By Leigh Caldwell
Do you peruse the marked down produce bin at your supermarket? The markdowns in the produce section are often a big aid to my meal planning, and my wallet.
I frequently find bags of prewashed spinach or other greens that may be a little past their prime to use in a salad, but can still be thrown in a soup or used in a quiche. I pick up overripe bananas for banana bread, bruised apples for small batches of apple sauce … you get the picture. All of it is usually at least 60 percent, if not 75 to 80 percent off.
One of the things I frequently see marked down are a variety of bell peppers. The produce manager at my store often bags up the different colors, 3 to a bag, for 99 cents. Today, I found a bag with an orange, yellow and green pepper for that price. Meanwhile, the package of “stoplight peppers” – red, yellow and green – in the regular produce was $5.79.
Now, what to do with it? I decided with St. Patrick’s Day coming up, a rainbow pizza might be fun to try. Red grape tomatoes and a purple onion completed my “rainbow.” (Yes, I know blue is missing here, but if there’s a blue vegetable out there, I’m not sure I’d want it!)
I typically make rectangular pizzas, because, well, let’s face it, it’s easier to roll the pizza dough out that way. I decided to start with the red in the middle and work outward in both directions, so that I can slice the pizza down the middle and still have a rainbow in every slice.
Ingredients
1 canned refrigerated pizza crust
1 small jar pizza sauce
8 oz. mozzarella cheese
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium red (purple) onion, chopped
Directions
- Roll out pizza crust into pan and pre-bake according to package directions.
- Spread prebaked crust with pizza sauce and cheese.
- Add the toppings, arranging in a rainbow pattern. (Go heavy on the toppings for the best rainbow effect.)
- Finish baking. Note: I find that when I pile on the toppings, I have to bake the pizza a few minutes longer than the package recommends to get the crust done.
I’ve shared the “quick” way I make homemade pizza, but you can use whatever method or recipe to make pizza that you like and still use the rainbow theme, since it’s all about the toppings. You could even go with other veggies or pizza toppings your family likes, too – maybe put some red pepperoni or green olives in the mix.
Leigh M. Caldwell is a family travel writer, blogger and broadcast personality. She has two decades of experience as a radio news anchor, television news executive producer and newspaper reporter, editor and columnist.
- 1 canned refrigerated pizza crust
- 1 small jar pizza sauce
- 8 oz. mozzarella cheese
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 orange bell pepper, chopped
- 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 medium red (purple) onion, chopped
- Roll out pizza crust into pan and pre-bake according to package directions.
- Spread prebaked crust with pizza sauce and cheese.
- Add the toppings, arranging in a rainbow pattern. (Go heavy on the toppings for the best rainbow effect.)
- Finish baking. Note: I find that when I pile on the toppings, I have to bake the pizza a few minutes longer than the package recommends to get the crust done.
Two years ago I would have said a no-meat pizza was sacrilegious, but now I’ve grown to like them. This one is so colorful…it must taste great!
I LOVE this. I have tried IW’s fruit pizza and love it. I had never thought to make a rainbow with veggies on my pizza. I wish I could find three bell peppers for less than $1.00 though. Great St. Patty’s Day idea!
It really looks delicious! A good way to add extra veggies in our diet.
This pizza looks delicious and I can’t believe how many vegetables it has on it. It’s beautiful too with all the colors of the veggies.
This looks like a fun and healthy way to top a pizza. Just need to make sure the base (crust) is strong to hold it 🙂 Kim
I literally just had a conversation the other night with my husband about how I only eat pizza in triangular slices. I don’t like it in any other shape – isn’t that weird.
The pizza looks so yummy. I wanna try and make this,this week.
That is the type of pizza I make for myself all the time, my boys will not eat it so I make one and then freeze part and keep leftovers. I love veggie pizzas.
That is such a fun and festive pizza! My kids would love the color, but I think the husband and i would be the only ones to eat it. My kids are far too picky. Blah. But it looks so delicious to me!
This is a great idea and so much fun!! my kids would love this
It’s so colorful and rainbow indeed – plus its healthy and yummy kind of pizza, too!
Yummy now thats a delicious and healthy pizza to have.
I love finding great deals on produce! This pizza looks really tasty.
I love the thought of making rainbow pizza, puts a fun twist on it! I would use organic sauce and low fat cheese though.
Produce is cheaper in the market right now, this looks so good. Waiting for the fresh fruit to come in, fruit pizza is always a huge hit in my house.
Thanks for sharing. 🙂 Happy Spring!
this looks SO good!! Cure, cheese is great but those veggies just look so fresh and amazing! 🙂
My absolute favorite pizza in the whole world is a loaded veggie pizza, no lie. This one looks mighty delicious!
This looks delicious! Love the colors too! I’m sure kids would love the rainbow pizza for sure!
Looks really delicious! Love how bright and colorful the vegs look.
I love how colorful this recipe is. I too think rectangular pizzas are better/easier! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
The presentation on this is so pretty!! I think it’d be fun to make, and fun to serve.
Love this! I love making veggies fun for the kids!!
I love this!! St. Paddy’s, healthy food, I’m all in. I think my kid might fall for this too! 🙂
This is such a colorful, fun pizza idea! It’s so healthy too!
My brother would love this! The colors are awesome!
Yummy! I’m terrible at creatively using food that is getting towards rotten. But I love that your grocer makes it appealing to buy the older food. Michelle
My initial thought – this is too pretty to eat! Second thought – this looks too yummy to pass up. Seriously, I can’t wait to try this. I love it when I can make something that is a) easy b) healthy and c) delicious. This recipe seems to have all three. Score!
Anya,
Garden season is coming up, can’t wait to make this with all fresh garden picks from the garden. Win Win!!!
I’m not a vegetarian but that looks really yummy! And I love all thing colorful! Thanks for sharing this recipe, gonna make it this weekend!
This is BEAUTIFUL. I am a vegetarian and I would like to thank you for posting a vegetarian recipe. But you don’t have to be to enjoy this.
Looks so healthy and delicious. My daughter would love cooking this together.
This actually turned out pretty with all the vibrant colors of the veggies and looks good.
This does look so good and good for you, too. It would be a nice option even for company!
That is such a pretty presentation and looks delicious as well. We enjoy vegetarian meals once or twice a week and this will surely be added to the rotation.