Vegan Mexican Pizza

Oh gosh it's been a while since I've posted hasn't it...really sorry! >.<

On a good note, this blog has been the motivation that I intended it to be; to the point that I find myself looking at a recipe and thinking "ohh, this will be awesome to make for my blog." Only thing is, once I cook and enjoy my meal, I don't have the energy to post a blog about it >.< I will revisit those recipes though. Don't worry~

But for today, I have a yummy post that is so easy to make and so easy to customize: pizza!

The main difference between this Mexican pizza and regular pizza seems to be the dough, not needing any time to rise at all.

College-level simplicity. Loving it.

The only thing wasn't easy was having to get the veggies. You know, those things that college students never buy because they seem to go bad so quickly? Yea.

Anywho, my friend Mairead and I were going to go to a local vegan cafe to get pizza but their wait time was ridiculous (I called at 3 to pre order a pizza and they were backed up until 8!) so, we decided to make our own! She pulled out this book called The Vegetarian Gourmet's Easy International Recipes by Bobbie Hinman and flipped to page 76 to find "South-of-the-Border Pizza." Now, this politically incorrectly named pizza was completely vegan except for the cheese part...so I bought some almond cheese. I have to say, the worst part about this pizza was the cheese I used. Next time, I'm going with Daiya Cheese. More expensive, but considering how much I paid for the almond cheese, might as well splurge a little more on actual deliciousness. Also, Mairea

Note: the recipe I'm posting will only make one pizza...though I guess you could make multiple small pizzas if you really wanted to.d opted to use real cheese (since she can actually eat it) so that's why we made two pizzas.

Now this recipe may seem complicated, but it's really not. Just a bit ingredient heavy. Also, I left out the tsp of ground cumin and replaced the tsp of dried oregano with Italian seasoning because I'm a college student with a limited collection of spices. Also, when it came to the toppings, we really just threw a whole bunch of toppings on it...no measurements. Just threw stuff on there.

Mexican Pizza - Yields about 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

Crust:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp water (so particular...)

Sauce:

1 8 oz can of tomato sauce

1/3 cup salsa (spiciness is up to you. I used medium)

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp Italian seasoning (or dried oregano)

1/8 tsp garlic powder

Toppings:

1.5 cups of shredded soy cheese of your choice (mozzarella and/or cheddar works)

half a minced onion

half a very thinly sliced green pepper (my slices were too thick and they weren't soft enough when the pizza was done)

2-3 sliced mushrooms

some freshly chopped spinach

whatever else you want because it's a pizza. just make sure it's thin enough to cook well. if you add meat, like ground turkey, cook it before adding it to pizza.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Lightly oil a 12" pizza pan (or use a cookie sheet).

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine both types of flour, baking powder, and salt and mix well. Add water and mix until all ingredients are moistened. Using your hands, work the dough into a ball. If it's too sticky, flour your hands a bit. Place dough in prepared pan and press to form a crust.

3. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. For the meantime, work on preparing the sauce and toppings. (don't forget to set a timer)

4. Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl, mixing well. Prepare toppings as listed.

5. Once the crust is done baking and out of the oven, spread sauce evenly, staying 1/2 in away from the edge of the crust. Sprinkle the cheese and the toppings heavily over the sauce. If it looks like a ridiculous salad right now, remember that most of the ingredients will shrink while cooking.

6. Bake the topped pizza 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted (since the ingredients are okay raw anyway).

Enjoy! The crust turned out to be quite crunchy in some spots...mmm ^-^