Roasted Broccoli and Sausage Pizza

I was home alone the other night and needed an easy dinner. I really didn't want to cook, didn't want to go get take-out, and didn't want to go to the grocery to rectify the empty fridge. So I poked around and found some week old, floppy broccoli, some vegan Field Roast Apple Sage Sausage, 1/2 cup frozen pizza sauce, and frozen Daiya Italian style vegan cheese. Of course, this means pizza. I was out of flour, but found bread flour which actually worked pretty well for the crust.

For the crust, I used a recipe out of Vegan with a Vengeance. I don't ever follow crust recipes though, just ingredients. Here is what I do. I throw all the dry ingredients into my food processor, then mix the proofed yeast and any other liquids required and drizzle that into the running food processor. Once it comes together, pulse a few more times, then turn out onto floured countertop. Knead a few times, form a ball. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, roll around to oil the ball, cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place for an hour. Punch down, reform into ball (or 2 balls depending on recipe amts), and rest for about 30 minutes.

For the roasted broccoli, place chopped broccoli on a foiled sheet pan. Toss with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast at 375F for about 25-30 min; stirring after 15. In the last 5 minutes, add a clove of pressed garlic. I chopped this more after roasting to make it go better on the pizza.


Here is a pic of the pizza. This picture should teach me not to take food pics while I am on the phone! Every single one was crooked in the same direction that my head was tilted.


The pizza was just pizza sauce, roasted broccoli, 1 chopped Field Roast Apple Sage Sausage, and about a cup of Daiya vegan cheese.

Some Quick Dinners

Sometimes when I download the camera I find that I've taken pics of food that I had forgotten about. That was the case today. These are two quick meals that are old standbys.

Vegan Pizza
On this night we made two different pizzas. One was a pepper, onion, pepperoni (Yves), tomato sauce pizza with Follow Your Heart Mozzarella and the other is a butternut squash and walnut pizza with no sauce (just oilive oil and garlic), topped with Follow Your Heart Mozzarella. The butternut squash was actually leftover filling from the manicotti we made a while back. I found it in the freezer labeled "good for pizza".




Sausage Dogs with Peppers and Onions & Tots
This is a typical summer meal for us but we made it in the middle of winter. We made this on an unusual night when it got up over 60 degrees here (a couple of weeks ago). We got excited that the grill wasn't covered in snow. The sausage is a Field Roast sausage. We sauteed onions and peppers in olive oil till soft and browned and then added a splash of soy sauce. And how could we pass up tater tots!

Quick VP Debate Pizza

Last night we got home at 7 and the debate started at 7 here in Mountain Time so there wasn't any time to cook dinner. We recorded the debate on TiVo to buy ourselves a few minutes to throw dinner together. This is obviously not the most nutritious meal on the planet but it came together very fast which is what we needed.



Tonight we tried using 365 pizza shells:



Sadly, we found them to be a lot like cardboard so I cannot recommend them. But, since I normally make my own dough from scratch it may be an unfair comparison.

Quick Vegan "Meatball" Pizza

1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 sm onion, diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 pkg 365 pizza crust shells
1 can Muir Glen Pizza sauce
1/2 pkg Teese vegan cheese, grated
1/2 pkg Nate's vegan meatballs, broken in half

Place a pizza stone in the oven if you have it. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Saute the peppers and onions in 1 Tbsp olive oil until very soft. Brush the pizza shell with about a tsp olive oil. Spread 1/2 a can of sauce on it. Sprinkle 1/2 of the pepper onion mix over the sauce. Place half of the "meatballs" on the pizza. Top with Teese. Bake for about 10 minutes. Repeat with the remaining 1/2 of the ingredients.

Makes 2 pizzas.

Butternut Squash and Roasted garlic pizza

Last night I made the best vegan pizza ever. It had roasted butternut squash, roasted garlic, carmelized onions, Field Roast Apple Sage vegan sausage, and a tofu ricotta. I'm really sorry I didn't take a picture of this one. It was really good. I'll be making this again and again and again so I see a picture coming in the future. This recipe looks like a lot of work, but you can do it in parts and place various components in the fridge for later use and it comes together nicely.

A recipe of sorts:

Butternut Squash and Roasted garlic pizza

pizza dough (I like the recipes from Vegan with a Vengeance and The Vegan Lunchbox). Or you can use this one.
olive oil
1/2 butternut squash, cut into 1/2 in. cubes
1 head garlic
1 Field Roast Apple Sage Sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 1/2 onion, sliced thinly
Tofu Ricotta (recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance - but I used 1 tsp dried basil instead of fresh)
salt
pepper
sugar

Make tofu ricotta and set in refrigerator for flavors to meld.

Remove papery outside from the head of garlic and slice off the top of the garlic to expose the tops of the garlic cloves (See Lolo's pic from Vegan Yum Yum). Place on a piece of foil. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap the foil tightly around the garlic with the ends meeting at the top of the garlic.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place the butternut squash on a foil (or nonstick foil) lined cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir to coat. Place the foiled garlic head on the cookie sheet too. Cook for about 20 minutes, stir squash,, cook for another 20 minutes or until tender. Remove the squash from the oven and place the garlic back in the oven for about another 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and open foil to cool.

Meanwhile, add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a skillet and heat over med-high heat. Add onions to the pan and add some salt and pepper. Add about a 1/2 tsp of sugar to help with the carmelization. Turn heat down to medium. Stir occasionally (every 4 minutes or so). Cook until light brown and carmelized. This will take about 25 minutes or more.

When garlic is cool, squish out the garlic from the garlic head into a small bowl.

Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat oven to 500 degrees for about an hour before placing the pizza in the oven.

Once the stone is hot, we can assemble the pizza. Roll out the dough till thin. Place on a pizza peel that has been sprinkled with semolina or corn meal. Drizzle with olive oil and spread the oil around with your fingers or a brush. Sprinkle with salt. Rub ALL of the roasted garlic onto the crust. You can leave a few larger pieces for a nice garlicky bite occasionally. Add the caramelized onions. Add the butternut squash. Add the sausage. Then add some tofu ricotta to the top. You can either add it in 2 Tbs sized dollops or, as my husband likes it, just sprinkled over the top (You will have a good bit of the tofu ricotta leftover for some other recipe). Drizzle with olive oil.

Move the pizza to the pizza stone and cook for 8-10 minutes.

Note - you can get Field Roast sausage at some Whole Foods locations (not mine!) or you can order it here. It is really worth ordering it.

Pesto Kale Pizza

Someone on a forum I read wanted to know if they could put kale on a pizza which got me thinking about it. Then Animal Friendly Eric told me about a pizza that he had in LA from Native Foods that had greens and pesto on it. I looked it up on the web and it says "Creamy pesto, grilled veggies, steamed greens, roasted pumpkin seeds, and a balsamic drizzle". Well, I had to try that! So here it goes. This was more time consuming than expected because I forgot to take the frozen pizza dough out of the freezer and had to make a fresh batch, and because I also had to make some pesto. It was really good and we plan to make it again and again and again, esp once the zucchini from the CSA starts pouring in.



Breadmaker Pizza Crust (makes 2)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup warm water (plus more as needed)
2 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 tsp kosher salt

Place ingredients in breadmaker according to manufacturer instructions and set it to Pizza Dough. Meanwhile preheat the pizza stone to 500 degrees. Pull out the dough, punch it down, cut it in half. Place half in an oiled ziploc bag and throw it in the freezer for another day. Roll out the dough some, let it rest for 10 minutes, and then roll it out some more.

I used Peter Berley's Almond Pesto recipe as a base but used all the CSA green garlic, garlic scapes, and added one clove of garlic. The original recipe called for 2 cloves of garlic instead of the mixture below.

Garlic Scape Green Garlic Almond Pesto
1 1/2 cups toasted blanched almonds
3 garlic scapes
4 green garlic bulbs and stems
1 clove garlic
2 cups packed basil leaves (or more)
3/4 to 1 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp water
3 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
salt to taste

Grind the almonds in a food processor. Add the various forms of garlic, lemon juice, water, lemon zest, basil and puree. Add the olive oil gradually. Add salt to taste. Place in a container and cover with a light film of olive oil. Store in the refrigerator.


Pesto Kale Pizza
1 bunch of kale, middle ribs removed, cut, steamed and salted
pesto
2 small zucchini, sliced in 1/4" slices, tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, and grilled in a grill basket
1/4 cup toasted salted pumkin seeds
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
semolina

Preheat pizza stone in a 500 degree oven for about an hour. Roll out the pizza dough and place in on a peel with semolina to prevent sticking. Drizzle with olive oil and brush to coat. Sprinkle with salt. Add some pesto as a base layer. Mix the greens with some pesto and add it to the pizza. Top with zucchini slices and pumkin seeds. Drizzle on some balsamic vinegar. Cook for about 10 minutes.