Thursday 4 December 2008

pizza

I'm going to a pizza place for a work Christmas function next week, and one of my colleagues was horrified to discover my vegan status. "But what will you eat?!" she asked, very loudly.

There are many pizza options as a vegan. Some caution must be taken, as the pizza base may have been made with egg or dairy, but overall some creativity, like any other time, can result in a delicious vegan meal.


pita bread pizza

My favourite combination is roasted pumpkin, spinach, artichokes and avocado. Sweet potato makes a good substitute for the pumpkin, and D has taken to drizzling balsamic vinegar over the pizza when we make it at home. I prefer using an olive oil, which is especially essential when your pizza has mushrooms or avocado.

pizza

You can combine almost anything you want. If you've never made a pizza at home before, I recommend it highly, it's quick and easy and fun! I always use a store-bought base, or sometimes pita bread.

ingredients
pizza base (if you're buying, check it doesn't contain animal products, sometimes it does)
tomato paste
one or two cloves of garlic (minced)
oregano
olive oil
things that might be delicious, such as mushrooms, pumpkin, sun-dried tomatoes.

method
Spread the tomato paste and the garlic across the pizza base. Shake out oregano and any other appropriate herbs, then layer delicious things. Drizzle with olive oil or balsamic vinegar, and bake on 180C for about 15 minutes.

NOM.

You will need to precook things like pumpkin and potato, anything that takes a very long time to bake. Things that wilt easily, like spinach, can be added for the entire cooking time, for half the cooking time, or raw at the end, depending on what you prefer.

pizza topping combinations I really enjoy
pumpkin, spinach, avocado
sweet potato (sliced thinly), artichoke and pinenuts, with some rosemary
sun-dried tomato, roma tomato, mushrooms, avocado and spinach


Please feel free to comment with your own favourites! Think of it as a service to all pizza-loving vegans.

8 comments:

Little Miss Sunshine said...

Ooo pizza ... this reminds me of the pizza place up in Mundaring ... I saw on their menu the other day and it mentioned they do vegan pizza (read: they have soy cheese!) :D I'm yet to try one though ...

steph said...

Cecilia, I wouldn't get too excited. Little Caesar's is fantastic, and I loved it before I went vegan, but their soya cheese is minichol :o(

nixwilliams said...

when you have avocado on the pizza, do you add it at the end or do you cook it? just curious, because i really don't like hot avocado!

i am planning on making a pizza next week with artichoke hearts, fresh tomato, spinach, pinenuts and some lemon zest. i will try to remember to let you know how it goes!

x said...

I agree with nix, not a fan of warm avo so if I add avo I add it after the pizza has come out of the office.

We found some delicious gf, vegan bases by a company called Healthy Feast (IGA, Macro). I like topping pizza w/ tomato puree, onion, tomatoes, zuch, mushies and sometimes a slice of Tofutti.

One place I order from does a really good anitpasto type topping of tomato, artichoke, pineapple, sundried tomatoes, mushies and more. It's yummo!

Enjoy your Christmas party, we're going to a thai place so I think I should call ahead and see if everything contains shrimp paste!

Miss T said...

That pizza looks great! I should be more adventurous with my toppings; I usually just try to recreate a veggie one with green capsicum, black olives, white onion, red tomato paste and yellow Tofutti. I definitely need to branch out!

steph said...

@nix: I do like warm avocado, so I tend to add it at the beginning, but sometimes I add it at the end with raw spinach leaves.

@mandee: don't forget the fish oil, which is the other tricky thing in thai food!

@miss t: I've found that I'm far more adventurous with my pizza toppings since I first went vego and was sort of compelled to branch out. Pumpkin and spinach was a revelation, and sweet potato is also pretty awesome.

Sophie said...

*finds this post belatedly after skimming your blog to see if I should rec it to my vegetarian sister*

I have recently discovered that roast pumpkin sauteed in soy sauce and brown sugar (or maple syrup) makes a delicious topping (I also add fish sauce but I assume there's a vegan alternative to that, and the important thing is the sugar +salt). Also parcooked potato slices+nuttelex+rosemary.

steph said...

Hey Dr S, you should TOTALLY rec my blog to your sister. :o)

I really want to try potato slices plus rosemary on a pizza, I think that would probably be great.