The Healthiest Frozen Pizza: Gluten Free, Vegan, and Low Calorie Options

- Written by Crystal Schlegelmilch on September 13th 2015

There are undoubtedly people who would argue "healthy frozen pizza" is an oxymoron.

These people may have a point; if your primary concern is eating healthy, there are much, much better choices than frozen pizza. But then again, who says people who eat healthfully most of the time can't fall back on a frozen pizza once in awhile?

Whoever says that would probably also argue there's no place in your diet for Ben & Jerry's either. Forget that guy.

That said, you don't have to pick the greasiest, goopiest, cardboard-crust-iest frozen pizza in the supermarket. There are tons of healthier options out there, even if you're following a gluten free, vegan, or low calorie diet.

Healthiest Gluten Free Frozen Pizza

Unfortunately our favorite choices for gluten free frozen pizzas tend to be a bit difficult to find. If you're lucky, though, you can track down Against The Grain's frozen pizzas (their store locator can help). You can choose from three cheese, pesto, and pepperoni, and they all have impressively clean ingredient lists, even if they are a bit lengthy. Check out the three cheese pizza's ingredient label:

tapioca starch, milk, eggs, canola oil, cheddar cheese (fresh pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), mozzarella cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, vegetable rennet), parmesan cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, vegetable rennet). Topping: Tomato paste (vine-ripened fresh tomatoes and naturally-derived citric acid from tomatoes), mozzarella cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, vegetable rennet), parmesan cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, vegetable rennet), water

By the way, their pesto pizza is also nut free, since the pesto is made from sunflower seeds!

Against The Grain Gourmet Pizza

grain and gluten free pizza
390 calories in just 1/5 of the pizza - plan on sharing this one with side salads!
pretty expensive (around $12 in some areas)

Though not as clean as Against The Grain's pizzas, Schar's gluten free frozen pizzas have simpler, less processed ingredients than Udi's and Glutino's frozen pizzas, for example. Unfortunately Schar's pizzas are also harder to find, but it is worth keeping an eye out and even requesting them at your supermarket.

Ingredient list:

water, mozzarella cheese, tomato puree, rice flour, potato starch, sunflower oil, potato flakes, psyllium seed husks (vegetable fiber), sugar, soy protein, salt, modified cellulose, carob-seed flour, mono- and diglycerides, oregano, apple fiber

Schar Bonta d' Italia Gluten-Free Thin Crust Pizza

gluten free, high fiber, 5 grams of protein per slice
veggie pizza has red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, onion, spinach for nutritional boost
140/170 calories per slice (cheese vs vegetable pizza), that's 560/680 for the entire pizza
hard to locate

Healthiest Vegan Frozen Pizza

Bold Organics GF Vegan Pizza

gluten free, dairy free, vegan, uses organic ingredients (not 100% organic)
non-GMO verified
a bit high in calories - 250 calories for 1/3 pizza, 750 for the entire pizza
contains inulin, xanthan gum, and carrageenan (not necessarily harmful, but could cause gastrointestinal discomfort in some individuals)

If you're not vegan but still need a dairy free frozen pizza, Bold also offers dairy free deluxe pizzas (pepperoni, Italian sausage, roasted red peppers, shiitake mushrooms, and onion) as well as meat lovers pizzas (pepperoni and Italian sausage, but without any of those pesky vegetables).

Amy's Roasted Vegetable Pizza

dairy free, vegan, and soy free
a bit high in calories - 280 calories for 1/3 pizza, 840 for the entire pizza
high in sodium even compared to other frozen pizzas - 23% of your daily allowance in 1/3 pizza
NOT gluten free

Amy's is our personal favorite when it comes to dairy free and vegan frozen pizzas, because of one pizza in particular: their roasted vegetable pizza. We aren't fans of soy cheese ourselves (though Amy's does offer numerous soy-cheese pizzas too), and this pizza is cheese free but still absolutely satisfying with its marinated organic shiitake mushrooms, roasted red peppers, sweet onions and marinated artichoke hearts. Yum. Definitely a top contender for the healthiest frozen pizza.

Plus, Amy's offers a Light & Lean version of their roasted vegetable pizza, which is lower in calories AND personal pizza sized so you don't have to worry about portion control (eating 1/3 of a frozen pizza is a true test of strength).

Healthiest Low Calorie Frozen Pizza

If you thought Amy's vegan Light & Lean pizza sounded awesome but would be even more awesome with cheese, you're in luck. Their Light & Lean Italian Vegetable Pizza also features artichokes and mushrooms, plus spinach, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Even with the added cheese, you're looking at just 280 calories for the personal sized pizza. Perfect to pair with a side salad to fill you up.

Amy's Light & Lean Italian Vegetable Pizza

no artificial ingredients or preservatives
rather clean ingredient list
may not be feeling enough alone, serve with an Italian side salad

All-Around Healthiest Frozen Pizza

If you don't follow any special diet, then you have the freedom to enjoy all the options above or, if you prefer something more traditional, any of the healthy frozen pizzas below.

American Flatbread Tomato Sauce & Three Cheese

no artificial ingredients or preservatives
not terribly high in calories - 300 calories in 1/2 pizza, 600 calories in entire pizza
high in sodium even compared to other frozen pizzas - 29% of your daily allowance in 1/2 pizza

American Flatbread pizzas come in a bunch of awesome topping combinations and have surprisingly high-quality ingredients. Take the Tomato Sauce & Three Cheese pizza for instance:

crust: organically grown wheat (100%), good mountain water, kosher salt, fresh yeast. toppings: mozzarella cheese (whole milk, vegetable rennet, salt), organic tomato sauce (organic tomatoes, fresh organic onions, fresh organic carrots, fresh organic celery, organic garlic, organic red wine, pure organic maple syrup, extra virgin organic olive oil, kosher salt, fresh organic parsley, organic herbs, organic black pepper, organic red pepper flakes) vermont's blythdale farm asiago/grana padano cheese (whole milk from jersey cows, vegetable rennet salt), garlic oil (extra virgin organic olive oil, organic canola oil, chopped whole garlic), fresh organic parsley, herbs, kosher salt

They also have two gluten free options, the dairy free Farmers Tomato Pie, and a Vegan Harvest flatbread pizza with Daiya mozzarella.

Since several of the pizza brands covered in this post can be hard to find, we decided to offer at least one sold-just-about-everywhere brand that is also a healthy frozen pizza choice. Our pick? Newman's Own Thin & Crispy pizzas.

Newman's Own Thin & Crispy Four Cheese Pizza

much cleaner ingredient list than other national pizza brands
pizzas range from 260-320 calories per 1/3 pizza, a bit high if you know you'll eat more than one serving
depending on which pizza you choose, around 25% of your daily sodium allowance in 1/3 pizza

Newman's Own Thin & Crispy pizzas may be a bit higher in calories than some others on this list, but they are absolutely better than most widely available frozen pizza brands, especially if you're looking at the ingredient label:

multigrain crust (wheat flour, water, vegetable oil [corn oil, extra virgin olive oil], flaxseed, yeast, sugar, salt, whole oat flour), low moisture part-skim mozzarella cheese (pasteurized part-skim milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), sauce (tomatoes [diced tomatoes, tomato juice], water, tomato paste, extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, sugar, spices, garlic (dried), onion (dried), cheddar cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), parmesan cheese (part-skim pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt and enzymes), asiago cheese (pasteurized part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes)

Plus Newman's Own is just an awesome company to support, since they donate 100% of their profits to charity.

Make Your Own Frozen Pizzas

We personally like to follow Michael Pollan's advice "Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself." And this time we aren't joking around, that is, no calling unwrapping the frozen pizza and putting it in the oven "cooking yourself." We mean making the crust from scratch, using sugar-free tomato sauce, real mozzarella cheese, fresh vegetables, etc.

You can assemble your pizzas, wrap them in plastic wrap, and freeze them to make your own homemade frozen pizzas. These, we believe, are truly the healthiest frozen pizzas, because the effort it takes you to make them will keep you from eating them too frequently. We recommend this cookbook to get you started on the path to perfect homemade pizza.