Vegan Pizza

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Being vegan is getting easier the more time goes by. I am finding out that Mexican is really easy to do vegan and even went to an amazing vegan restaurant this weekend with some other 1-month vegan friends. The restaurant was called Dao Palate. The dinners were great but I was even more impressed with my soy cheesecake!

During the day I do a lot of different kinds of salads with vegan leftovers. One of my favorites is a cucumber, tomato, and onion salad. It is just those ingredients and a little salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar. It is very tasty! The salads are good, but not very challenging or as exciting to blog about. This week I make vegan comfort food in the form of pizza…..twice.


The first pizza is something my mom always made when we were kids, Greek Pizza. It is just some pita, with humus instead of sauce, and lots of veggies on top. It was very good with Rich's homemade hummus. The ingredients are below.


Rich's Hummus
2 cup of chick peas soaked overnight
4-6 tbsp of tahini
4 lemons squeezed
1 head garlic
salt, pepper, cayenne, and Hungarian paprika for seasoning

Method: 1. Soak the chickpeas overnight. 2. Empty old water and bring chickpeas to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Keep them on simmer about 1-11/2 hours until the chickpeas can easily squish in your hand. 3. Save the water that you simmered the chickpeas in. This is really important, we found that our hummus comes out much better with this water. 4. Drain the chickpeas and let them cool (save about 2 cups of this liquid, let this cool as well). 5. When the chickpeas have cooled put them in a blender with the tahini, lemon, and minced garlic. 6. Add the liquid until you achieve the desired consistency. Remember, your hummus will thicken up once it goes into the fridge, so don't be afraid to make it a little more liquidy then you would like it. 7. Add spices to desired taste.

Greek Pizza Recipe

4 pieces of vegan pita
Fresh hummus (see recipe above)
1 small onion
2 medium tomatos
5 olives
Artichoke hearts
1 Avocado
Hungarian Paprika to spice.

Method
1. Put the hummus onto the pita like you would pizza sauce on dough, covering most of the pita but leaving a little room on the sides. 2. Chop up and grill onion. 3. Divide the chopped onion, tomatoes, olives, and artichoke hearts evenly among the 4 pitas. 4. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. 5. Cut up some avocado into small cubes and place it on top of the pizza. 6. Sprinkle a little Hungarian Paprika on top.


We also made a fabulous regular vegan pizza based on the ones we used to love at Whole Foods. For years I hated any kind of vegan cheese. I thought they always had a nasty aftertaste. Then I tried the vegan pizza at Whole Foods. I really liked the cheese and started buying it. It is by a company called daiya . It is not very good plain, but cooked it actually tastes like cheese. The pizza tasted just as good as the one we used to get at Whole Foods and we both enjoyed it immensely!

Soy Cheese Pizza Ingredients
1 vegan pizza dough (most pizza dough is vegan, just ask to be sure)
1/2 jar of pizza sauce
1/2 package daiya mozzarella
10-12 mushrooms
1 onion grilled
4 cloves of garlic
Onion powder, dried oregano, thyme, and pepper to spice.


Method
1. Spread out the pizza dough on a greased cookie sheet or pizza stone. 2. Liberally pour the sauce on the pizza. 3. Mince garlic and mix into the sauce. 4. Add vegan cheese. 5. Add chopped, grilled onion and all of the other chopped veggies. 6. Sprinkle onion powder, dried herbs, salt and pepper on the pizza. 7. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.