Round Table Gourmet Veggie Pizza - Copy Cat Recipe

Who doesn’t like pizza? Homemade pizza is a great low sodium meal and pretty easy too. I make it frequently and always use homemade tomato sauce. But sometimes a change is welcome. When I saw the copy cat recipe for Round Table’s “Veggie Gourmet,” I knew I had to try it. The recipe comes courtesy of Jenny’s wonderful vegetarian blog, Vegetarian Hates Vegetables. Jenny shares the most intriguing vegetarian recipes, and most of them can be easily adapted to a low sodium diet. The pizza recipe was no exception. With a few modifications, I was able to create a tasty veggie pizza with a lovely creamy garlic sauce. The sauce is fantastic. For one thing, it’s the perfect amount for one pizza. You don’t end up with any leftovers to store. Also, it’s the perfect consistency -- not too thin and not too thick. Because of the its creaminess, you can get away with using less cheese. Always a nice thing for those of us watching our sodium intake.

Jenny’s recipe is below and includes my low salt changes in parentheses. If you try it, I’m sure you’ll love it as much as we did. You can use any pizza crust recipe and make it low sodium: simply reduce both the salt AND the yeast by half. (For two crust recipes I use, click here and here.) Most recipes call for 3 to 3-1/2 cups flour resulting in enough dough for two 12 inch pizzas. When I make pizza dough, I plan on serving pizza at least twice for dinner. Now that I’ve got this great recipe, I make a veggie pizza one night and then a tomato sauce pizza with homemade, salt-free Italian sausage the next night. To quote from an earlier post: “Pizza is such a treat and eating it twice (or even three times) in one week is no problem for us.”

ROUND TABLE GOURMET VEGGIE PIZZA: COPY CAT RECIPE
(Printable Recipe)

Creamy Garlic Sauce:
1 tbsp butter (unsalted)
1 tbsp flour
3/4 cup milk, warmed in microwave until lightly bubbling
2-3 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp Italian or pizza seasoning (no-salt-added spice blend)
pinch salt (omit)
pinch pepper
pinch nutmeg

In a small saucepan over medium heat melt the butter. Use a baby whisk to whisk in the flour and stir for about 2 minutes. Bring to a boil. Add garlic, Italian seasoning, salt (omit), pepper and nutmeg, then reduce heat to low and cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes more.

Toppings:
1/2 cup chopped baby spinach
1/4 cup shredded fontina (I use shredded Swiss cheese)
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/4 cup chopped marinated artichoke hearts (use frozen, unsalted artichoke hearts)
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella (I use cubed fresh mozzarella)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar (I omit)
1/4 cup ground Parmesan (optional)

Assembly:
Spread sauce evenly over entire pizza. Add spinach, and then top with fontina. Add rest of veggies, and then top with mozzarella, cheddar, and lastly, Parmesan.

Heat your oven to 450 for about 20 minutes. If you’ve got a baking stone, place the prepared dough on the hot stone and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the dough is crisp and brown. Remove from the oven and slide the pizza onto a cutting board.

A note about cheese: Most block Swiss cheese is very low in sodium, so it’s a good substitute for saltier cheeses. Most fresh mozzarella cheese is also lower in sodium than other cheeses. However, fresh mozzarella is quite soft and doesn’t shred well. The best thing to do is cube it. Because it's watery, squeeze dry in paper towels.  These cheeses taste fine on pizza. Parmesan cheese is strong, and it doesn’t take much to give your pizza a flavor punch. A light sprinkling will do wonders. Sprinkle with your hands, though. Don’t be tempted to shake Parmesan from a container -- too much will escape.