Monday, April 26, 2010

The Power of Pizza

I always feel like it's a cop out when I make pizza (I like a challenge, vegan mushroon stroganoff? Without using any soy or pre-made products? Bring it on!) But they can be an easy way to eat a variety of veggies, use up odds and ends of things, and make great easy leftovers to bring to school or work the next day.
Finding a vegan pizza dough hasn't been much of a challenge for me, some of the larger grocery stores pre-made pizza doughs, usually found in a bag in the deli section, are vegan. If that doesn't seem to be the case where you live, don't fear. You don't have to spend a ton of time on dough for it to turn out great, as proven time and time again by all the wonderful no-knead dough recipes out there. If even that seems like too much to take on, just put your ingredients on a pita, or some focaccia bread and heat it all up, you don't even really need a cheese-y ingredient to make it all come together. Told you it was easy!

Mexican-Explosion  Pizza



Ingredients:
3 Tbs olive oil
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
1 1/2 Tbs minched garlic
1 bell pepper, sliced, your color of choice, I like yellow or red the best.
2 tsp chili  powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tomato, cubed
1 Tbs sliced jalapenos (I used canned)
1/2 14 oz can black beans (a little less than a cup)
1/2  14 oz can refried breans
1 avocado, cubed and sprinkled with 2 Tbs lime juice and a bit of salt
Pizza dough
Cilantro and red pepper flakes if you roll like that, add when you top the pizza
Other ideas: summer squash or zucchini (saute first,) vegan cheese, seitan

Directions:
  1. Pre-heat your oven according to your pizza doughs instructions
  2. Saute the onion and garlic over medium until translucent
  3. Add the pepper, chili powder, and cumin and continue sauteing until the pepper's soft
  4. Shape your dough, and spread the refried beans on first, top with everything else except the avocados, again, do NOT cook the avocados!
  5. Cook the pizza according to your doughs directions
  6. Let it cool a few minutes and top with avocado before serving.
 

See how easy that was? Perfect for a quick weeknight dinner, and you're eating a really balanced meal even if you just eat the pizza without any salad or sides.

Roasted Veggie and Herb Pizza



Ingredients :
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 medium red onion, sliced
1 small eggplant, cubed, salted, drained and rinsed
3 Tbs minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
(the above makes enough topping for two, to save you from all those half-veggies, but you could pile it all on one if you wanted!)
olive oil
1 tbs dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp fresh rosemary
1 tbs dried chives
1/8 cup sun dried tomatoes (the kind that come in oil)
1/4 cup chickpeas
4 artichoke hearts, chopped
2 Tbs olives, sliced
Herbed pizza dough

Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 f
  2. Toss peppers, onion, garlic and eggplant with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle with salt, spread on one or two lined baking sheets in a thin layer.
  3. Roast veggies stirring every ten minutes for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how spaced out your veggies are. They're done when the eggplant is soft and the edges of the peppers are getting crisp.
  4. Set oven to temperature required for your dough
  5. Shape dough and drizzle with 2-3 tbs olive oil and top with basil, oregano, rosemary and chives, spread into an even coating
  6. Spread roasted veggies, sun dried tomatoes, chickpeas, artichoke hearts and olives on the pizza
  7. Cooking according to the doughs directions.
  8. Enjoy! 

If you find you have too many roasted veggies left over, use them to top salads, or do one of my favorite things and combine them with other leftovers like rice or quinoa and put them in a wrap.

5 comments:

  1. these pizzas look dank - i love how you just piled on the avocados!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Watts! You know how we roll :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Courtney,

    I'm from Germany and found your blog hours ago and I saw your cooking without soy and peanut. Have you an allergy?
    I must admit that I'm not always cooking vegan but IU have allergies too. Mine are soy, peanut and cow milk. So it's really interesting for me how you master you're situation. We're not alone anymore ;)
    Greetings from Germany,
    Lilian

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good to know other people make pizza without cheese...

    ReplyDelete
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