Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Pizza

I love pizza! It is a magical, marvellous, wonderful food, and it can be topped with almost anything your heart desires. And of course if you are a vegan pizza lover, the cookbook Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson is a natural addition to your cookbook shelf. I've just realised that I have made almost every recipe in it, bar two savoury pizzas and the dessert pizzas. I've almost made this whole book! Though I've still got a few photos to share that didn't make it into this round up, you can see almost all the other pizzas I have made from this book here. I will also note that the basic pizza dough recipe from this book is my go to pizza dough. It needs a bit of time to sit, but it is so fast and easy. Also, as far a cheese goes, while I have used Daiya on some of these pizzas, my heart belongs to Follow Your Heart. They are my favourite, they melt well, and they don't have that gloopiness that Daiya sometimes gets.

Asparagus, Tomato, and Pesto Pizza: This pizza speaks of spring! An easy to make zesty pesto topped with mozzarella, tomatoes, and asparagus. The only change I'd make would be to spritz the asparagus with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper before adding them.
Rating: :)



Cheeseburger Pizza: A tomato-garlic sauce base, with cheddar cheese, some homemade burger crumbles, onions, and pickles. With ketchup and mustard for garnish of course. I love the flavours of cheeseburgers, but I love them more on a pizza than on a burger! The burger crumbles are easy to make, using a max of TVP and quinoa as the base. They do call for dried onion soup mix, but it you are like me and can't find any Julie includes a homemade version you can make instead. I also tried out the cornmeal pizza crust for this pizza for a change. It was just as easy to make, but the dough was a bit softer and needed to bake for a bit longer However, the flavour of the crust was fantastic!
Rating: Pizza :), Crumbles :), Base :D



Peanut Barbecue Pizza: Peanut butter and BBQ sauce mixed together to make the pizza sauce? Yes please! This is a lovely combination of flavours, topped with mozzarella, broccoli (which I used instead of green capsicum), onion (I used red instead of yellow), and corn.
Rating: :)



Pub Pizza: I was having a bad day and needed some self care when I made this pizza. And as far as good goes, this is exceptional self care. I used a pre-made base that I bought from the shops to make it easier. Topped with a delicious cheddary cashew cheese sauce, cheddar cheese, crumbled burger (you can make the burger crumbles that I mentioned above, in this case I used some crumbled Neat dry burger mix that I had from the US), red onion, and broccoli. Eat this and you will feel at least a little bit better.
Rating: :D



All-American Barbecue Pizza: I am not sure what makes this all American, but it is tasty. BBQ sauce, mozzarella, red onion, and soy curls, garnished with coriander. The soy curls are Sweet and Smoky Soy Curls, which are lovely. We can't get soy curls here, but I have a very precious stash in my freezer from US trips and friends.
Rating: :)



Eggplant Parmesan Pizza: A classic dish made into a fun pizza. One small eggplant was perfect for a large pizza. I only made half the milk and crumb mixtures for breading the eggplant, and that was plenty. The slices are popped on top of a tomato-garlic sauced and mozzarella sprinkled pizza base, and then garnished with basil. The slices got lovely, golden, and crunchy. This pizza was very filling!
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Our adoption kittens Lil Bob and Lil Jane are ready to go to new homes! Sweet Jane has already found her forever home, and Lil Bob is on the lookout. But in exciting news, their brother was also caught the other day and has joined us at the clinic. He still needs quite a bit of socialisation before he'll be ready. But I'll introduce him in my next post!

2018 Pizza Challenge Part Two

Continuing on with the second half of last year's goal to make pizza once a month!

Meatball Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: I actually made this twice. The first time was not such a success, because I used the Ikea veggie balls and they are just too sweet and not right for this kind of thing. The second time I made it using the Gardein meatballs, and it worked much better! I only made a half quantity of the sauce both times. The first time I tried to get it all on, which ended up making the base (I used a ready made for this attempt) too smooshy. The second time I used just what I needed, so there was some sauce left over, and it worked out better. That time I used the base recipe from the book. Definitely recommend using a meaty meatball and being careful with the sauce!
Rating: :) (second attempt)





Cheeseburger Pizza from Cook The Pantry by Robin Robertson: I really went for some meaty and cheese pizzas last year. I used the pizza dough recipe from the cookbook (it makes enough for two bases, so I froze half for the next time), and it was a super easy dough to make. This recipe uses a cashew cheese sauce on the base, though it could have been a bit thicker. I was worried it was all going to run right off the base! It is topped with some TVP (which I soaked in beef flavoured stock rather than water for more flavour). I also garnished with ketchup, mustard, and gherkin relish.
Rating: :)



BBQ Chickpea Pizza from Cook The Pantry by Robin Robertson: This is a very easy pizza to make. The base is topped with a mix of chickpeas mashed with BBQ sauce, tamari, and mustard (also chiles, but I subbed that with some diced celery). The topping uses two tins of chickpeas, but really you could halve it as it led to an incredibly thick layer. Although not mentioned in the recipe, I topped it with some FYH mozzarella. I'm glad I did because otherwise it would have been a bit samey. I accidentally overcooked the base a bit (in both this recipe and the above one the base is baked for a bit first), but it worked in my favour given the topping was so heavy and a bit sloppy!
Rating: :)



Muffuletta Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: Base, tomato garlic sauce, olive salad and garlic salad. The olive salad is a mix of three different olives, capers, giardiniera (I used some home made one from 1000 Vegan Recipes as all the store bought ones had chillies in them), and herbs. I found it to be a bit too salty, but I didn't have the right mix of olives (not enough green) so I think the kalamata overpowered it a bit. I also used water rather than olive oil, but even so I found it a bit oily overall (even with leaving off the extra olive oil it suggests to garnish!). The pizza needed some freshness. I only made a half recipe of the olive salad so I could use it all up on the pizza, the recipe says it makes a lot so you will have some left over if you make the whole batch. I did add a little bit of my beloved Fenn smoked sesame cheese on the base before adding the rest of the ingredients, so that adding a nice creamy counterpart to the saltiness.
Rating: :|



Meat-Free Lover's Barbecue Pizza from Taste For Life by Animals Australia: The recipe as written makes two pizzas (including the dough), I halved it for one. The pizza is topped with a mix of tomato paste and BBQ sauce, then cheese (in a shocking twist, I used the Daiya blend shreds), hot dogs (I used Field Roast Frankfurters), and red onion. It is also meant to have chopped sun dried tomatoes, but I realised I was out when I went to get them from the fridge. Garnished with some chives for colour, you can also garnish with a herbed sour cream that I did not make. This was a good pizza, I love BBQ pizzas, could have had some pineapple. But that's just me.
Rating: :)



BBQ Pineapple Pizza from Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli: Yes, more BBQ pizza! I skipped the dough recipe in the book (I had made it once before and found it to be kind of runny and sticky) in favour of a pre-made pizza base. I can't get the pre-made dough that the US cookbooks all seem to talk about, and finding vegan pizza bases that are actually good can be tricky as well (WHY ALL THE MILK IN THEM?), but I have found a base that I like now. This is topped with BBQ sauce, BBQ sauce roasted tofu, caramelised onions, and pineapple. No cheese. I knew my base was going to be smaller than the one the book would make, so I just made a half recipe of the BBQ sauce, but still piled on on the toppings! It was a nice combination, especially with the caramelised onions.
Rating: :)



And there endeth the challenge. It was a fun challenge, because I love pizza but I don't make it enough. I got to try a few different recipes for pizza dough as well!

So what does 2019 hold in store for my food blogging challenge? I had a number of thoughts. But then I decided my goal was to have no goal at all. My year hasn't gotten off to the greatest start, so the idea of just being able to go with the flow and not be locked into anything specific is very appealing. But of course I'll still be cooking and eating and blogging!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Pizza Cat!

2018 Pizza Challenge Part One

For 2018, I set myself the challenge of making pizza once a month. This is the first six months of that challenge. Please excuse my inability to take pretty photos of pizzas! They all kind of look the same.

Spinach, Onion, Mushroom, and Sausage Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: This is in the book listed as Pepperoni in the title, rather than sausage, but I took the option to use the sausage crumbles. I made the pizza base, tomato-garlic sauce, and sausage crumbles all from the book. The result was excellent! It also has spinach, mushrooms, red onion, and mozzarella (I used FYH). It all combined perfectly, the cheese melted into the sauce deliciously, this was a fabulous pizza!
Rating: :D



Garlic, Sausage, and Onion Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: Another solid pizza, this uses tomato-garlic pizza sauce and the dough from the book. I took the option of using sliced vegan sausages (Vegie Delights BBQ sausages) rather than the sausage crumbles for this one. It also has onion and garlic on it, as the name would suggest, and more FYH mozzarella. I left off the optional jalapeno.
Rating: :)



Meaty Cheese Pizza from Veganize It by Robin Robertson: This pizza was super! The dough is not as easy as the one from Vegan Pizza, and I found it ended up a bit sticky, but it was still great. This book has options for DIY or store-bought, and I used a mix. I made the pepperoni from the book, and used the Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce as well. But I used some tofurky beef crumbles and FYH mozzarella in place of from scratch recipes. This pizza, as you can imagine, is very filling!
Rating: :D



Pizza with Zucchini, Artichokes, and Soy Mozzarella from The Complete Vegan Cookbook by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler and Mindy Toomay: The pizza dough recipe in this book is a little fiddly, so I made it on the dough setting in my bread maker and it worked great. A very puffy dough! This pizza was topped with artichoke hearts, zucchini (which I sliced into rounds rather than into strips), FYH mozzarella (I love it), garlic, and onion. The recipe gives instructions for grill or oven, I used a pizza stone in my hot oven. It was a bit gooey in the middle, it could have baked for a little longer, but was a nice combination.
Rating: :)



Pizza with Baked Garlic and Grilled Eggplant from The Complete Vegan Cookbook by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler and Mindy Toomay: This pizza was a bit on the bland side, it definitely needed more seasoning. Roasted garlic mashed into a paste forms the 'sauce' for the pizza, and I thing this would have benefited from something added to it. I roasted the eggplant, then finished it off with a quick grill on the George Foreman for the pretty marks. The recipe calls for grilled red and green capsicum, but I ditched that in favour of tomatoes and corn. The recipe encourages experimenting with different vegetables. No cheese on this one, and while I have no problem with cheeseless pizza, I feel that would have helped a bit with the flavour. Or just season things better!
Rating: :|



The Meat Hater's Pizza from Now Vegan by Lynda Stoner: Another meaty and cheesy style pizza. The dough for this ended up being very bready and thick, I prefer a thinner crust. I only made a half recipe of the tomato sauce (using onion powder instead of chopped onion), and it was the right amount of the pizza. The toppings include BBQ sauce, vegan cheese (you know by now what I used!), and a selection of different mock meaty, tofu, tempeh, and mushroom suggestions. I used some sliced Vegie Delight BBQ sausages, chopped Tofurky Smoked slices, diced Japanese Flavoured Tofu, a chopped Fry's schnitzel, and sliced mushrooms. Topped with some sliced tomato. The filling toppings along with the thick crust made for a very filling, heavy, pizza.
Rating: :)



Stay tuned for part two!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Today is seven years since I had to say goodbye to Gizmo. It still hurts, as it should. I miss her so much.

New Year

I am not really into celebrating the new year. It is just a moment of time, and nothing really changes between one day and the next. I am certainly not a fan of staying up until midnight just to watch the clock tick over, that is way past my bed time! But over the past couple of years I have adopted a couple of new year food traditions that I quite enjoy.

New Year's Eve is always pizza and pie night. I make a couple of pizzas, and a sweet pie for dessert. This generally leaves enough for cold pizza for lunch the next day, because I love cold leftover pizza. It is almost better than fresh hot pizza!

Plain Jane Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: This is a simple pizza with tomato sauce, homemade pepperoni crumbles, and FYH mozzarella. The crumbles are a mix of seasoned TVP and quinoa, and come together very fast. Because I am me, I only added the slightest hint of chili to them, giving a nice mild pepperoni (a lot of the vegan pepperoni on the market is a bit too spicy for me). I used Julie's Easy Peasy Pizza Dough, which is the easiest dough ever and what I normally use as my base. This was a good pizza, though was sadly a bit dry the next day if eaten cold.
Rating: Pizza :), Crumbles :)



Green Bean Casserole Pizza from Bake and Destroy by Natalie Slater: I've never really had green bean casserole, so this was a fun way to try it out. I used a half recipe of 'I Love the Dough', also from this book, to make the base. It is not as easy as Julie's recipe, but was relatively simple enough and worked nicely. The topping is a mix of green beans, mushrooms, french fried onions, yoghurt and others. It makes quite a lot, but all fits on the base. I would recommend baking the base a little bit on its own first, as the topping is quite heavy and the centre of my crust was a little soggy. It is topped with more french fried onions. This was also my first time trying the onions, I bought a packet off a US import store. They are OK, though so salty. I prefer Asian-style fried shallots.
Rating: Pizza :), Dough :)



Blackberry Custard Pie from The Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking by Dana Shultz: This pie is filled with a custard mix of cream cheese and silken tofu, that is easy to blend up in the food processor. The crust is simple to make, though softens quickly. I would suggest blind baking the crust a little bit next time, as while the filling set up perfectly the base of the tart was pretty blonde. Even though it is blackberry season here, we couldn't find any at the shops when the time came, so I used frozen blackberries and it was fine. They recommend this pie is best eaten fresh, though can be kept for a couple of days. I would agree, I finished the last piece the following day and it tasted good but structurally was not as pretty.
Rating: :)



After food, I watched a bit of Buffy, then went up to bed with Dim Sim and was asleep by 9.30. I didn't have anywhere to go in the morning (there is no morning yoga class on New Year's Day), so we had a little lie in a snuggle in the morning, before getting up and getting to the serious business of NYD breakfast, which is always pancakes!

Blueberry Chocolate Pancakes and Cashew Maple Butter Cream from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton: I made a few substitutions here. First up, these pancakes were meant to be carob, not chocolate, but I am not a huge carob fan and certainly didn't want to buy a bag of carob powder for a couple of TBS. So I used cocoa powder. The recipe has no sweetener, but does use vanilla soy milk. I only had regular oat milk, so I added a heaping TBS of coconut sugar. I used frozen blueberries in the batter. I found the batter was quite runny, so I might use a bit less liquid last time. I used a 1/4 cup scoop for the pancakes, which worked well. I needed to cover the pan to get them to set through in the middle. These pancakes ended up tasting very nice, they were not particularly sweet but had a deep flavour. Then I made the cream. The cream is a blend of maple butter (I got some just for this), silken tofu, vanilla and nut butter. It was meant to be macadamia butter, but I had cashew. It was delicious. I made a half batch, which was just right for the pancakes. Especially delicious when it was layered between a stack of pancakes, it was quite decadent!
Rating: Pancakes :), Cream :)



I have also adopted the southern US tradition of eating black-eyed peas and greens for dinner on NYD. Not because I think it will bless me with any particular prosperity or luck for the year ahead, but mostly because after pizza, pie, and pancakes, eating some beans and greens sounds pretty good! Normally I have to make up a batch of black-eyed peas from scratch, but our supermarkets have FINALLY been blessed with them in tins, so I don't need to plan ahead so much.

Hottie Black-Eyed Peas & Greens with Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes & Apples from Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: I downsized this recipe a little bit from using two tins of beans to just one. I still used a full bunch of kale, though. Because I reduced the beans, I also reduced the liquid a little bit. Oh yeah, and I left out the hot sauce because nope. So I guess they are Mildy Black-Eyed Peas? I used smoked paprika to get a nice smoky taste to them. They were lovely and savoury, which was nice served with the sweet vegetable mash. This recipe was so easy! I was worried that I would screw up the sweating of the apples and potatoes, either burning them or undercooking them, but it was perfect. I added extra ginger, and didn't add any agave as it was sweet enough.
Rating: Peas & Greens :), Mash :)



I am not one for making resolutions any more. My main goals for the year are to hug Dim Sim a lot, and to make pizza once a month. I feel they are achievable! What did you get up to for New Years?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



The face I woke up to on NYD.

Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Pizza

Vegan Pizza is another great book from Julie Hasson. The first three chapters are full of easy doughs, tasty pizza sauces and meaty-style toppings, before moving on to the pizzas.

An important point to mention is that all these pizzas has stood up to my ultimate pizza test: they all taste great cold straight from the fridge the next day! (Actually, I almost like cold leftover pizza more than fresh hot pizza....).

Tomato-Basil Pizza: This is a simple classic pizza, which is sort of more of a snack pizza than a meal pizza. It is made up of pizza base, Tomato-Garlic Sauce, mozzarella and fresh basil. I went for a side by side cheese comparison - Daiya on the left and Cheezly on the right.
Rating: :)



Valentine's Pizza: Or not valentine, I made this to enjoy all on my own sometime far away from February. The layers are pizza base, sun-dried, tomato and arugula pesto, mozzarella and tomatoes. There was also meant to be red capsicum on it but no way would I ruin a perfectly good dinner with capsicum!
Rating: :)



Corn, Pesto, Zucchini and Tomato Pizza: A fun summer flavours pizza made up of dough, pesto (I cheated and used a bottled one), mozzarella, zucchini, tomato and corn.
Rating: :)



Mushroom, Broccoli, and Sun-Dried Tomato Pizza: This is pretty self-explanatory, though it also has some tomato-garlic sauce, mozzarella and toasted pine nuts as well.
Rating: :)



Pineapple and Jalapeno Pizza: I love pineapple on pizza, and I will not apologise! This is like a Hawaiian pizza, with some delicious sweet and smoky soy curls in place of ham. To be honest next time I would leave off the jalapenos and add sliced black olives, because I like my Hawaiian pizzas trashy.
Rating: :)



Smoky Wild Mushroom and Potato Pizza: This pizza has a great smoky white cheese sauce on the base, which I topped with the optional mozzarella for maximum cheese. Red potatoes and sliced shiitake mushrooms make up the rest. I skipped the truffle oil garnish.
Rating: :)



Sweet Potato and Kale Pizza: Some more smoky white cheese sauce in the mix here, along with baby kale leaves and sweet potatoes. Slice more sweet potatoes that you think you will need as it shrinks down quite a bit.
Rating: :)



Broccoli and Cheddar Pizza: Broccoli and cheese is a classic combination, but this time it is on a pizza. A combination of an amazing cashew cheddar cheese sauce and grated cheddar cheese make this super cheddary.
Rating: :)



Chili Mac Pizza: This says to use 10oz cooked macaroni so I started with 8oz uncooked, though I didn't use it all on the pizza. The macaroni is mixed with a cashew creamy cheese sauce. I used a tin of Amy chili here that I had kicking around in the cupboard.
Rating: :)



Cowboy Pizza: BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese, sweet and smoky soy curls, broccoli, jalapenos and coriander make for a pretty tasty pizza.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



What is better than a pizza party? A basket full of kittens! These are three girls available for adoption at the moment. Mia is the sassy tortie at the front, with Polly next to her, and sweet little Precious peeking over from behind. Love these girls!

New Year shenanigans

Over the last several years, I have embraced life as a New Year Grinch. I like to stay in, watch TV, hug my cats and go to bed way before midnight. Last year I was working on NYE, but got home in time to make pizza. So this year I thought I might make pizza again.

However this year, something surprising happened. I was invited to a New Year's party and I actually went. Because it was with a small group of totally rad people, at someone's house, was going to have vegan hotdogs, and they were totally fine with me leaving early.

We had lots of snacks. Including a bag to Tings I had brought back from the US earlier this year and had been saving for a special occasion. There was also some super garlicky hummus and some tapenade with carrot sticks and breadsticks.



Marion, out hostess, turns out to be a hotdog ninja. Check out these beauties! They had Marion's super special 'slop' on the bottom (onions, mushrooms, BBQ sauce and some other stuff), then a hot dog, kraut and Daiya, melted under the grill, then drizzled all over with sauces. I also love her because when she was making them she said the best words: 'Everyone wants to start with two, right?'. None of this one piddly hot dog business!



Marion also made some awesome desserts. These are cute little caramel tarts - gingerbread cookies made into little shells, filled with caramel and a dollop of Soyatoo.



And she also made these super cute mini-cheesecakes. Peanut butter chocolate and mint and chocolate. Yum!



I had a lovely time, and when I started getting too sleepy I headed home, later than I expected, but I was still home in time to begin the new year with my cats. In fact, this is the first time in many years I have been awake at midnight for new year!

My decision to party was a last minute, so I had already bought all the pizza stuff. I made these on New Year's Day instead.

Scalloped Potato Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: This pizza was amazing! First you layer on some easy to make smoky cheddar sauce, then some grated vegan cheese (I used Follow Your Heart mozzarella), then thinly sliced potatoes. It is pretty much like eating potato bake on a pizza. Just think about about.
Rating: :D



Pepperoni Tempeh Pizza Salad from Salad Samurai by Terry Hope Romero: Instead of making a second pizza, I made this pizza salad. Greens and stuff. This was very satisfying. It involved making a couple of other recipes first - some classic croutons (I used some leftover olive batard for these) and a hemp seed parmesan. Then pepperoni-seasoned tempeh cubes are tossed with greens, olives and a fire-roasted tomato dressing. Yum!
Rating: :)



Group shot!



I hope everyone had a good new year, however you celebrated or slept through it!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Hang on a minute, what is this? THIS IS NOT A CAT! This is Crumpet, Marion's totally sweetheart puppy. She is delightful, and I had some good puppy hug time.



Back on schedule - Marion's kitty Monster is a total delight! So full of purrs and snuggles. He let me rub his tummy! I love him.