"Almost Raw" Vegan Pizza

I got to spend both weekend days at home this weekend.  I did my cooking for the week this weekend and managed to squeeze in some treats to bring to work Monday.  I made a nice pot of beans from my cranberry beans I grew in the garden this year, a couple batches of raw cookies, a Rosemary Oregano noodle salad using fresh yellow zucchini for the noodles, and some great "almost raw" pizza with recipes from a one of my favorite vegan cookbooks, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw.

The 'almost raw' vegan pizza starts out with raw buckwheat sunflower seed crusts.  I doubled the recipe and made a dozen personal sized crusts.  I blended together some freshly picked tomatoes and herbs into a raw marinara sauce and made a batch herb cashew cheese. For a nice variety of toppings I marinated some of the Shitake mushrooms I dried last week in a little olive oil and tamari, marinated dried tomatoes in olive oil and lemon juice, roasted red bell peppers, and grilled some yellow zucchini and eggplant rounds.  I probably would have been content with the cashew cheese, but my son is very new to plant based food and I thought I should add some Daiya mozzarella cheese to the choices.  It looks more like cheese he's used to seeing for pizza. I especially like that I have the ingredients all ready to just build one this week.

There's a little bit of preparation to each part of this pizza, but once everything is prepped it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days, the crusts a week.  We can stop by the kitchen and build a little pizza for a quick lunch or dinner.

Buckwheat Sunflower Seed Pizza Crust
     The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw, page 212

1 cup buckwheat groats, soaked for at least 1 hour to overnight
1 cup sunflower weeds, soaked at least 1 hour to overnight
3 TB flax seeds, ground
2½ TB fresh herbs such as oregano, parsley, and thyme
1 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 TB nama shoyu or tamari

1.  Drain buckwheat and sunflower seeds, rinse thoroughly, and drain again.

2. Place buckwheat in a food processor fitted with an S blade.  Add sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds, fresh herbs, lemon juice, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, black pepper, and shoyu.  Process on high spread for 20 to 30 seconds or until a chunky but unified batter forms.

3.  Scoop batter onto 2 Teflex-lined dehydrator trays in 8 equal portions.  Flatten with your hands or use the bottom of a slightly oiled glass or plastic container to form circles. Or form dough into 2 larger pizza crusts.  Dehydrate at 110º for 15 to 18 hours, flipping them over midway though and removing Teflex.

The Sun-Dried Tomato Sage Sauce is also from the Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw.  It's on page 143. I am enjoying playing with these recipes.  I've been happy with everything I've made so far and most items have been very easy with maybe one or two directions.  It's mostly blender and dehydrator work.

The cashew cheese is just a basic cheese recipe:  2 cups raw cashews blended and placed in a large glass pitcher or mason jar with plastic wrap and placed in a warm spot in the kitchen overnight.  I chopped some herbs, garlic, and bell pepper and added a dash of sea salt and pepper, mixed it all together with the nut mixture and set it to cool for a couple hours.

Comer Bien

Black Bean Pizza

Michele was talking about a pizza she tried that was really good last week.  She said she blended black beans, salsa, tomatoes for a sauce and used onions and black beans for a topping on  a sliced baguette.  She topped it with pepper jack cheese.  I thought it sounded pretty interesting so I tried one this weekend. I cooked a pot of black and red pinto beans for our meals this week. I drained and pureed about 1 cup of the beans with 1 pint of my tomatoes I canned this summer with about a cup of salsa.  I also added some cumin, oregano, and garlic cloves.

I thought about making my own pizza crust, but with this cold weather, I am not too confident in my dough rising as I'd like it. I used one of those pre-made, whole grain foccacia loaves with the jalapenos and cheddar cheese from the grocery store bakery. That's the only thing that makes this vegetarian and not vegan.  I split it open lengthwise and spread some of the sauce on both sides. On top of the sauce i added caramelized onions, some of the whole black beans, and some sun dried tomatoes I had.  I used daiya mozzarella cheese.  It's a vegan cheese made from tapioca and sprinkled a few red pepper flakes on top. 

I made enough sauce for another sometime this week.  Good thing, this one didn't last too long, it was good. 

Vegetarian Pizza at Grandma's

Monday morning, January 3. Time to get back to work. It's been a nice couple of weeks. Work has been really quiet and this long weekend has been very relaxing. I am looking forward to being busy again though. It's only 5 a.m. and I have our smoothie ready and my lunch packed. Fruit, black eyed peas and greens, and piece of a spice cake I made with some sweet meat squash for lunch, easy.  I think I have enough time to tell you about how our pizza turned out.

When the kids arrived Saturday afternoon I had most of the pizza makings ready. The last time they were here, Eryk wasn't too thrilled with my choice of meal.  I think we had au gratin potatoes and broccoli.  Lots of kids don't like the idea of putting broccoli in their mouths, I get it.  I thought I'd make something more kid familiar for dinner. It worked, he liked our veggie pizza. It was fun making it together too.

We used fresh spinach, caramelized onions, roasted red bell pepper, sun dried tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and some Gimme Lean meatless sausage that I cooked in a little garlic chili oil and added some sage. I made the sauce with home canned tomatoes from our garden and a can of tomato paste blended with some dried basil, oregano, and fresh garlic. For the cheese topping I used a combination of dairy free Almond cheese and organic mozzarella cheese.

Grandpa likes to be the dough maker and he was very entertaining while working.

 It has been a very cold weekend, getting the dough to rise was a challenge.  The crust seemed scary, but it turned out just fine.

Kaylee made her own pizza in a smaller pan after getting some help with the dough.  She chose a few less toppings than I did.  She liked the mushrooms, sausage, and tomatoes.

Kaylee's Pizza

The Tapioca was a hit after dinner too.  After dinner Kaylee said there was a party going on in her stomach. Eryk signed a "thank you" and an "I love you" during dessert. I interpreted that as success.

Vegetarian Pizza

 
In the past it was commonly believed that pizza was not really a healthy food. Part of the reason for this is that it was put in the same group as other fast foods, such as hamburgers and fries. This is a major misconception, as pizza can actually be a highly nutritional meal. There are health benefits to pizza, especially home made where I can control the ingredients.

I made a crust with whole wheat flour. Soy, rice, or bean flour can be used for a gluten free pizza.  I brushed a little olive oil on the crust, spread some tomato paste, sprinkled some toasted garlic and oregano, caramelized onions, chopped tomatoes, fresh zucchini and crookneck squash slices, organic mozzarella cheese and chunks of sesame garlic tempeh marinated in shoyu.  I baked it for about 20 minutes at 425º.  Just omit the cheese for a vegan pizza.

Pizza Crust

1 tablespoon yeast
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon agave
1 tablespoon oil
2½ to 3 cups whole wheat flour
cornmeal

Soften yeast in  2 tablespoons warm water in a large mixing bowl.  In about 5 minutes when the yeast is dissolved, add remaining 1 cup water, salt, agave, oil, and 2 cups flour, mixing until dough can be formed into a ball.  Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead in remaining flour as necessary to make a smooth dough.  Knead for 5 to 10 minutes.

Place dough in an oiled bowl, I used coconut oil.   Turn so that entire surface is greased.  Cover with a cloth, and let rise in a warm spot a minimum of 2 hours or as long as 10 hours.  When you are ready to assemble the pizza, punch down the dough, let rest for 5 to 10 minutes to make handling easier.  Divide dough in half and shape.  Bake on a baking sheet or pizza pan dusted with cornmeal.  This dough can be prepared and frozen for use at a later date.