Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Gluten Free Vegan Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Pizza may just be the bane of my existence. I love pizza. Before I was vegan, my favorite pizza was Hawaiian pizza. Mmmmm- I love me some pineapple. After I went vegan, I was so happy to discover that my favorite pizza place carried Daiya cheese. I've had many meals of white pizza crust, smothered in Daiya cheese and loaded with pineapple, red onions, and red pepper flakes. DELICIOUS! 

Unfortunately, white pizza dough and non-dairy cheeses aren't the healthiest options. Although I'm not gluten free, I am trying to eat less processed grains and when I saw cauliflower pizza crust roaming around Pinterest, I knew I had to give it a shot. The original recipe had egg as the binder, but I substituted it with a "flax egg" and I found that to be nutty and delicious.


Lately, I've found that I have an obsession with zucchini. It's amazing. So good. I come home from work, chop up a zucchini, steam it, and bask in its awesomeness. It also happens to be phenomenal on pizza. 


I added just a Basic Vegan Pesto to the pizza, added lots of my delicious zucchini, added raw red onions and just a sprinkle of Daiya cheese. So comforting, so good and full of great nutrients from the zucchini, the cauliflower, and hidden spinach in my pesto.


But this recipe made enough pizza dough that I had to make TWO pizzas. Such a terrible thing ;)


So I decided to try my hand at a barbecue pizza. I love barbecue sauce, but haven't had it in awhile because most bbq sauce has honey in it. And honey isn't vegan. I know a lot of my non-vegan family and friends will read this and not understand why I choose to not eat honey. But insects are as much a part of the animal kingdom as cows are. Besides, they are plenty of great substitutes. Try using agave syrup or even maple syrup instead. 



But I didn't want to just make any old bbq sauce, so while I'm looking around the kitchen for inspiration, I see the cute little sweet potatoes I bought. They were only about half the size of normal sweet potatoes. And I am just a sucker for small things. I'm short so whenever I see anything else that's little, I have to love it: mini-muffins, cake-pops, brownie bites and everything else petite and delicious. If you were using a regular size sweet potato, using half would be fine for this Sweet Potato Barbecue Sauce. Adding the sweet potato to the sauce made the sauce super creamy and silky. It was divine.



 To finish off my BBQ Pizza, I topped it with sauteed kale, caramelized red onions, and sweet delicious corn. It was amazing, all the good flavors of a Southern BBQ piled up on a pizza. You could eat the whole thing and feel no guilt.

But the star of the meal was the gluten-free cauliflower pizza crust.



Gluten Free Vegan Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Ingredients

1 Head of Cauliflower
1/2 Cup of Flax Seed Meal, divided 
1/4 Cup of Water
1 TBSP of Olive Oil
1 TBSP of Garlic Powder
1 TBSP of Dried Oregano

 Salt and Pepper

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place a piece of parchment paper on two pans. 

2. Process cauliflower in a high speed blender, like a Vitamix, or in a food processor. Process until the florets have broken down into small, almost flake like pieces. Be careful not to over process or you will turn it into a paste. 

3. In a small bowl, take 1/4 cup of the flax meal and mix the water into it. Let stand for 2-5 minutes until it becomes gooey. 

4. Mix the cauli-flour, 'flax egg', and the remaining ingredients together. 

5. Carefully form two pizza crusts out of your 'dough.' It will try to fall apart on you, so be gentle. Make the crust as thin as you can so it will cook more evenly.

6. Bake the pizzas at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. This seems like a long time, and the very edges might get a little burned, but it really does take this long to cook. 

When adding sauce and toppings, just be gentle and bake for another 10 minutes at most. 
Although this looks like pizza and tastes amazing, the crust does have a tendency to fall apart a bit. No shame or change in flavor by eating it with a fork!


Sunday, May 4, 2014

Roasted Tomatoes Stuffed with Balsamic Chickpeas and Mendocino!

It has been too long since my last blog post. Earlier work hours meant longer days. Trying to squeeze in my workouts became an art. And while I still spent plenty of time in the kitchen, doing much more than posting photos to Instagram was impossible. But within all the busy, I still had time to take a long awaited vacation with my boyfriend for his birthday!

We planned this trip back in January, and I am so glad that we chose Mendocino, Ca. The bed and breakfast we stayed at was adorable and very accommodating of my vegan diet. We spent hours just walking along the cliffs, gazing at the ocean, and hiking in the state parks. It was a fantastic weekend, filled with delicious wine, roaring fires, and more walking than our legs could handle. But of course the best part was the view from our balcony.

While gone, I had a dear friend take care of my patio garden and beautiful fish. Before we left, I made her dinner as a thank you. I was so excited, because I got to cook for a fellow non-meat eater. While my boyfriend enjoys most of my cooking, there's something wonderful about watching a fellow vegetarian or vegan devour your cooking and really love it. I wanted to try something a little fancy, and making these stuffed tomatoes just seemed perfect. I paired them with baked mashed potatoes and it was scrumdidilyumptious!


Roasted Tomatoes Stuffed with Balsamic Chickpeas


Ingredients                                        

1/2 a 15oz can of Chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 Large Tomatoes 
1 Leaf of Kale, chopped
1/4 of a Red Onion, diced
1 Clove of Garlic, miced
2 TBSP of Balsamic Vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Soak chickpeas in a bowl of water for an hour to help soften them. Slice the top off the tomatoes off and set aside. Scoop the guts out of the tomatoes and discard. Wash tomatoes and turn them upside down on a towel to drain.

2. After an hour, drain the chickpeas. Mix the chickpeas with chopped kale, onion, garlic, and balsamic vinegar together.

3. Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and stuff with the chickpea mixture. Really make sure to pack it in there and let it overflow a little.

4. Bake tomatoes at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes. Be careful to check on them, tomatoes will fall apart if baked for too long.

5. Serve with you favorite mashed potato recipe and Enjoy!