Another new VBU! blogger to join the ranks – Laura, author of Heavenly Vegan Baking with her post on vegan pizza! Here she is in her own words, “Hi I’m Laura and I have been a vegan for a few months now and I am just beginning to get used to adapting recipes that are vegetarian/creating new recipes to fit in with my new vegan diet. At first it was a challenge, but I’m getting the hang of it and have made some really great recipes and you get them too by visiting my blog. ” Join Laura on her baking adventures through: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest. Welcome Laura!
Yesterday I made some vegan pizzas which were surprisingly good, I use the word surprising because I expected to be fairly upset about the lack of cheese on my pizza. Needless to say, I wasn’t, not all at, this pizza recipe produces some glorious results. I made my own tomato sauce (recipe below) and added lots of fresh vegetables. Sam (my handy side kick) added some pesto and hummus (which I’ve been informed is brilliant when baked) too, which also works really well in combination with the tomato sauce. Make sure you have olive oil in the house before you attempt this though, because I just don’t think you can substitute this with any other oil. This recipe is enough for 2 large pizzas or 4 small ones (the ones in the picture are the small-sized ones). So hungry writing about this, wish I had some pizza left..
Ingredients:
For the base
300g plain flour (can be replaced with strong bread flour/wholemeal flour)
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
For the tomato sauce
150 ml passata (you can use chopped tomatoes but I find the sauce is a little too sweet then, so I prefer passata, and if I want more tomatoes I will add slices of fresh tomato on top of the sauce)
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves (I like it quite garlicky so change it to suit)
For the topping
1 – 2 tsp dried oregano (make sure you sprinkle this on straight after you put on the tomato sauce, I prefer oregano because my Italian friend suggested using it rather than basil, but you can use basil too if you want to)
1 – 3 tsp pesto (if you use this, do not use it in combination with the oregano, it’s not good. Just spread it on after you put on the tomato sauce)
Hummus, lots of hummus (put it on in big dollops, as you can see in the picture, it bakes nicely like this)
Assorted vegetable (I used spinach, pepper, broccoli, mushrooms and sweetcorn because that’s what I happened to have in the house, but you can use anything, the more toppings the better in my opinion)
Method:
- Put the flour into a large bowl and stir in the yeast and salt
- Pour in 200ml warm water and the olive oil and bring together until you have a soft, fairly wet dough.
- Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes until smooth.
- Cover with a tea towel and set aside. If you want the dough to rise set it aside (for 2 hours at the most probably), I didn’t do this as I like thin crust.
- Then make the sauce by mixing together the passata and garlic in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly and when it starts to bubble a little, take it off the heat, season to taste and leave it to stand at room temperature whilst you shape the base.
- (If you have let the dough rise, give it a quick knead, and then) split the dough into 2 – 4 balls depending on whether you want two big pizzas or four small ones.
- On a floured surface, roll out the dough into rounds using a rolling pin. The dough should be very thin as it will rise in the oven.
- Lift the rounds onto two floured baking sheets.
- Heat the oven to 240c/gas mark 8
- Once the oven in on, put a baking tray or another baking sheet in the oven on the top shelf.
- Smooth tomato sauce (and pesto if using) over bases with the back of a spoon.
- Add your toppings, drizzle with a little olive oil and season
- Put one pizza (that is still on its baking sheet) on top of the preheated tray/sheet which is already in the oven.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes until crisp.
- Eat and enjoy!
