vegan pizza with homemade crust and cashew cheese

oh man, i discovered i still have my pizza making skills. whipped up some pizzas with my cousin in eugene, which is pleasing to all, even the flesh-lovers. 

i don’t like writing out recipes. developing one’s relationship with food is an intimate process that requires the heart and feeling out what is going to work, what is going to please yourself. yes, you will fail. but you will also succeed in ways you can’t imagine. you will be able to take whatever you have at hand and turn it into something that fills you with joy to eat. you will find pleasure in grocery shopping. at least, i hope you will. going to the market is one of my very favorite activities. 

i decided that this instruction needs a video. however, maybe some brave souls will give it a whirl in the meantime. 

vegan pizza and purple cabbage

crust

takes one hour to three hours, depending in you. 

proof the yeast. put a package of active dry yeast (2-3 TBS) in maybe a cup of some water that is warm but doesn’t burn your hand (wouldn’t want to kill the yeast). wait ten minutes. i do this in my large dough mixing bowl because i dislike dishes. 

add some flour, maybe 2 or more cups. use some cool, local, non treated or bleached or crapped on stuff. the better the flour, the better your dough. add some honey or other kind of sugar. add some oil, maybe olive. add some salt. add some herbs from your garden or pantry. add some sun dried tomatoes or dried fruit if you feel like it.

mix it until it just barely isn’t sticky any more, adding flour or water to adjust. 

coat the bowl in flour as you form your dough into a ball. place a towel over it and put it in a warm place. let it rise for half an hour to longer. i put mine in a heated but off oven and i see it double or triple in half an hour. depending on when i want to eat, i let it go longer or not. then punch it, knead it a little bit, and put it back, flouring or oiling the bowl again. cover it, put it back, and wait, half an hour or more. 

now it’s ready to throw. make sure to put cornmeal or flour on the pan before you put down the crust. and make sure to move your oven rack down to the bottom so the crust gets hot and crunchy. 

cashew cheese

soak some cashews. put em in a food processor or blender. add some nutritional yeast (for cheese flavor) salt, lemon, vinegar, oil, herbs, garlic, spices, onion, parsley…..whatever you feel like and have on hand. stop and taste while you make it. you’ll know when it’s good. tahini also makes great cheese. or other nuts.

for this pizza, i spread a dippin sauce with smoked peppers over the crust. then i added dino kale, sun dried tomatoes and mushrooms. then cashew cheese, to protect the kale from burning. or you could add it at the last second. then i added olives and fresh tomatoes. 

IT WAS SO BOMB. 

it took everyone a very long time to make their pizza third, the crust had time to rise when sitting on the pan. this makes such a difference. the crust was crispy and crunchy on the bottom, yet airy and chewy on top. so freaking good. and then i had a pocket of yummy veggies and creamy cashew cheese with some smokey goodness.

i seriously love pizza.

VEGAN PIZZA TIME! 

today’s special: sun dried tomato infused whole wheat crust topped with organic fresh local tomato, katamata olives fresh from the haight street farmers market, grilled artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, crimini mushrooms, lots of garlic, and arugula! topped with mozzarella daiya. which, I have come to the conclusion, is the best tasting vegan cheese brand by a long shot.  also, super super stoked on those tomatoes.  they are the very first local organic ones I have found this year.  summer is a-coming! 

Vegan Panhandle Pizza!  Tried Panhandle Pizza (just north of the panhandle in SF) for the first time today. Not sure why I’ve never been in there and I’ve lived within 5 blocks of it for a year and a half.  For 10 bucks, you can get a personal vegan pizza with two toppings and follow your heart vegan cheese! a lil pricey, but what the hell isn’t in this city. I got artichoke and sun dried tomatos. nom. 
Pop-upView Separately

Vegan Panhandle Pizza! 

Tried Panhandle Pizza (just north of the panhandle in SF) for the first time today. Not sure why I’ve never been in there and I’ve lived within 5 blocks of it for a year and a half. 

For 10 bucks, you can get a personal vegan pizza with two toppings and follow your heart vegan cheese! a lil pricey, but what the hell isn’t in this city. I got artichoke and sun dried tomatos. nom. 

Pizza making is hella addictive. It’s simple, easy, creative, and tasty as hell. It takes me under two hours from start to finished eating to make a pizza. And there is lots of waiting time, so you get to prep for the next step, clean your kitchen and take a smoke break. win win win. and you get pizza. 4 way win. 

To get started, take a packet of yeast (about 2.5 TBS) (I use rapid rise, you could probably use the active kind and just wait longer) and dump it into a cup of warm/tepid water. Let sit ten minutes. 

Then mix 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar, and 2 TBS olive oil. I always add more flour after I mix the water in because the dough is too sticky for me to work with. Then cover it and let sit for 30 minutes, at least. The longer you let it sit the more it develops so it’s easier to stretch out to a nice even thinness, and the more likely it will bubble! I usually just wait 30 minutes because I’m impatient, though. Then turn on the oven! HOT! like 400 or more. I’m really not sure. And make sure one rack is on the very bottom. 

While the dough is doing it’s thing, you get to make up the toppings! Typically, you need a sauce, the “meat” and then cheese. For a sauce, don’t use canned tomato from metal cans. Tomatoes are acidic and when they sit in metal they erode at it and you end up eating it. look it up. If it’s summer, you can make a fresh tomato sauce. If you didn’t think ahead and can your own tomatoes last summer (like me), you can buy marinara sauce in a jar, or, if you are cheap and don’t like to use packaging whenever possible (like me), you can make a white onion sauce. Just sauté onions until they caramelize, and you can add cream, milk, butter, parm, or nothing. I’ve recently started to be more vegan, so I just caramelize the onions in evoo. This is a great place to add your herbs too. Whatever herbs you like—oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, marjoram, dill—whatever! Pesto sauce—even pesto you made from chickweed or nasturtium you foraged in the park—is delish as a sauce too. 

Then prep your “meat.” Kale, spinach, collards, mushrooms, sweet potato fries, yam fries, garlic, more onions, pear, pineapple, olives, pumpkin, broccoli, peas, leeks, fennel..put it in the pizza!!  Just make sure it’s local and seasonal! Or you didn’t have to pay for it yourself. That’s my rule. I don’t really care what I’m eating if I didn’t pay for it (or, at least I care wayyy less). 

Then grate your cheese. I started using this vegan cheese and it actually tastes amazing on pizza, in my opinion. And it’s GMO and soy free. The mozzarella has a really nutty flavor. And it comes shredded. win win win. If you’re using real cheese, I found out that raw cheddar and smoked mozzarella is blissful together. experiment! talk to your cheese counter person!

And now I bet you have time to clean your kitchen and relax while the dough rises. When it’s done, plop it on to a really really well floured surface. You should watch a video on rolling out pizza dough if you’re having trouble. I’m still not that great at it. When your pizza is decently shaped, make sure you put cornmeal on your pan/pizza stone! seriously. do not forget. you will be scraping your pizza out of the pan. not fun.  Then you slather your sauce. Then add the meat, then cheese. Make sure if you’re using greens you get cheese on top of them (especially especially kale) so they don’t burn. They still will a little, but it will be more like kale chips if you do it right.

okay. OVEN TIME!! Place your masterpiece on the bottom rack. this is very important to form a nice crust. Now, wait! I’ve never timed it, but it doesn’t take that long. Your nose will tell you when it starts to get close. Then I keep tapping the crust until I think it’s crunchy enough. 

YAY CONGRATS YOU MADE A PIZZA! Best paired with beer and friends.