Healthy Pizza Recipes: How To Make Greek Style Pizza With Homemade Dough Recipe

This is a great snack recipe for watching World Cup Soccer or a championship basketball game! It is also great as a light dinner or for lunch.

Greek Pizza actually refers to 2 different things - the most common reference to Greek Pizza is a pizza with Greek ingredients - like feta cheese, onion, Kalamata olives, fresh tomatoes, green pepper, maybe some gyros meat and spinach.

The other reference to Greek Pizza is describing a type of crust rather than toppings. This variation of Greek Pizza is baked in a pan instead of in a pizza oven and it has a crust that is generally very oily.

This second kind of Greek Pizza is called Greek Pizza without any of the toppings commonly associated with Greek Pizza! This is most often the variation that Greeks eat. This variation of Greek Pizza is also very popular in New England cuisine.

The pizza recipe here, however, is for the type of Greek Pizza that has some of the typical Greek Pizza toppings and see my substitutions and additions below.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups of self-rising flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 cup of butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups of milk
• Olive oil for brushing

PREPARATION

1. Combine all dough ingredients.
2. Knead for 20 minutes (mixer knead if desired).  
3. Set aside until the oven has preheated and toppings are ready.  Dough will start to rise.
4. Roll out to a thickness of 1/4 inch, and brush lightly with olive oil.

Makes 9 servings - 1 slice of pizza per serving

INGREDIENTS

• Nonstick cooking spray
• Cornmeal
• 1 large homemade or store-bought pizza crust

Topping

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 medium onion 6 ounces chopped

• 3 cups cut leaf loose pack frozen spinach

• 1 teaspoon dill weed

• Salt to taste

• Pepper to taste

• 1/2 cup crumbled fat-free feta cheese

• 1 cup shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray large baking sheet or pizza pan with cooking spray. Lightly sprinkle with cornmeal.

2. In medium skillet, heat oil over medium heat and cook the onion, stirring frequently until soft but not browned.

3. Stir in the spinach. Cover and cook gently for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally and breaking up lumps of spinach as necessary.

4. Remove skillet from burner and add dill and salt and pepper if using.

5. Spread the spinach mixture over the pizza crust – sprinkle the cheeses evenly over top of that.

6. If using homemade crust bake 8-10 minutes. If using purchased crust, bake according to package directions or until the pizza begins to brown at the edges.

7. Let stand for at least 5 minutes and then slice into 9 slices.

For the above recipe, add any of these additional ingredients

• Substitute shallots for the onion - different flavor but totally delicious
• Use red onions or sweet onions instead of regular brown onions
• Use fresh spinach - wilt a bit in a pan with no water before putting on
• Use fresh dill weed instead - 1 tablespoon fresh to 1 teaspoon dry
• Use other herbs such as tarragon or rosemary
• Add 1/4 to 1/3 cup Kalamata olives sprinkled on the pizza
• Add a few pepper strips to the pizza
• Add grilled chicken in small pieces or other meats
• Add bits of diced fresh tomato
• Add a slight smear of homemade pesto sauce to the crust after brushing with olive oil

• In the United States, 30 million slices of pizza are consumed per day
• In 1 minute, Americans will have consumed 350 slices of pizza
• Pizza sales bring in roughly $25 million per year
• Pizza was originally invented by the Greeks - the crust was created to serve as a handle
• It then caught on in Italy when the Greeks occupied Italy for 6 centuries and that is why it is traditionally thought of as Italian
• On the very first pizzas, there were no tomatoes - tomatoes were thought to be poisonous
• The first noted recipe for tomatoes on pizza appeared in the mid 1500's. 
• In 1889, the first tomato pizza was served to the Italian queen, Queen Margherita and the tomatoes were added because the cook wanted to depict the Italian flag and he needed something red
• The first American pizzaria opened in New York in 1905
• Returning soldiers from World War II brought back their love for pizza after serving in Italy
• The original pizza had no cheese