It struck me today that I haven’t posted any vegan pizza recipes. What’s striking about this realization is that our family, prior to emabarking on our vegan journey earlier this year, lived and breathed pizza. Seriously. From date night dinners and family get-together dinners to Janik’s room service meal requests on layovers in Hong Kong — pizza was always the common denominator. Pizza is about to take back its rightful ranking on the Lamontagne weekly meal plan on account of these three vegan pizza creations in our test kitchen: Vegan Bruschetta Pizza, Vegan Tomato & Basil Pesto Pizza, and Vegan Three Cheese Pizza.

Our pizza dough recipe is a Thermomix-adapted and inspired version of Jamie Oliver’s recipe featured in his book “jamie’s italy”. This cookbook has been in my small collection since 2006 when Janik gave it to me as a gift for our first Christmas together. This dough is easy to make and tastes authentic. I’m pretty confident once you try this recipe it may be on your ‘essentials’ list.

The inspiration for a bruschetta-style pizza stems from my years of pizza making (albeit in a deli department) during my twenties. Back then it was a production line that entailed smothering a pre-made frozen pizza crust with garlic butter (out of a tub, and anything sourced from a tub scares me, lol) and topping the butter spread with diced tomatoes, chopped red onions and mozzarella cheese. Wrap each pizza up, slap a sticker on it and out to the display counter each pizza would go. Customers sure loved that pizza. Instead of using a base of garlic butter I wanted the gorgeous, sweet, juicy tomatoes to be the ‘hero’ in this recipe. Paired with minced garlic, fresh basil leaves , our savoury parmesan cheese and balsamic glaze the tomatoes are undoubtedly the spotlight in this recipe.

I would love to hear your thoughts if you are able to give this a try~

Enjoy!

Pizza Dough

Preparation
Preheat oven to 450F.
Note: For best results, heat your oven with a pizza stone positioned on a centre rack and use the convection setting. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups luke warm water
• 2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
• 1 Tbsp cane sugar
• White (unbleached) organic flour (800g)
• 1 Tbsp Himalayan pink salt (or similar)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Pinch of Himalayan pink salt (or similar)

Instructions

• 1/Combine water, yeast and sugar in your Thermomix mixing bowl. Blend 2 mins/37C/Speed 2.
• 2/Add flour, salt and oil to the TM bowl. Using the “Bread” setting, knead for 2.5 minutes.
• 3/Transfer dough into a large mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour. Once proofed, divide the dough into the number of sections as required.Note: This recipe yields enough dough for 4 medium-size pizzas (12″ round) or 3 large pizzas (12″ round).
• 4/Turn each section of dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Roll out until each section is a 12″ wide circle (approx. 1/8″ thin).
• 5/Brush a generous amount of olive oil over dough, then lightly sprinkle with salt.
• 6/Bake prepared pizza dough until golden brown (approx. 10-12 minutes).

Vegan Bruschetta Pizza
Note: If you are using a Thermomix to prepare this pizza I recommend preparing items in the sequence shown to minimize cleaning of the mixing blade: Bruschetta Mix first, Parmesan Cheese second, and Balsamic Glaze last. 

Bruschetta Mix
Ingredients

• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 cups diced tomatoes (315g) (I used a combination of heirloom cherry tomatoes and vine-ripened tomatoes for extra sweetness)
• Fresh basil (5g)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Pinch of Himalayan pink salt

Instructions

• 1/Add garlic and basil to your Thermomix mixing bowl. Chop 5 sec/Speed 7. Transfer minced garlic and basil to a large mixing bowl.
• 2/Add remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl with minced garlic and basil. Stir to combine and set aside.

Parmesan Cheese  
Ingredients

• 3/4 cup cashews, raw (110g)
• 1 tsp hemp seeds, raw and unshelled
• 1 tsp Himalayan pink salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp lemon juice, fresh

Instructions

• 1/Place cashews and hemp seeds in the Thermomix mixing bowl. Grind 7 sec/Speed 7.Note: Be careful not to overgrind.
• 2/Add salt and garlic powder to the TM bowl. Using the Turbo setting (1.0 sec) pulse twice.
• 3/Add lemon juice to the TM bowl. Using the Turbo setting( 0.5 sec) plus three times.Transfer the prepared cheese to a small mixing bowl; set aside.

Balsamic Glaze
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp cane sugar

Instructions
Add vinegar and cane sugar to your Thermomix mixing bowl. Cook 5 mins/100C/Speed 1. Set aside to cool.
Note: The mixture should now be reduced to approx. 1/4 cup.

Vegan Bruschetta Pizza Assembly Instructions

• 1/Bake pizza dough until golden brown (see recipe above).
• 2/Spoon prepared bruschetta mix over baked pizza dough. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the bruschetta mixture; gently drizzle balsamic glaze to complete.  Add a pinch of salt (if desired). Serve immediately.

Note: This recipe was made using a Thermomix appliance, however it can easily be adapted using similar food prep tools (e.g. mutli-function processor, immersion blender etc) or using a more traditional stovetop method.

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