12 Ways to Make Easy Homemade Pizza

I don’t know about you, but pizza is one of my favorite foods. There are just two things I don’t like about it: 1) it isn’t very healthy for you and 2) every homemade crust recipe I have tried was mediocre at best.

Until … we discovered that the yogurt easy bagel recipe from Skinnytaste makes AMAZING pizza crust. It’s literally a cup of flour, a cup of nonfat Greek yogurt, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and 3/4 teaspoon of salt – and it makes one 12-inch pizza crust. (You can also add 1 tsp of Italian seasoning or garlic powder if you’d like!)

We have a sourdough starter in our refrigerator that I started a year ago, so I always add about 1 tablespoon of it into the dough as well. If you have a sourdough starter, give it a try. If you don’t, don’t worry about it – you will love this recipe anyway!

In this post, I’m going to talk a bit more about the dough, how we make it into the best homemade pizza AND our 12 favorite topping combinations.  It was going to be a “top 10” post, but once my husband and I started talking about pizza, we had 12 combinations to share with you before we knew what happened.

That Bagel Dough … I Mean Pizza Dough

So, a couple of years ago I was introduced to this bagel recipe.  It makes really fabulous bagels, and we’ve also used it to make flatbreads, calzones, meat pies, pizza rolls, and even as hamburger buns for my Pizza Burger recipe!

Some people say you need to strain the yogurt first, and I used to do that too. I don’t anymore though, and if my dough gets a little sticky I just put a little extra flour in it.

A Few Supplies You Will Need

• A glass mixing bowl
• A silicone pastry mat and a rolling pin for rolling out the dough. Don’t let this scare you off, it’s not that bad!
• Something to bake your pizza on. We always use our 12-inch cast-iron skillet, but you can also use a stainless steel pizza pan or a pizza stone.
• A pizza cutter and please, if you do cook it in your cast iron skillet, transfer it to a pizza pan for cutting. Just trust me, you don’t want to have to reseason your skillet over the pizza cutter marks.

The Dough Recipe

Our 12 Favorite Pizza Combinations!

1. Taco Pizza

The way I make taco pizza is kind of a mashup of how I’ve had it at different restaurants.  This is a great one to make a couple of days after taco night when you have all those small amounts of random taco ingredients leftover!

I use refried beans as the “sauce” and top it with taco meat that I usually mix some salsa into, then add the other ingredients (whatever you have is fine – we usually use onions and peppers, but black olives would also be good.)

For the cheese, I like to use half Monterey jack and half cheddar. Once that’s melted and out of the oven, we top it with finely chopped lettuce, crushed tortilla chips, Valentina hot sauce, and some Greek yogurt (or sour cream – but honestly it’s hard to tell the difference and Greek yogurt is for you!)

2. Vegetable Pizza

Our favorite pizza from Papa Murphy’s is their Gourmet Vegetarian pizza.  The problem is that we live over 30 miles from the nearest Papa Murphy’s. During the summer months, we always have lots of veggies hanging around from the garden, so we make this a lot then.

For this pizza, we use a garlic oil sauce instead of red sauce and then top with whatever vegetables you want. Some ideas to get you started: onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, artichokes, fresh spinach, sliced zucchini, and fresh sliced garlic. It really can be a combination of whatever you want and/or have on hand, though! We usually use mozzarella cheese for this one.

3. Triple Pork Pizza

This is also a copycat from a local favorite restaurant of ours. Unless you are one of the people who can’t eat cilantro, trust this and make sure you put it on there – it totally makes this one!  For the sauce on this one, cream of mushroom soup is it. I know, weird.  Toppings include pulled pork, cooked bacon crumbles, crumbled Italian sausage meatballs (we like to use our homemade turkey sausage), and red onion.  This one gets cheddar cheese at the end, and when it comes out of the oven top it with fresh cilantro and sweet Hawaiian-style BBQ sauce.

4. Duck & Fig Pizza

I can’t take credit for this one either. The way we make this is inspired by this recipe. I love roast duck, and this pizza is a great way to enjoy leftover duck meat. We chop the leftover duck meat with some dried figs and caramelized onions. For the sauce, we use this plum ginger sauce that I made.  A similar sauce from the grocery store would also be just fine, and we have also mixed BBQ sauce with fruit jam before. Then, put arugula on it towards the end of baking time (you want it to wilt, but not get crispy) with goat cheese and mozzarella cheese.

5. Pepperoni and Mushroom Pizza

This one doesn’t really need much explanation. It isn’t fancy or complicated, but it’s one of my favorites. It’s gotta be fresh mushrooms though!

6. Sausage and Peppers Pizza

We make a really spicy sausage and peppers dip sometimes in the summer when we have too many peppers from the garden, and this pizza reminds me of that. We like to make it with a variety of spicy and mild peppers, and sausage.  So, it’s really just sausage, peppers, onions, and mozzarella cheese for this one.

7. Cheeseburger Pizza

This is a great one to make when you have a leftover hamburger or two in the refrigerator!  Ketchup makes a great sauce for this one, and top it with the crumbled leftover hamburger, diced onions, diced dill pickles, crumbled bacon if you have it, some sliced or diced tomato if you have it, and cheddar cheese.

8. Margherita Pizza

This is a traditional pizza with red sauce, fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Sometimes, as you see in this picture, we put fresh spinach on it too.

 

9. White Pizza

There is a legendary place in Ohio where my husband grew up called Mary’s Pizza. They make a white pizza that has glorious garlic oil sauce on it with lots of fresh Parmesan cheese, and then it’s topped with loads of mozzarella and as many pickled banana peppers as you’d like. We generally aren’t successful at replicating this at home, but we felt like it should be mentioned here.

10. BBQ Chicken Pizza

Usually, when we have leftover BBQ chicken around here, I like to make this BBQ Chicken Salad. But, BBQ Chicken Pizza is of course also an option! BBQ sauce for the sauce, of course, topped with shredded grilled chicken, red onion, diced tomatoes if you’d like, and this one gets cheddar cheese.

11. Chicken Alfredo Pizza

This is another one that works well when you have a leftover piece or two of chicken. Use alfredo sauce for the sauce, top with chopped chicken, mushrooms, fresh spinach, and fresh garlic if you’d like. It gets mozzarella cheese at the end.

 

12. Breakfast Pizza

We don’t make this one very often, but it’s kind of a fun way to start the day. If we are making a pizza for dinner, sometimes we will make a second one for breakfast.  Because who has time to make pizza in the morning, even if it is as easy as this one?

Toppings can be adjusted to your tastes, but I think spinach, tomato, and bacon are good and then crack 2-3 fresh eggs on top right before you put it in the oven.  Cheddar cheese is the winner for this one as well if you ask me.

Make Your Own Pizza Combinations, Too!

Well, that’s it, our 12 favorite pizza combinations! There are literally unlimited options out there, so don’t be afraid to have fun with it and make your own favorites. You can find some more pizza recipes on my Pinterest board too.

If you make this pizza dough recipe and/or any of these flavor combinations I shared with you, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!