Falafel and Garlic Hummus Pizza

Don’t you just love it when a new recipe idea pops into your head, and you realize that you already have every ingredient you need?

Last night, the plan was pizza. Fully loaded falafel pizza. You see, I found myself at a Greek restaurant a little while back with some friends, and after searching the entire menu the only thing I could find that could be veganized was their pizza. (Well, either that or a salad.) So, I asked for a cheeseless pizza, and what I got was an impossibly dry crust scattered with a few slices of tomato and bell pepper. It was not at all the restaurant’s fault, though. I should have gotten creative and asked them to replace the cheese with hummus or baba ganoush. Every experience is a new learning curve!

Needless to say, I’ve been in serious need of some pizza redemption.

All I did for this pizza was take a large whole wheat pita and spread on some basil tomato sauce. Then, I stacked it with layer upon layer of my favorite veggies, topped with some homemade falafels and a drizzle of garlic hummus that I made the other day. Adding hummus to a cheeseless pizza is a fantastic way of giving it that rich, creamy texture.

Here’s the full ingredient list:

• Large whole wheat pita
• Basil tomato sauce
• Sliced up falafel (click here to check out my recipe)
• Garlic hummus (recipe here)
• Mayan sweet onion
• Spinach
• Bell peppers (I sauteed mine in water and soy sauce)
• Tomato slices
• Green beans
• Crushed chili peppers, black pepper, and Cajun spice sprinkled over top

Then, I just put this in a pan with the lid on and let it simmer at low heat on the stove for about 15 minutes. No oven required. When I was ready to eat, I raised the temperature to get the crust all crispy, and that’s all there was to it. Extremely satisfying, oil-free, vegan pizza in no time at all!

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Japanese Corn Pizza!

One of the things that I love to do in Japan is just walk around for hours exploring different areas and shops. Walking down random streets here is such a different experience from in Vancouver and it’s also a great way to become familiar with the neighborhood. After wandering around Hitachi for some hours, I decided to take a break and stop in at an old Japanese diner serving mostly Japanese versions of Western foods. I stuck with my pint of Asahi Dry beer, but my friend ordered a classic dish…corn pizza!

This is very popular in Japan, but it’s such an unusual pizza elsewhere that I thought it deserved its own little blog post. One thing I know for sure is that I’ve never seen it at any pizzeria in Canada! Corn pizza sounds a bit weird, but I’ve tried it in the past before I went vegan and the corn adds a sweetness to the pizza that’s really quite good! I’d choose this over Hawaiian pizza any day.

First Attempt Vegan Pizza…Success!

Yay! I’ve been wanting to try making vegan pizza for a very long time, so I finally got my stuff together last night and went out to get some vegan Daiya mozzarella and other goodies. (portobello mushrooms, onions, peppers…)

I returned to my kitchen, and this is what happened:

…not bad!!

I used my usual dough recipe, except this time I substituted 1/3 of the wheat flour for some millet flour. Good stuff (:

Homemade Cheese Spread (vegan)

If you looked at tonight’s post on lemon curd, you may have noticed that when it was spread on toast, it really resembled something…cheese!!

So, naturally, I made cheese (:

• 1tsp fermented tofu (I tried this for the first time, and in small doses, the smell resembles cheese)
• a pinch of salt
• kelp powder (Gives it a mild flavour. I’m thinking nutritional yeast might work as well.)
•  1/4 cup firm tofu
• 3tbsp of my vegan lemon curd
• a pinch of dried onion
• a pinch of chili powder
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

And then, I mixed them all up with my mortar & pestle to make it into a fine paste (the amount was too small for a food processor).

– Tastes great for things like pizza toast (:  Next, I’m going to try making an actual whole pizza, stand by for photos 😀

By the way, I just found this great site  while I was looking for an explanation of fermented tofu. It lists and explains pretty much every soy product I can think of! Check it out if you’re interested:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Soyprod.html

Super Quick Vegan Pizza!

For dinner tonight, I had a super quick (and healthy) vegan pizza…using my favorite whole grain tortillas (:

On top of the tortilla, I just laid down some salsa, red onions, peppers, oregano, vegan cheese, aaand vegan ham that I just picked up at one of those Taiwanese stores I keep raving about! (I’ll make a separate post on the ham later)

Takes about 10 mins in total