Who doesn’t love eating pizza? Believe it or not, the USDA estimates that over a tenth of all Americans eat pizza every day!
While most folks aren’t that nuts about it, many eat pizzas all the time. No food can match the best pizza, but eating it by itself gets old, fast.
When you’re used to pizza as a full meal, it can be hard to come up with ideas for side dishes. No worries—Take a look at this list of choice foods to serve with pizza.
Making Health Easy: Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Pizza isn’t bad for you, so long as you don’t buy a premade pizza full of tons of added sugar, preservatives, and more yucky stuff.
Let’s be realistic about this, though: Sometimes, you’re in a rush or low on cash and can’t avoid junk food. You need to supplement it with something healthier.
Plus, even fresh pizza with quality ingredients needs help to be a well-rounded meal. The good news? Adding fresh fruits and veggies doesn’t have to be hard.
Fruit Options
Serving fruit with pizza is a healthy option that can also please your sweet tooth. Fruits eaten whole like grapes and clementines make the side easy for the cook or host. If you have more time, you can make a fruit salad or slices.
Sweet and juicy fruit works well with pizza because it gives relief from the heavy dough and intense saltiness.
Basic Veggies
If you’re not into salads or lack the time, simple veggies work well. Baby carrots, chopped celery, and broccoli florets are a few favorites. Serving them with dipping sauce makes them appealing to the vegetable-averse.
Showing off Instead: Salads
Those with more time and energy can take a fancier route to a full serving of vegetables: salads. With all the possible toppings and dressings, there’s a salad out there for anyone—even for people who say they hate it.
Two Kinds of Caesar Salads
While pizza is a kind of food brought to the United States and other countries from Italy, Caesar salad was invented by an Italian immigrant in the US. It’s a classic side for pizza, and there are several variations. Some involve anchovies, some omit the original hardboiled eggs, and others do the opposite.
Whatever ingredients you choose, there are two common kinds of Caesar salad, which you can see here, for example: https://wiseguypizzapie.com/hailey-ketchum-menu/. One contains chicken and the other doesn’t, easy!
A simple Caesar salad including romaine lettuce, parmesan cheese, croutons, and Caesar dressing takes a few minutes to throw together. If you have the time, popping a couple of chicken breasts in the oven isn’t a bother, either.
Make sure to check ingredients and inform any vegetarians you’re serving before offering Caesar salads. The dressing often has blended-in anchovies. Vegetarians can enjoy the dish by replacing Caesar dressing with ranch or Italian dressing.
Greek Salad
Pizza isn’t Greek, but the ingredients in a Greek salad are perfect for pizza. The base ingredients are tomato, cucumber, onion, olives, and feta cheese. Often, the only dressing is a splash of olive oil and some Greek oregano.
This salad is one of the most refreshing options. It’s easy to throw together, and the cheese, onion, and tomato are perfect alongside a pizza pie.
Backing up the Crust: Soft and Crunchy Bread
Have you ever eaten a piece of pizza with a crust so good that you wish there was more of it? Having bread with your pie can scratch that itch.
Convenient Breadsticks
This is your chance to get your hands on some more crust. Many kinds of pizza dough make excellent breadsticks.
If you’re making pizza at home, you don’t need to buy any other ingredients to have the perfect side. Plus, there’s an ideal dipping sauce to pair with any kind of pizza. You never have to worry about flavors clashing if you use the pizza sauce for dipping.
Cheesy and Plain Garlic Bread
If serving plain breadsticks with sauce isn’t your style, introduce some more flavor with garlic bread. Whether you put cheese on top or not, the shared ingredients amplify the pizza’s tastiness.
Garlic bread is versatile. You can use a wide variety of bread, any cheese you want, a little garlic or a lot, olive oil or butter…and those aren’t all of your options! It can also be soft, crunchy, or a bit of both depending on how you bake it.
For all of those reasons, you can’t go wrong with garlic bread as a side for pizza.
Indulging Now and Then: Fried Goodies
Fruits and vegetables are great, but sometimes you want to indulge. Fried foods win at parties and fit the spirit of fun activities like movie nights. Join the air fryer trend to avoid tons of grease.
French Fries
Anyone who’s ever been to a bowling alley knows french fries are the perfect pairing for all types of pizza. They’re paired in concession stands and party venues all the time.
If you don’t spice them or smother them with toppings, they have a somewhat neutral flavor. You can then choose any sauce you want to go with your pizza, or eat the fries dry to avoid interfering with the entree’s flavor.
Onion Rings
Unlike fries, onion rings have a strong flavor of their own. However, there’s often onion in pizza sauce and sometimes onion on top. For that reason, onion rings don’t overwhelm your pie.
Basic breaded onion rings are a hit with anyone who likes onion, while beer batter rings are less popular with kids and some others. Or, you could be a beer lover watching your favorite sport. In that case, beer batter onion rings could be the perfect thing to make your pizza snack complete.
Chicken Wings
Chicken wings are the biggest exceptions to the strong flavor rule. Fans customize them with countless storebought and homemade spice rubs and sauces. Some popular wing flavors, like garlic and parmesan, are part of many pizzas and match the dish well.
Most wings are fried, but you can also bake or grill wings as healthier alternatives. If health is your goal, watch out for sauces and rubs filled with tons of sugar, salt, preservatives, and other junk.
Pizza, Other Foods, and Ways to Stay Well
Now that you know what to serve with pizza, there’s no reason not to throw a big party. As you enjoy your pizzas and relax, browse our site for more yummy food ideas. We also have articles on ways to stay healthy and have a good life.
With the information on our site, you’ll be well and ready for your next pizza party. Click on another article to start planning, or just to chill out and learn something new.
