Most pizza, whether from a restaurant or grocery story freezer, is neither healthy nor very tasty, IMHO. It fills a caloric need, a hungry stomach, plus it’s something usually everyone will eat. But the oil and fat and salt aren’t appealing; the cheese turns off anyone plant-based. So let’s make our own! Much better, with a whole wheat crust, quick homemade sauce, lots of veggies, and a mozzarella-like pourable cheese that browns right up.
Here’re the recipes for the crust, the sauce, and the cheez. The crust recipes includes the directions for assembling it all into a pizza.
“Mozzarella”
This cheez will taste like mozzarella, and brown in the oven. It's ooey and gooey, perfect for pizza.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cashews
- 4 Tbs tapioca flour
- 1 Tbs nutritional yeast
- 1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 1/3 cup water
Instructions
- Cover the cashews with hot water and soak for 10 minutes.
- Drain the cashews and place in a blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend on high until it becomes a completely smooth liquid, about 2 minutes.
- Pour into a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Continually stir. The cheese will start forming clumps; keep stirring and it will continue clumping until the mixture turns from watery to a thicker melty cheese sauce. This takes about 5 minutes.
- Serve hot or allow to cool. The cheese will get thicker as it cools but will stay in a melty state.
Notes
Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for 2 – 3 days
Pizza!
Equipment
- 1 pizza stone optional
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water 105 degrees F
- 1 Tbs sugar
- 1 Tbs active dry yeast
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 2 – 2 1/2 cups flour I like white whole wheat
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Instructions
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Put a pizza stone in the oven while it preheats for at least 10 minutes.
- Combine warm water, yeast and sugar in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Let sit for 5 minutes, or until it becomes frothy and bubbles form.
- Gently stir in olive oil.
- Add 2 cups of flour and salt and mix with a spatula until a ball begins to form (dough will still be slightly sticky). Add more flour as needed to form a dough ball.
- Transfer to a floured surface and knead into a smooth dough for about five minutes, adding up to ½ cup extra flour if needed.
- On a piece of parchment paper, roll the dough flat into a 12-inch circle.
- Spread pizza sauce on the crust. Add desired vegetables: red onion, mushrooms, green pepper, artichokes. Top with pourable or sliced mozzarella cheez and a sprinkling of herbs like oregano and basil.
- Transfer the pizza to the preheated pizza stone in the oven.
- Bake on the preheated pizza stone for 12-15 minutes, or until the bottom of the crust is golden brown. If the cheez isn't browned, turn on the broiler for a couple of minutes. Watch it carefully!
- Take the stone out of the oven and remove the pizza to a wire rack to cool for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Notes
If you don’t have a pizza stone, a baking pan will be fine.
Use jarred pizza sauce or make your own with this recipe below.
Pizza Sauce
Whisk this up from ingredients in your pantry.
Ingredients
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 15 oz tomato sauce
- 1 Tbs dried oregano
- 1 Tbs Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp sugar
Instructions
- Whisk all ingredients together until smooth.
