A great proportion of Australians do not eat the recommended serves of vegetables per day. The recommended **MINIMUM** serves of vegetables per day (as defined in the 2013 NHMRC Guidelines) is:
2½ for children aged 2–3
4½ for children aged 4–8
5 for children aged 9–11, females aged 12 and over and males aged 70 and over
5½ for males aged 12–18 and 51–70 years
6 for males aged 19–50
This is in addition to your fruit consumption, and as highlighted, these recommendations are for minimum serves – eating more than this would be even better.
Eating the recommended serves of vegetable in conjunction with an overall healthy diet can protect against certain types of cancers and reduce the risk of a number of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Although I made a conscious decision years ago to stop eating meat, as my diet has progressed and my awareness of the benefits of whole foods, fruits and vegetables increases; the room for meat in my daily consumption becomes less and less and I never feel like my meals are missing anything. I consistently strive to feed my body nourishing foods and this means I love putting vegetables, fruits and whole foods into it, which fill me up more than enough and make me feel fantastic.
This medium pizza contains 5 serves of vegetables! Although I encourage people to eat fruits and vegetables consistently throughout the day, people often find it challenging to get a number of serves into their bodies, therefore getting a big dose in one meal is a great option. What’s even better, my partner can eat 1 and a half of these, or even two – which means he gets 7.5-10 serves of vegetables in one sitting.
Prep: 5-10 minutes (depending how fast you chop) Cooking: 25 minutes
Ingredients (serves 1):
1 medium flat bread or pizza base*
3 tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
1 tbs of tomato paste
1 medium sliced tomato (equivalent to 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup of thinly sliced pumpkin
1/2 cup of thinly slices zucchini
1/2 cup of canned red kidney beans (or beans/lentils of your choice)
1 cup of spinach
1/3 cup / 1 handful of sunflower sprouts or similar
1 large handful of fresh herbs (basil and rosemary)
Chilli flakes or vegan cheese to top
(I used Pimp My Salad Hemp Parmesan, but have also used Botanical Cuisine Macadamia Feta)
* We get our flat bread from a baker at the Daylesford Farmers Market. If you get a base from the super market, make sure you check the ingredients list and ensure it isn’t full of preservatives, thickeners or ‘numbers’.
I had a hunt on the Woolworths website for pizza base/flatbread options and found one that contained 7 common ingredients, and another that had more than 30 ingredients – which would you pick?
Always check the ingredients list and ensure your foods is as close to its original state as possible. Food with a huge list of ingredients or anything you haven't heard of before is likely to a highly processed food your body can do without.
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C, while you slice and chop your vegetables.
2. Spread tomato paste over pizza base and place in a non-stick pizza or oven tray.
3. Place pumpkin, zucchini and tomato on base and top with EVOO, spreading over the vegetables.
4. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften.
5. Remove pizza from oven and top with remaining ingredients (sprouts, spinach, herbs and kidney beans). Ensure you cover the beans with the leafy greens, otherwise the heat will make them split and dry out slightly.
6. Return to oven and cook for another 10 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and top with chilli flakes and/or a cheese of your choice –
once again, opt for something with minimal ingredients. Some vegan cheeses are full of questionable ingredients and, in my opinion, you're better off eating regular minimally processed cheese.
Bellissimo.
If you make this recipe and share it on Instagram I’d love to see your creation so tag @the_well_being__