Vegan Pizza

Vegan Pizza

Vegan Pizza is the best. I mean pizza is the best….OK vegan pizza is the very best mostly because no one had to be hurt in the making of it. I love that part.

If you are a vegan, you know that people always want to know what you eat. This is one of the reasons I started this blog and my Instagram account @veganonthego. To show people we eat exactly what they eat, we just swap out a couple ingredients to make it without using any animal products. If we don’t need them, why would we use them?

At first when you swap out a few ingredients, things taste different, after all they really are different ingredients. Once you get accustomed to the new taste, it becomes your new good and you change. Your taste buds start to change and then the new stuff tastes really good.

We eat a lot of pizza at our house and when we are on the road if it is available. The good news is vegan pizza is starting to be a regular on most menus and at home we have 100% control over what we eat. Pizza is doable as a vegan, and its getting more doable and delicious out in the marketplace too.

Ok when I say pizza, what I really mean is……

Vegan Pizza

Vegan Pizza rocks and can be made in at least 1000 ways. Also when I say pizza, I am using a very broad brush with what that might encompass, beyond what you might traditionally think of as pizza. You can make a shortcut mini pizza on a bun in 10 minutes or make an elaborate homemade gluten free zucchini or cauliflower crust with homemade vegan cheese and herbs and veggies from your garden.

You can make your own from scratch, every component homemade from the crust, to the sauce and the cheese…or you can buy it or be somewhere in the middle. Only a small minority of people that have the skills or the time will do all of it from scratch. We all make choices of where and how we want to spend our time.

We choose, what will you make from scratch, what will you use a mix for, what could be pre-made and what could you just buy finished and ready to go? Its a continuum of choices and options.

My choices change every time I make pizza. Sometimes I make the glorious gluten free cauliflower crust, homemade sauces, garden fresh ingredients, raw and cooked, homemade cheese, the works. That’s when I have a lot of time and a lot of desire to eat an amazing out of this world pizza.

Sometimes I choose to go somewhere in the middle, buy the crust and the sauce, chop fresh ingredients and use a combo of homemade and store bought cheese. Sometimes I just go to the frozen food section of my grocery store and buy a frozen vegan pizza – we just got the Daiya Vegan Pizza – yah! Sometimes I choose to go to a restaurant and have a vegan pizza or I order it in and eat at home. So many options. Vegans are not missing out on pizza!

Ok, let’s get down to it. There are 3 components of a pizza, the crust, the sauce and the toppings; which includes cheese, raw and cooked ingredients. For each of these components, you can go easy and fast or you can put in the time to make something really special, or go somewhere in between. There are no rules in pizza.

We are going to take each of the three components and I’ll let you know some of your options, this will not be an all inclusive list. I’ll share some of my creations and you will see just how varied each pizza can be. I suspect that each pizza I make is somewhat unique and no two are exactly the same, because…… there are no rules in pizza!

The Base or Crust of the Pizza

We’ll start with the crust or base of the pizza, something to hold all of the ingredients! I like them all, it just depends if it’s a snack or a meal, how busy am I and how many people will be eating? Do I want my guests to put their own toppings on or do I want to make all the pizzas myself? This all factors into what type of crust I choose.

As mentioned there are so many options, some of them include:

• Homemade gluten free crust made with cauliflower or zucchini, I have a recipe on my blog http://www.veganonthego.net/vegan-gluten-free-pizza/
• Homemade pizza crusts, biscuit version or bread version

  

• Pita pockets for crusts
• Buns, bread or bagels – I usually toast these first
• Store bought pre-made crusts – usually comes with sauce
• Store bought crusts that you make, can be bought with or without sauce

  

Experiment with different types of crusts to see which are your favourites. Really every pizza you make will be somewhat of an experiment and experience, depending how adventuresome you are.

Pizza sauce is the next component

I usually go with some type of store bought sauce, or tomato sauce, tomato paste or even ketchup (if I’m in a hurry). Lots of the packaged crusts, come with their own sauce. Or you could make your own.

Here is a recipe for Romesco sauce that would be good http://www.veganonthego.net/romesco-sauce/

Or Marinara or Pomodoro Sauce are good options. Another recipe from my blog http://www.veganonthego.net/pomodoro-puttanesca-sauce/

You could also make white sauce or a bechamel sauce if you like a different flavour for your pizza. For bechamel sauce just soak some raw cashews in water for few hours, rinse and drain. Pop them in the blender with some nutritional yeast, garlic salt and pepper and a little water. Perfect.

One of the keys with pizza and sauce is lots of flavour. The sauce is the foundation of your flavour profile for your pizza; choose a sauce that you like. The key is not too much sauce and not too little sauce. Its gotta be enough that your pizza will have good flavour and not too much that your ingredients are overwhelmed by the sauce or it makes your base too slippery to hold the ingredients.

I like to add some chilli pepper flakes to my sauce whatever type it is, because I like my pizza to have a bit of a kick and some heat. Extra oregano or fresh basil would be other options to bump up the flavours on your pizza sauce. Really there are no rules in pizza, just guidelines.

Pizza Toppings

The last component is where the real fun begins, because there are so many choices! If you think it would make a good topping or an interesting topping, give it a try. If you’re not too sure, use it on only a portion of your pizza or make a small pizza to try it out. Or just do what I do, put it on and see what happens.

Below is a list that could be really endless. This list contains toppings that I’ve tried and liked and they work for me but experimenting is really what makes pizza fun. Try different combinations of crust, sauce and ingredients. The options are literally endless. If you find something you like, write that combo down so you can make it again.

Onion, any kind, cooked, raw, cooked in the oven, sauteed/charred and placed on top when pizza is done

Vegan cheese, of course you can have pizza without any type of cheese and that can be really delicious. There are lots of brand name cheeses on the market these days and they just keep getting better and of course you can make your own.

Spinach, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms (sauteed or raw), olives (green or black), artichoke hearts, garlic, corn, leftover veggies, eggplant, spinach, chard, kale (sauteed in a bit of oil and a pinch of salt and added on to the cooked pizza mmmm), tomatoes, asparagus (one of our favourites), bean sprouts, chickpeas, edamame, cabbage….really anything

Fake vegan meats including pizza pepperoni, vegan round, salami vegan style, sausage, veggie or tofu dogs, ‘chickin”strips, facon (fake bacon). Non vegan, vegans in transition and some hard core vegans would like these.

Tips on making great pizza’s

These are tips from years of making and eating pizza! I am a bit of an expert in that way. My first job after babysitting was working in a pizza restaurant, oh what fun we had there! Pizza has always been in my life and always will be. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way….

Crust needs to be crisp and golden in colour on the outside, no matter what type of crust it is. That means sometimes you might partially cook the crust to be sure you’ll won’t have a soggy crust. Buns and bread usually need to be toasted and then you add your sauce. When making the gluten free crust (cauliflower or zucchini) be sure its golden on both sides before you add the toppings. A soggy crust can ruin a pizza.

Speaking of soggy, the order of your ingredients and whether you add them raw or partially cooked has a lot to do with moisture in your pizza. Not too much, not too little. Just right. I usually put my sauce and extra spices first. Next comes my finely diced onions and peppers. Next a little bit of shredded cheese. Just to have a bit at the base of your pizza, but not too much.

Next I’ll add a good layer of chopped spinach covering the pizza well. Ok, now olives, pineapple, mushroom and tomatoes, things that are a bit more moist at the top. Add on more cheese and sometimes I’ll add parmesan on top of the tomatoes too.

Pop your pizza in a hot oven 425° directly on the oven rack. I’ll use my convection oven on Speed Bake if I have a lot of ingredients. I want to be sure the heat is even and the pizza is cooking in a surround sound kind of way. I want the inside and the outside to be cooked and ready at the same time.

You may need to finish with 2-3 minutes on broil to get the cheese really melted and the ingredients nicely cooked. I’ll put the oven on broil and move my pizza up to a higher rack. Ya gotta keep your eyes on it now, it can cook and burn fast. You can go from perfection to disaster in a few seconds and things get burnt or too dry. Let it broil until the cheese starts to bubble and you get a bit more colour on the top. Now its ready to take out of the oven.

Let it sit for a couple minutes before cutting. Feel free to add any cooked or additional raw ingredients at this time to finish your pizza. I love extras like cashew cream ribbons on raw pizza, sprouts, sauteed mushrooms, fresh greens, cilantro, fresh basil, vegan parmesan cheese, chilli flakes, pine nuts…remember there are no rules in pizza!

A good pizza cutter is essential to get a good cut. You can probably find one at your local thrift store or supermarket. If you don’t have a pizza cutter, you can use a clever type knife or a chef’s knife. you need something you can cut through quickly and right to the bottom in one cut. Serve and enjoy!

Pizza party!

If you are having kids or a lot of people over for dinner and you want everyone to enjoy what they are eating, have a make your own pizza, PIZZA Party! Its really fun to get everyone to make their own pizza and they get to choose from maybe two types of crusts, one or two sauces, different cooked and uncooked ingredients, two types of cheese and vegan parmesan to finish….everyone is happy.

This is where I might use pita pockets and some type of gluten free flat bread for the crusts. I’d put lots of prepped ingredients in bowls for people to choose from. To speed up the cooking process, use two oven racks with a big cookie sheet – 2-3 pizza’s at a time. Remember to move the racks around and adjust, take out some early as they will cook at different speeds. This is a great party and really livens up a get together!

Pizza is a universal language. Almost anyone can find a crust, a sauce, some ingredients that they would enjoy. Some will be very minimalist in their approach, others will pile so much you wonder how if will cook. That’s the fun of the pizza party and oh ya, did I mention….there are no rules in pizza!