saucy spinach & pepper pizza

For some reason that I can't recall there was a half sized pizza dough in the freezer. Since it is the weekend tomorrow, and we don't need leftovers to take to work for lunch, I decided this was as good a time as any to use up that small bit of dough. Oh how unfortunate, b/c this was a really tasty pizza, and I'd like to eat it again tomorrow for lunch...

Here is what we had on this pizza...

• a faux cheesy sauce
• steamed spinach
• green onions
• roasted red peppers
• capers
• passed the hot pepper flakes at the table, the sauce had nutritional yeast in it so didn't need to pass that...

A delicious combination of flavors. The roasted red peppers were especially delicious. These were from a huge bag of red bells that I bought recently on sale. I roasted a couple for soup the other night and luckily had some leftover to use on tonights pizza. Although I do still have some roasted peppers in the freezer from the farm this summer. I think I"ll be breaking those out for another roasted pepper pizza again soon... We rated this pizza an 8.5.

Spicy Red

Oooooo, spicy!!! I had planned to do pizza one night this week and I had pondered a few different ideas but then when it came time to actually make the pizza we were starved and hadn't prepared any sauces or anything yet so it ended up being a quick turn on the oven and toss whatever we have on the dough kind of pizza. And well, it turned out pretty darn good, we just felt it was a little too spicy. And when K admits that something is too spicy you know it has got to be HOT!

Here is what I put on the store-bought whole wheat pizza dough...

• a little bit of salsa
• chipolte seasoned kidney beans (this is where our heat came from - we used a little too much chipolte, oops!)
• onion
• tomato
• red bell pepper
• avocado (put on the pizza as it came out of the oven)
• No need to pass the hot pepper at the table but we did pass the nutritional yeast

We both rated this an 8. It had great flavor, just a bit too hot. We also felt that more tomato would be good (I only had a rather small tomato to slice up). , I'm not sure which would be better - either more fresh slices or some extra tomato sauce mixed in with the salsa on the base. I also might try this on a different kind of dough next time. With just a scaled down spiciness and more tomato this pizza would be pushing the 9 or even 10 rating (could we really eat it every day? )

spinach

I've been having a love/hate relationship with food throughout my pregnancy. The last month or so my stomach has felt much better but food still tastes just so-so and some things like winter squash, sweet potatos, and some cooking greens are paricularly unappealing. Needless to say this means I have not been particularly creative with pizza (or really any meal) lately. But at least now I have the energy to post our pizza. (I noticed a couple pizza's from November on my camera when I uploaded last night's pics that apparently I completely forgot about.)


Last night's pizza

• homemade whole wheat crust
  
• pesto sauce (from our freezer!)
• onions and mushrooms sauteed in olive oil
  
• spinach
• green bell pepper
• and of course, we passed the nutritional yeast and hot pepper flakes at the table
  

I always love the thought of spinach on pizza and often fall for it when ordering at a pizza place. But of course, especially without any cheese on top of the spinach it always turns crispy and flavorless on a restaurant pizza. We had a pizza like this recently that was very disappointing. To keep my spinach moist and flavorful I saute it just until softened before placing it on the dough. Using frozen spinach would work as well.

This pizza was only so-so, we both rated it a 6. The spinach was great but it just needed a stronger flavor to accompany it. I'm thinking that faux feta would be good or perhaps (for a soy free option) some pickled jalapenos.

'mater overload!

K couldn't resist the pile of beautiful tomatoes from the farm that have been adorning our kitchen counter. So he decided to try taking quercetin, eat 'maters. I wanted to make gazpacho but instead he wanted a pizza with tomatoes. So here is what we had on an herb and garlic crust...

• homemade tomato sauce (with onion, garlic and fresh farm tomatoes)
• eggplant (sliced and browned in a saute pan)
• purple bell pepper sliced in rings
• thick slices of fresh tomatoes
• and of course we passed the nutritional yeast and hot pepper flakes at the table

I rate this one a 9, mostly because the tomatoes tasted so delicious!!! Some arugula and faux feta would have made it the perfect relatively traditional vegan pizza. K doesn't think he can rate it fairly since he gets to eat tomato so rarely and they tasted so good to him.

Peanutty Pizza

I topped a basic wheat dough with a quick and easy homemade Zippy Peanut Sauce, rings of red onion, broccoli florets and slivers of orange bell pepper. It was really tasty! And yes, even with this stir-fry inspired pizza pass the red pepper flakes and nutritional yeast at the table.

Creamy Spinach Flatbread

My last two pizza's had both arugula and potato. K and I fell in love with arugula on pizza when we were biking through Italy. We always saw rucola on the menus and didn't know what it was as the English translation was always "rocket" a term I had never heard. When we finally ordered a pizza with rucola we were thrilled by the nutty taste of the slightly wilted green that I knew as arugula. Now we use it on our own homemade pizza whenever we have some on hand. We were also introduced to potato as a pizza topping on that Italy vacation and have found that we really enjoy that too although not quite as often as arugula. However, as proof that I don't always use these 2 toppings here is an earlier pizza that we really enjoyed.

I started with a homemade creamy spinach sauce on a whole wheat dough and topped that with rings of red pepper and frozen artichoke hearts. And, as always, we passed the hot pepper flakes and nutritional yeast at the table.

Roasted Red Pepper & Taters

About this blog... My husband and I eat homemade vegan pizza at least a couple times a month and decided that it would be nice to keep a log of what we do so we could repeat some of the better combinations (and avoid the less than stellar ones). I haven't decided yet if this will only be a blog of those pizza creations or other vegan culinary adventures. For now, here is today's pizza creation.

Delicious!! A roasted red pepper spread made our pizza even look like a somwhat normal pizza. With K. allergic to tomatoes we can't do the standard pizza sauce. But the roasted red pepper sauce both looked and tasted great on the pizza. We added thinly sliced potatoes, carmelized onions, and, of course, our favorite topping, fresh arugula.