HOMEMADE VEGAN PIZZA

I know I haven’t been sharing as many recipes with you guys lately and I’m sorry about that. Do you know how hard it is to cook while trying to remember to write down the recipe, take pictures of each step, trying to find a good lighting spot to get a picture of the final product, and then edit each and every one of those pictures before writing the actual blog post? It’s a bit time consuming and a bit of a pain.

I love cooking and I love sharing my recipes and food with people, but blogging about food is not easy. I promise I’m not giving up though! Practice makes perfect. : )

I am really excited to share this recipe with you! Before going vegan pizza was my favorite food, and it actually still remains my favorite food. There are a lot of great places in Austin you can go to get a great vegan Pizza (Zpizza, Promise Pizza, Conan’s, etc.). Some of these places offer vegan cheese option but I’ve also eaten many cheese-less pizzas that still have amazing flavor. Sometimes I like to eat pizza at home, but I’m not big on delivery though. If I’m going to pay for food then I also want to escape from my house.

I’ve bought the pre-made crusts at the store before, and those are fine, but I’ve been really wanting to make my own pizza for a while now. Most recipes I’ve come across require you to have a stand mixer with a dough hook. I don’t bake enough to justify buying one of those expensive contraptions, and while some of the recipes say you can make the dough without it, they don’t tell me so convincingly.

Last week I received an email letting me know that No Meat Athlete had a new blog post ready for me to read. I was so happy when I saw it was a recipe for homemade vegan pizza that didn’t require a mixer with a dough hook! I read through the recipe and realized I already had all the ingredients at home (note: that’s one of my favorite moments, when I realize I don’t have to go to the store to make a new recipe I’ve found) so of course that meant we were having pizza for dinner that night!

The “cheese” in this recipe is made from soaked cashews, which is fairly common in vegan cooking and really tasty. This posed a problem for me though. First, I didn’t soak my cashews before I left for work that day because I didn’t know I was going to be making pizza with them, and second, Meghan wanted to make my Chipotle Chikin Mac-n-cheeze recipe and needed the cashews for that recipe. Of course I didn’t realize this until I’d already started making the dough, so I was pretty committed to having pizza that night.

I stood staring at my pantry for a while, trying to decide what to do. Should I go to the store and buy more cashews or some vegan cheese shreds? Should I use the cashews (unsoaked) and tell Meghan she’s SOL? Could I use another nut instead? Then I saw the box of silken tofu in front of me and knew I had a solution.

Silken tofu is different from the cubed stuff that you see in recipes. It is not refrigerated, comes in a cardboard box, and is often used to make sauces and creamy desserts. I bought this silken tofu months ago for a recipe and then promptly forgot what recipe I bought it for. I wish I could say that’s the only time something like that has happened to me…

Note: you do need a food processor to make this dough. If you don’t have one I highly recommend you buy one. I use mine at least five days a week (used it last night to make potato soup, this morning to make pancakes, and will use it again tonight to make hummus). This is the one I have and I love it!

HOMEMADE VEGAN PIZZA – makes 2 pies (about 16 slices)

1 dough recipe – found HERE

Sauce:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 28-oz can whole tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

Cheeze:

• 1 package firm silken tofu
• Juice from 1 lemon (about 2-3 tbsp)
• 2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil

Optional ingredients:

• Vegan sausage (I used Field Roast brand, one link per pizza)
• Sliced veggies of your choice (mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, etc.)
• Spinach (fresh or frozen)
• Whatever else you like to eat on your pizza

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. If you have a pizza stone (I do and it’s awesome), put that in the oven on the bottom shelf, as close to the bottom as you can, so it preheats with the oven. If you do not have a pizza stone, go ahead and preheat whatever pan/cookie sheet you’re going to be using to cook the pizza.

2. Make your dough according to these instructions and let rise in two bowls for 1 hour.

3. Place all the ingredients for your sauce (except the oil) in your food processor and pulse several times, depending on how smooth/chunky you want your sauce to be (I like a few chunks in mine).

4. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, add the tomato mixture, and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens. Turn heat down to “warm” until you’re ready to assemble your pizza.

5. Add all the ingredients for your cheeze sauce to the food processor and blend until completely smooth. Taste it and add more seasonings to suit you.

6. Once the hour is up and your pizza dough has risen, punch it down a couple of times and then roll it out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured counter.

Fold the edges in and press to make a crust (I did this with part of the second crust just to make it fit on the pan better, but I wish I’d done it to all the crusts). Remove your pizza pan/stone from the oven and place the dough on it (be careful not to burn yourself!). The dough will start to bubble a little; poke it with a fork so you can easily spread the sauce and cheeze on top.

7. Spread half of the sauce mixture on the pizza, add whatever other toppings you’d like, then spread half of the cheeze mixture on top.

8. Return pan to the middle rack in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the crust is nice and crispy and baked all the way through.

9. Remove pizza from oven, transfer to a large cutting board so you can cut it, and return the empty pan to bottom rack of oven to heat back up for 5 minutes before repeating the processes with the second ball of dough.

First pizza

Second pizza

Lynn and Ross both helped me eat this and Ross declared it the best vegan pizza he’s ever eaten! Honestly, it the only vegan pizza he’s ever eaten, but that’s because they’ve never appealed to him before.

The flavors of the sauce and cheese were great, and the crust was nice and crisp; not limp but also not too crunchy. This pizza also reheats well in a toaster oven, placed directly on the rack.

If you want an easy to print version of this recipe, you can visit my RECIpage.

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