Homemade Pizza with Daiya Vegan Cheese

I'm usually slow to jump on the "new product" bandwagon, but I chanced upon some of the new Daiya vegan cheese that everyone's talking about, and decided it was worth satisfying my skepticism. I'm all for having vegan/vegetarian versions of foods, if that's your preference, but I have yet to find a vegan cheese I felt was worth eating, let alone recommending.

I have to say I'm fairly impressed with this new Daiya stuff. Impressed enough to tell you to try it anyway.

Different tastes and textures appeal to different people. I liked it. It was melty and stretchy and gooey and cheesey-tasting enough for me to justify hunting it down again some day.

Since going vegan, I usually just avoid recipes that depend heavily on cheese or poor vegan substitutes. And I really don't feel like I'm deprived of a major food group. But I just might drag out the enchilada recipes or the pizza pans a little more frequently now! (Yes, I'm quick to point out, I can make perfectly delicious enchiladas and pizza without cheese, but even after being vegan for years, I still prefer them cheesy!)

No real "recipe" here, just crust-sauce-veggies-cheese.

Several years ago, I was sent a sourdough starter and it's still providing me with plenty of opportunities for breads, biscuits and, my favorite, pizza dough. I blogged about it way back here... Don't laugh at my misshapen crust, we were feeling rather "free-form" tonight...

Here then, is my mostly-mushroom pizza with cherry tomatoes, red bell peppers and onions from the garden - the sauce too, is some of my famous Crockpot Tomato sauce that I posted just a few weeks ago. Topped off with the new "cheese" and baked at 475° for about 10 min. Pretty awesome and cheesy!! It's definitely worth trying, if you get a chance!

What's Olivia Up To?

My daughter and "middle Sprout" Olivia has inherited my passion for creating good (and good LOOKING) food. (Actually ALL my kids love to cook but this is her recipe).

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Olivia is very seriously pursuing a Vegetarian/Vegan Teen's Cookbook, probably a bit more ambitious than I am!! Stay tuned for that, my sister is a published author and has been giving her lots of "inside" tips and referrals. And as an added benefit, we get to enjoy lots of "experiments" as she plays with different techniques...

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Tonight's "experiment" is actually pizza specifically for her little sister who LOVES LOVES all things hot and spicy. (And the salad is very pretty too, gotta give her credit there! ) Very simple, but thought we'd post, as she has great ideas when it comes to making vegan food as much like traditional recipes as possible. The "cheese" on this pizza turns out GREAT!!

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Spicy Jalapeño Pizza

1 package Pizza Crust from Trader Joes (or make your fave crust here)

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper,

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt (Olivia likes a salty, garlicky crust!)

1 cup of your favorite sauce

2 tbsp. fresh chopped jalapeño

1 cup (or as desired) pickled jalapeño slices

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Olivia's Special Pizza "Cheese" Mix:

FREEZE for 24 hours:

1/2 a block Follow-Your-Heart Vegan Gourmet "Mozzarella" Style Cheese

6 slices Galaxy Foods Rice Slices, PEPPER JACK flavor, unwrapped and frozen (stack together in a "block")

While still frozen VERY hard, quickly shred cheeses. Even the Rice Slices will shred if stacked and frozen. Keep cold until ready to use or it will clump.

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TO MAKE PIZZA:

Unwrap dough and bring to room temp.

On a clean counter, work garlic, salt and cayenne into pizza dough.

Wash your hands VERY WELL! (you don't want hot peppers on your fingers!)

Let dough set another 15 - 20 min.

Spread out on a pizza pan. Using oiled fingers works well here.

Again, wash your hands!!

Mix chopped jalapeño with pizza sauce and spread thinly over dough.

Sprinkle with sliced jalapeños.

Follow directions for crust (on package or per your recipe) and bake until ALMOST done (like 2 min less than full time.)

Remove from oven and IMMEDIATELY sprinkle (as heavy as you want) with the cheese shreds. Turn on broiler, and while you let it heat up, brush crust with olive oil.

Broil under broiler until cheese melts, and remove.

Let set a few minutes so cheese will solidify.

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Eat with a pretty salad!!

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As some of you also know, Olivia also is the author of the very cute VEGGIE BARBIE blog.

Barbie's had several new adventures this summer, check it out!!

Sweet Summer Roadtrips #2

Hoping to keep the last days of summer from slipping from my grasp, I packed up 'Sprouts', towels, jackets and snacks and we headed to the beach. Not that I was chasing sunshine and tan lines... For the uninformed, Washington beaches are raw and beautiful, not known for their tropical breezes or warm, white sand.
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But, sunshine was not needed for this adventure! Even with mist, fog and a freshly storm-washed beach, we had an absolutely wonderful time! Washington's beaches are a favorite destination, but they can often be blissfully deserted as they were today. Just us and the seagulls.
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Neither the water nor wind was as cold as we had expected, and within minutes the girls were soaked waist-high; chasing waves, jumping small swells and racing sandpipers.
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My youngest spent quite a while searching for shells and intensely discussing the lack of them with Shaun.
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Recent storms had pretty much cleaned the beach. Probably not a bad thing, her "treasures" always smell up the car on the drive home...
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Of course, after a long afternoon expending a great deal of energy in the wind and water, small tummies got to thinking about the 2-hour-drive home and the meager stash of snacks we'd already polished off. And Mom started pondering the improbability of finding vegan options at the few beach-themed fish-n-chip tourist traps.
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So we attempted to clean off sand, wrapped ourselves in towels and headed to 'town'.
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Luckily, the first NON sea-life-based eating establishment we discovered was Dugan's Pizza and they happily created an incredible cheese-free pizza overflowing with every imaginable veggie; artichokes, spinach, green and kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes and more - with a delicious sauce and crust that were vegan as well! We didn't even have to settle for the standard vegan salad (though seeing the salads our fellow diners ordered, I would have been equally impressed.)

Relaxed and exhausted, we said good-bye to the beach and headed home, full of pizza and a few more wonderful memories....
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Vegan Pizza again. Yum again.

Omni Question #448484756 that I'm SO TIRED of answering...

"But how can you stand it? I could NEVER go vegan. I'd miss PIZZA way too much."

Yay! Vegan pizza. The stuff rocks! And we're a pizza-loving family, I have to tell you.

OK, so I usually make crust with my sourdough starter, but when I don't have an entire Sunday to devote to pizza-crust baking... I admit, I cheat.

Well, it's not "cheating" so much as a GREAT short-cut!
This crust is from my locally-owned "take and bake" joint. They'll sell me a plain, untopped one of their (vegan) "take-and-bake" crusts, unbaked of course, for just over a buck.

Way cheaper and much faster than I can make myself. And it's right on the way home, so I grab a "real" pizza for the cheese-heads (my kids) and plain crust for myself. Then while their pizza bakes, I'll concoct my own amazing vegan gourmet pizza - "plain" crust it is no longer!

Tonight I layered sundried tomatoes, fresh spinach, fresh sliced tomatoes. Then sprinkled on some of the amazing and quite realistic "Tofu Feta" that I tested for Melody over at MELOMEALS.

After that, some pumpkin seeds in keeping with fall, harvest and because I thought they sounded tasty. Last I topped it all with "cheese" sauce and baked it about 12 minutes.

Who says vegan food has to take a long time?
Who says you have to give up GOOD pizza?

I'm continually perfecting the "ultimate" vegan chees-y sauce. This combination was very quick and easy, AND quite good, set up nice and creamy on the pizza yet didn't dry out or get weird.
But I realize not everyone has umeboshi vinegar or jarred pimentos in their cupboard so it may not be as "quick and easy" for you....

Another Yummy Vegan Cheese Sauce

1/4 cup raw cashews
1 1/2 cups soy milk
2 ounces pimientos (half of a 4 oz. jar)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
2 teaspoons Umeboshi plum vinegar
1/2-1 teaspoon salt

Rinse cashews with hot water while combining the remaining ingredients (except chiles) in a blender.
Add cashews to blender and process on high for 1-2 minutes.
Cook in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick. Drizzle over pizza and bake, or keep in fridge for when you need something "cheesy".

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I'll close with a picture of late-night visitors to our back porch (with the embarrassingly filthy window as you can tell...).

These (there's usually three!) guys are always hoping the cats have left a few crumbs of catfood, but the cats know better!
So off they go to try and pry open the raccoon-proof garbage can lids...

Kid-Friendly Mini-Pizzas

A windy day in March, (see all the downed tree branches in \/ picture below). My oldest is babysitting two little guys here at the house. I'm not sure how much work it is for her, since they happen to be good friends with my Little Sprout and they've been outside all morning....

I told her she had to come up with lunch that all the little munchkins would eat (and like) and she rummaged around my almost empty cupboards and put together these cute mini-pizzas; They have whole wheat English Muffins, spaghetti sauce, Tofutti "mozerella" slices, olives, canned mushrooms (blechh - I had no idea I had a can of those, they look like snails to me! Oh well, the kiddos seemsed to like them!) some mock-chicken stuff and red peppers. All those veggies and weird things and the little guys ate 'em just fine!

I was surprised the 'Tofutti' soy cheese (sorta) melted in the oven - even if it did take a while!!

Not sure I need an exact recipe, but thought I'd post anyway since I was proud of her creativity, and the kids are so dang cute!