Beginnings – Vegan Pizza

A staple of our childhood play dates was, not surprisingly, pizza. In the past year we’ve made a few vegan attempts, and in celebration of our first big meal after moving in together, we decided to try a new recipe.

We used Clean Green Simple’s recipe, both excited by the always interesting challenge of making a vegan “cheese”. Her version is gluten free, but as Robin and I are only gluten-sensitive (not celiac), we decided to just use spelt flour. We made a few other alterations, as you’ll see!

The toppings we used: 

1 bell pepper, chopped into strips

1/3 cup canned corn

About 3/4 can of black beans, rinsed

For the Dough:

1 package (.25 oz.) active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (but not hot)

1 cup light spelt flour

1 1/4 cups brown rice flour

2 tbsp ground flaxseed

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. dried italian herb mix

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 tbsp. agave nectar

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Directions: In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. It should turn white and kind of “foamy”. In a seperate, larger bowl, combine the spelt and brown rice flour, flax, herbs & spices. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture, along with the rest of the liquid ingredients. Stir well until the dough is formed, make sure to scrape down the sides. Cover with a moist towel. While this rises, you can prepare the sauce and the “cheese”.

For the Sauce:

1 (8 0z.) can of crushed tomatoes

1 tsp. dried italian herb mix

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp. salt

Around 1 1/2 tsp. of minced garlic

Directions: Combine in a small bowl.

1 1/2 cup of fortified almond milk (nondairy milk, or water)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes

1/4 cup brown rice flour

2 tbsp. sesame tahini

2 tbsp. cornstarch

2 tsp. lemon juice

2 tbsp. of finely chopped onions

1/2 tsp. minced garlic

3/4 tsp. salt.

Directions: 

Using a blender, process all the ingredients together until smooth. Transfer to a small pot or saucepan and cook over medium high heat, stirring almost constantly with a whisk until thick and smooth. Our stovetop is a bit temper mental, and tends to be a bit hotter than you would expect. As a result our cheese turned out a fair bit thicker than it appears Clean Green Simple‘s did. Robin and I didn’t mind though, I’d rather have a thick cheese substitute than a watery one!

This was our prep pre-cheese-cook.

The dough at this point had risen quite nicely, and proved to be good to work with!

At this point, we spread the dough out on a baking sheet that was greased with a bit of sunflower oil. It was easy to roll out and had nice stretch to it, no tears here! We put it under the broiler for about 5 minutes, but again, our oven is… a bit funky to say the least, Clean Green Simple uses a different method with different timing. Once this is done, we removed the crust from the oven an topped with the sauce (which smells heavenly).

Next we spread the cheese and put a liberal sprinkling of each of the toppings we selected. The pizza headed back into the oven and Robin and I impatiently waited the 10 or so minutes that we left it to broil. You’ll want to leave it until the edges of the crust and cheese start to brown a little bit.

Voila! A tasty treat. Served up nicely into a ton of little squares. We got to package a lot of it up for our lunches during the week, which is always an added bonus from a great meal.

Ice Breaker

Once upon a time there were two girls. They met in the pool, and bonded over food and plenty of giggles in Ottawa. At a young age, with bodies they had yet to grow in to, they took this photo:

Almost 10 years later, they have both returned to Ottawa and entered into the same university program, and moved in together. Fine Art Majors with a compulsion to be in the kitchen.

Over the years we have found that our life lines are very much on the same path, spiritually, mentally and physically. We have always shared a passion for food – most of the best memories we share together are over tasty dishes or at least the food coma afterwards from eating the whole delectable dish rather than just the suggested portion. We’ve always had petulant bodies, which have reacted and rebelled against us all our life. It wasn’t until the connection was made with the foods we ate that we really began our individual quests to find a balance of health and being excited about the food we are making and eating. We didn’t want to sacrifice our health to eat the foods we had found a link to our health issues but we also didn’t want to sacrifice that yummy factor we love so much about food! Since then it has moved forward to being much more than just a quest for the proper food balance, it has become a way of life. Both of us have cut out dairy, most our recipes are also gluten free and vegan.

Our idea of a good time is a night in cruising recipe and lifestyle blogs, and experimenting in the kitchen. We want to share our creations, much like the sites we love so much have done! You can see some of our favourites over on the right.

Love,

Katie and Robin