Sunday, July 12, 2009

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!!



8 comments:

The Voracious Vegan said...

What a talented daughter you have. Her pizza looks delicious, you are lucky to be the taste testers of all of her experiments. Yummy!

Rose said...

Wow, a veggie cookbook written by your daughter! That sounds like such a great project to pursue. I wish her luck!

Maida said...

That's a great tip about stacking and freezing the cheese slices. Thanks! I'd never thought about that before.

Amazing-- the pizza looks like it came from a pizza parlor. Maybe when she's done writing her cookbook, she can open a vegan cafe!

Bianca said...

I'm gonna have to try Olivia cheese method. It sounds genius, and by the looks of that slice, it works really well. The vegan teen cookbook is also a great idea! Good luck Olivia!

T said...

I love that idea- that's what vegan cooking is all about, creativity!

And you know, I think a good teen-vegan cookbook is a great idea. Some of my younger relatives have started to go vegetarian and are having a lot of trouble finding cookbooks that aren't for gourmets or big families.

Very cool!

Anonymous said...

How cool would a vegan teen cookbook be?! Kudos to your daughter for being so ambitious and good luck to her!

Courtney

Lydia said...

I adore your daughter's Veggie Barbie and Carnivore Ken blog and I really must make this pizza when I can! Lately I've been missing pizza with cheese...

Erin said...

That's a great tip to freeze the cheese before shredding, thanks!