egg whites
- 3 tbsp. coconut flour*
- 1 1/2 tbsp. almond flour*
- 1 1/2 tbsp. Parmesan cheese*
- 3/4 tsp. Italian seasoning*
- 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar* optional
Toppings*
- 2 tbsp. hummus
- 1 cup spinach
- 1/2 medium roma tomato sliced thin
- 1/4 cup red onion sliced thin
- 2 tbsp. light feta cheese crumbled
- 4 whole kalamata olives halved
*See blog post above for substitutions.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Whisk together dry crust ingredients (through cream of tartar) then mix in egg whites and let sit for 10 minutes or so. This allows the coconut flour to absorb the liquid.
- Spoon pizza “dough” (more like a thick batter) into the center of a baking sheet lightly coated with cooking spray. Use back of spoon to spread it out into a circular shape.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until crust is slightly stiff and edges are firm.
- Remove crust from oven and increase oven temperature to 425 degrees F.
- Spread crust with hummus and other toppings in the order listed. You can use any toppings you like here!
- Place pizza back in the oven and bake another 15 minutes, or until edges are golden brown and cheese is melted.
- Cut into four pieces and enjoy!
Notes
Calories (crust with toppings): 394kcal, Fat: 17.5g, Sat fat: 6.0g, Carbs: 25g, Fiber: 11g, Sugar: 5g, Protein: 34g, Sodium: 894mg
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