VEGAN PIZZA

Hey everyone! I haven't made a recipe post in way too long so thanks for staying tuned.  I've been working on my cooking at home,  trying to expand my social network and checking out other awesome vegan blogs in my spare time.  Its been way too hot to cool here the last couple days so it's obviously summer salad season.  I usually just live off of salads,  sandwiches and wraps in the summer time.  Its a nice change from lots of the complicated meals that us health freaks like to cool or bake.  I can definitely embrace a raw diet in the summer time.  For those of you that are raw during the winter,  that is impressive. Maybe it's being brought up in Canada but I need my hot seitan roast and home made stuffing.  ANYWAYS getting off topic here a little.  June 28th was National Vegan Pizza Day so I figured I'd celebrate by posting my vegan pizza recipe. Vegan pizza is the easiest meal to feed to meat eaters and have them not even notice.  My whole family will eat vegan pizza with me as long as I make it! Ha. If you're looking to help your family explore their animal free roots,  do a pizza night :) I promise they will not be disappointed!!  

Pizza is great because you can put virtually anything on it and as long as it's covered in tomato sauce and dosed with daiya people will love it.  Plus if you're picky you can make it exactly to your liking.  My favourites are toppings are bell peppers, mushrooms, stuffed olives and artichoke hearts.  Add some spinach or kale and you've got yourself the perfect pizza.  If that's not to your liking you could try pretty much any vegetable.  Some of my other faves are corn,  broccoli,  tofurky sausage or veggie chorizo.  Veggie pizzas are great but those tofurky faux meats are the bomb! Now field roast is back in Canada so you can use those too.  They are my favourite,  I am so happy to have them back.  If you haven't put those on a pizza yet, please do so now.  For your own sake.  Here's my dough recipe.  Enjoy! 

Dough recipe  

3 cups unbleached white flour or caputo flour (link attached if your interested)

1 packet instant yeast = to 2 1/4 teaspoons 

Dash of salt 

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon olive oil 

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pepper

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning 

Get one cup warm water in a measuring cup and add a dash of salt and stir.  Make sure it's not too warm or it'll kill the yeast.  It just has to be room temperature. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let stand for ten minutes.  In a large bowl  add your flour and spices.  Stir well. Make a well in the middle and add your yeast and olive oil. Mix together with a fork  until a dough begins to form then start to use your hands.  Knead for 10 minutes.  Add one teaspoon of olive to your bowl and rub it around the sides and on your dough.  This make sit so your dough doesn't stick.  Place a clean kitchen cloth over the bowl and let rise on the counter for an hour.  

This gives you the perfect amount of time to cut up all your veggies, oil your pan  and get ready to roll your dough out.  This is  usually how much I cut up for one large pizza. 

Veggie recipe

1 can tomato paste 

Half a white onion,  diced

3 cloves garlic,  diced 

5 mushrooms, sliced 

10 olives,  sliced

Handful of pickled artichoke hearts, diced 

Half a pack of tofurky chorizo or 2 tofurky sausages OR field roast vegan sausages 

Handful of fresh spinach

One bell pepper,  diced 

1/2 cup of daiya cheese (I usually use pepper jack) or vegan gourmet cheese (which is really good but so hard to find in Campbell River!)  *links attached

Once your dough has risen for an hour you need to preheat your oven to 400. Take your bowl and remove your dough  into a lightly floured surface on your counter.  Begin to Knead the dough for 10 to 15 minutes.  Adding flour as needed.  Once it's nice and soft and easy to work with begin to roll it out with your rolling pin.  Start from the middle  pushing out to create a disk shape.  Rotate the dough and flip it over  periodically to create the pizza shape for your dough.  Keep pushing out further each time to make the circle bigger and bigger. Keep rotating the dough to keep the shape uniform. Once the dough is big and round like a pizza you can begin to bend the edges in and pinch the with a fork to create your crust.  Stuff it with vegan cheese if you want! Once you have a dough completely around the edge of your pizza you'll need to to bake it for 5 minutes.  This allows the dough to cook thoroughly because veggies don't take nearly as long. Place it on an oiled round  pan and place in oven. Once you take it out your ready for the tomato paste.  Spread it around with a spoon and cover the whole dough.  Add your toppings  veggie,  meat then cheese.  Place as much as you'd like. Using a pizza paddle,  a spatula or your hands place the pizza on your oiled round  pizza pan.  Place  in the oven for 15 minutes. 

Take your pizza out and allow to cool for 10 minutes before you serve.  Slice evenly with a pizza knife and eat!

Thats just a few photos from my vegan pizza gallery :) 

Check out my vegan calzone recipe as well!  *link attached

I hope you had an awesome vegan pizza day and enjoy this recipe. Its so easy to make the hardest part is waiting for the dough to rise! I would love if everyone would tweet me @theherrrbivore and send me your summer salads with the #hastag #summersalads 

Thanks everyone for all your support on my blog and your commitment to a cruelty free lifestyle! Kudos to you! 

VEGAN CALZONES

VEGAN CALZONES

Veganmofo month has come to an end and I loved it! I can definitely say I will be doing it next year and I will be getting much more detailed in my posts! I got 800 views just in the month of September so thanks to everyone who liked or shared my blog :) Calzones are so expensive to buy and so easy to make! I bought a new kind of flour that has made my pizza crust 10x better. Its called caputo flour. A local vegan friendly pizza restaurant, FAMOSO here uses it and they are the best pizzas you can get in Victoria! Really authentic italian. Here's a picture of the store bought kind I got

Its much lighter and fluffier. Alot easier to knead the dough. Its really good for throwing in the air to thin it too. I highly recommend trying this pizza dough if you're really into baking like me:)  Here's my recipe for Vegan Calzones. I hope you enjoy them!

RECIPE

makes 2 calzones

Dough:
3 cups flour
1 cup warm water
1 package instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
handful of fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons rosemary
1 1/2 garlic powder
1 tablespoon olive oil



Filling:
Old newmans honey garlic barbecue sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 purple onion, diced
6 manzanilla olives, sliced
1 can of corn, drained
handful of artichoke hearts, chopped
1/2 orange pepper, diced
1/2 package of yves ground chicken
Your choice of vegan cheese

Me and my boyfriend got to try this new kind it rules!!!

STEPS

Preheat your oven to 400 F

Get one cup of warm water in a measuring cup and sprinkle your yeast on top. Be careful to make sure your water isn't too warm or it'll kill your yeast. Let the yeast stand in water for 10 minutes.

While your yeast is mixing you can combine all your dry ingredients in a large bowl for your dough. Mix together well and create a well in the middle. Add your yeast water mixture and your olive oil and begin to mix together to form dough. Once your dough is formed begin to knead fro 10 minutes. The longer you knead your dough the better. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. 

While your dough is rising you can prepare all your vegetables. My boyfriend and I made ours with bbq sauce but this recipe would work great with tomato paste! The nice thing about calzones is you can put anything you want inside!

Fry your chicken for 5 minutes before you put them into your calzone. I added a couple drops of liquid smoke to make mine even better. 

Once your dough has risen for 30 minutes it should be about double in size. If its not let it rise longer! Knead your dough for ten minutes and split into two equal halves. 

Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface, nice and thin. It should be about a 1/4 inch thick. Its easier to make the calzones if you roll your dough into a rectangle rather than a circle. Once you've reached your desired size you can begin to add your toppings starting with the sauce and ending with the cheese. Add your toppings to one side of your dough so you can fold it over and seal it. 

Press the sides with a fork to seal your 

calzone completely. Place on a lightly oiled pan. Rub oil on the outside so the top browns and pop it in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes:) I broiled mine for 5 minutes at the end to make the top perfect.