Vegan Pizza

Our digital camera has been on the blink so I haven’t been able to post a food picture in awhile. Now that it is repaired, I’ll start with what we ate for lunch today – vegan pizza! As vegans, we don’t order delivery pizza anymore, but we still can enjoy it with minimal effort. We have a bread machine which makes homemade pizza crust a snap – the purchase was worth it if only for pizza crust! I hesitate to post this as a recipe because pizza is such a versatile food – make the crust, add sauce, and then use whatever veggies you have on hand, and top with a vegan cheese substitute if desired. Here’s what I made today:

Bread Machine Pizza Dough Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 -3/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp natural granulated sugar
• 1 tsp yeast

Pizza Toppings:

• 1 cup pizza sauce, homemade or storebought *
• 2 cups cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 orange bell pepper, sliced into 3/4 inch pieces
• 1/2 block Vegan Gourmet Mozarella-style cheese, shredded (optional) **

Preparation:

Add ingredients to bread machine in order given. Run machine on “pizza dough” or “dough only” setting until done. When dough is ready, preheat conventional oven to 475 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. This will make enough dough for a thick 12-inch crust or a medium-thin 15-inch crust. (15-inch crust is pictured – we like it on the thinner side.) Place rolled dough on a lightly oiled pizza stone or cookie sheet.

Use the back side of a soup spoon to spread pizza sauce on top of crust. Add vegetable toppings and shredded cheese, if using. Bake for 15-18 minutes.

* Pizza sauce is easy to make, and there’s a great recipe in Vegan With a Vengeance. But this time I “cheated” and used a can of Muir Glen organic pizza sauce. I only needed about half the can so I just froze the rest to use next time.

** Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella is the only brand of vegan cheese that I like – and I think it works great melted on a pizza. I do advise to go easier on the cheese than you might have with dairy cheese, as the vegan version has a bit of a stronger flavor. I don’t really taste the cheese on this pizza, but it adds visual appeal and a moistness to the pizza that is lacking when you omit the cheese.

Must Have Vegan Cookbooks

New vegetarians and vegans are often at a loss for what to cook. My biggest recommendation is to get a hold of a good vegan cookbook and just start experimenting! There is a WORLD of amazing recipes out there! I use my cookbooks all the time and am constantly trying new recipes, and it will be a long time before I have managed to try them all! Here is a list of my favorites:

Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson.  This was my very first vegan cookbook and many of my standby recipes are in here. For the most part, each recipe is uncomplicated and ingredients are easy to find. She also has a nice introduction to veganism and a lot of vegan cooking tips throughout the book. My favorite recipes are: Fusilli with Roasted Asparagus, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and Pine Nuts; Fettuccine with Red Lentil Sauce, Curried Lentils with Carrots and Peas, Jerk-Spiced Portobello Mushroom Steaks, and Coconut-Cardamom Rice Pudding. Highly Recommended!

The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein.  I received this as a gift for Christmas this year and I have already used it quite a bit! I can honestly say that I have not tried a recipe yet that I didn’t like! Klein uses authentic recipes from the Mediterranean region that just happen to be vegan, so you won’t find any substitutions like soy cheese or margarine in this book! If she includes a recipe like pesto, which traditionally contains Parmesan cheese, she will find a recipe that is used during Lent or in times of scarcity when people usually forgo the cheese. The ingredients are easy to find for the most part, and she takes advantage of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. My favorite recipes are: Risotto ala Milanese; Capellini with Fondue de Tomatoes; Beans in a Bottle, Tuscan Style; Quick Tuscan-Style Pizza with White Beans, Tomatoes, and Basil; and Cannellini Beans with Sauteed Kale. Very Highly Recommended!

Vive Le Vegan by Dreena Burton.  If you want to have fabulous vegan cookies, this is the book for you! Dreena has the best cookie recipes, hands down! I will never make chocolate chip cookies any other way! The recipes are very easy to follow and utilize a wide variety of whole grains and beans, as well as more natural ingredients, like maple syrup and canola oil rather than sugar and margarine in her cookie recipes. She also includes a helpful and informative section about raising vegan children. She also has another cookbook, The Everyday Vegan, but I only recently purchased it so I’ll review it at a later date. My favorite recipes are: Chickpea Ratatouille, Canellini Bean Yam Hummus, Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies, Fudgy Brownies, and Hazelnut Cardamom Cookies. Highly Recommended, especially for the dessert section!

The Garden of Vegan by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer.  I have to admit, I haven’t made many of the recipes in this book yet! It is a recent purchase, but I decided to include it in my list simply because it is so much fun to read and to look at! The authors include a lengthy introduction and Q&A section, and the design of the book is fun and attractive! I do have a favorite recipe already, and it’s the only one I will mention as of yet: Nana Marg’s Bran Muffin Mix in a Jar and the accompanying Quick Bran Muffins recipe! That is a hit in my house and we make those muffins at least once a week! Recommended (so far)!

Vegan With a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. This is also a recent addition to my vegan cooking library, but so far every recipe has been a hit! It is also a fun cookbook to read with a lot of interesting anecdotes and tid bits along the way. My favorite recipes: Scrambled Tofu, Black-eyed Pea and Quinoa Croquettes with Mushroom Sauce, Lemon Gem Cupcakes, and Blueberry Coffee Cake. Recommended!

Red, White, and Blueberry Tart

Here is another dessert that I made for our 4th of July celebration! This couldn’t have been easier to make, and I won’t post it as a recipe because it isn’t 100% “from scratch.” I used the same pie crust recipe that I use for everything (including the Strawberry Pie below), pre-baked it, and filled it with a pudding made from Mori-Nu Light Silken Extra Firm Tofu and Mori-Nu Mates Vanilla pudding mix. Then I decorated it with fresh raspberries and blueberries (also from our wonderful farmer’s market!). I chilled it for a couple of hours and it firmed up quite nicely and made a tasty treat. I’ve only recently discovered the delicious Mori-Nu pudding mixes, and I love them! The chocolate is delicious on its own, and I am dreaming up all kind of possibilies for the vanilla!

Fresh Strawberry Pie

We got a big crate of strawberries from the Farmer’s market last Tuesday – freshly picked and bursting with flavor! Since very ripe strawberries don’t keep for very long, I decided to make this fresh strawberry pie for the 4th of July festivities! It can be a bit time-consuming to de-stem the berries, but otherwise this pie is incredibly easy to make!

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 pre-baked pie crust (I’ll post a recipe for that later, or just use your own!)
• 8 cups small to medium fresh strawberries, stems removed*
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch

Preparation:

Prepare baked pastry shell, set aside.

Place 1 cup of the strawberries plus 2/3 cup water into a blender, and blend until very smooth. In a medium saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in blended berry mixture. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes without stirring.

Spread a bit of the glaze over bottom and sides of baked pastry shell. Arrange half of the remaining strawberries, stem ends down, in pastry. Spoon half of remaining glaze over strawberries, being careful to coat each one. Arrange remaining strawberries over the first layer, and spoon remaining glaze over berries, again coating each one.

Chill for 1 – 2 hours.** Enjoy!!

*Using small whole berries makes this pie very attractive, yet still manageable to eat. You can use larger strawberries if that’s what you have, just cut them in half first.

*Don’t chill this pie for much longer than 2 hours, as the glaze will begin to become watery and the pie won’t hold together as well. Unfortunately, this isn’t a pie that you can make the night before. You can, however, bake the pie crust and de-stem the berries ahead of time, which will save you lots of time on the day you plan to serve this!