Pizza has long been deemed a fast food though all the ingredients that go into a pizza have the potential to be healthy. That, however, depends on how many toppings and how much cheese you like your pizza loaded with.

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With a few healthy side dishes, a meal with pizza as the main dish can prove to be a healthy choice, so here are a few healthy side dishes to consider the next time pizza’s on the menu.


Greek salad

An obvious choice but a great one, Greek salad matches pizza perfectly and can be whipped up in a matter of minutes.


A veggie salad - one of the healthiest dishes you could ever eat!
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Ingredients and directions for a Greek salad:

• Combine bell peppers (capsicum), cucumber, cheese, lettuce (cos or Romaine), onions, black olives and tomatoes in a large salad bowl.
• For the dressing, whisk together black pepper, lemon juice, olive oil and oregano.  
• Pour the dressing over the salad, mix together and serve.

Garlic bread

Yes, it’s a pizza side dish classic and not without good reason either, but have you noticed just how greasy and heavy takeaway garlic bread often is? To avoid the sit-in-your-stomach garlic bread we’re often stuck with it’s a wise move to make your own so that you can regulate how much butter and/or mozzarella cheese goes into it.


Yum yum – garlic bread!
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Ingredients and directions for garlic bread:

• Preheat the oven to about 170 C and cut a French stick into 1-2 inch slices.
• Mix butter, olive oil, garlic with oregano, salt and pepper to taste and spread the mixture on the sliced bread.
• Wrap the bread stick in aluminium foil, place in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes. For crispy garlic bread, open the foil and bake for an additional five minutes, if you’re going to add cheese this is the time to do so!

Bruschetta

This is a very popular Italian antipasto and one that goes perfectly with pizza despite their many similarities. Although another side dish with melted cheese, how healthy the homemade bruschetta produced in your kitchen is up to you, so use cheese sparingly if you want to keep it as a healthy side dish.


You can go easy on the cheese to make it healthier
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Ingredients and directions for bruschetta:

• Preheat the oven to 170 C (you can cook bruschetta with garlic bread if you wish).
• Combine basil, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, Roma tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl and leave the mixture to sit for 10 minutes as the flavours combine.
• Cut the baguette or French stick into one inch slices and then arrange them on a baking sheet or tray and bake for about 2 minutes or until slightly golden brown.
• Remove from the oven, spread the mixture over the bread and top with mozzarella. Place back in the oven and bake for a further five minute

Spinach bake

When topped with melted mozzarella cheese and shredded parmesan nothing beats a spinach bake for a healthy side dish to a pizza meal, either one you made yourself or one ordered from your local pizza delivery company, though don’t go crazy on the cheese, that’s where the potential to make a healthy meal unhealthy lies.


Look at all those delicious greens – yum!
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Ingredients and directions for a spinach bake:

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees C and grease a baking dish.
• Clean spinach and leave to dry (excess water results in a sloppy spinach bake). When dry, chop the spinach and arrange it in layers and cover with beaten eggs.
• Combine bread crumbs and cheese together, then mix with margarine, milk, salt and pepper. Pour all the ingredients over the spinach and bake for one hour.

So, a pizza meal can be healthy after all!