Spinach & Broccoli White Pizza

I went a little nuts with the pizza dough recipe from Vegan Pizza, which meant Pizza Night twice in one week!  What you see below is actually two batches of the whole wheat version of Julie's dough, where I used 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup unbleached white.  The rest of the recipe is exactly as written in the link above.

The inspiration for this particular pizza came from the leftovers that happened to be in my fridge at the time: One (1) container of Olivia's Organic Baby Spinach, and two (2) small broccoli crowns leftover from when I made Broccoli Mac and Cheese Casserole the night before. AND...for some extra cheesy goodness, I had already sliced open my free sample of Mozzarella Teese from Vida Vegan Con to use on The Rocket Pizza earlier in the week, so I had a good 3/4 of it left!  

I decided on a White Pizza: home made crust topped with a creamy garlic Alfredo base, then topped with lightly sauteed baby spinach, blanched broccoli, and lots of garlic, then finished with some strategically placed mozzarella slices.

Before I began, I preheated a pizza stone in a 500 degree oven. My pizza stone is the large round one from Pampered Chef, and it's best to let it preheat for a good thirty minutes.

For the sauce, I decided to tweak Julie's Smoky White Cheese Sauce recipe a bit, to stand in for the Alfredo on the pizza.  Basically, I omitted the "smoke" and added in 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning.

Cheesy Alfredo Pizza Sauce (adapted from Julie Hasson's Smoky White Cheese Sauce)

1 cup almond milk, unsweetened

1 cup water

1/2 cup raw, unsalted cashews

1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes

2 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp tahini

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp Italian Seasoning

• In a blender, combine all the ingredients and blend well, until no bits of nuts remain.  Sauce should be very smooth.
• Add blended mixture to a sauce pan, and bring to a simmer over medium heat, whisking the whole while.
• Lower heat and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, or until it starts to thicken. Be careful not to burn.  The sauce with thicken more as it cools.

I set the sauce aside to cool while I cooked my greens and rolled out my dough. I quickly blanched my fresh broccoli florets in the microwave covered with a damp paper towel with 2 TBSP of water for about 3-4 minutes. I then sauteed the baby spinach in 1 TBSP of olive oil, 3 cloves minced garlic, and 1 tsp crushed red pepper (pepper can be omitted of your tongue can't take the heat). As the spinach wilted, I added the blanched broccoli to the pan, tossed everything together with salt and pepper to taste, then set aside to cool a bit.

The unbaked pizza

I had enough dough, sauce and toppings for two pizzas. I usually roll my dough out onto parchment paper on top of my cutting board, so I can quickly transfer the pizza and parchment right onto my preheated pizza stone without loosing too much heat from the oven. Once the dough was rolled out, about 1/4" thick, I used about 3/4 cup of sauce on each pizza, then topped each one with half of my garlicky spinach and broccoli. I then sprinkled a bit of nutritional yeast, and placed around 6-8 slices of Mozzarella Teese over top.  Finally, I baked each one in the oven for 11-12 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is golden.

So the next time you are craving something garlicky and green, why don't you give this delicious pizza pie a try ^_^

The Rocket - Margherita with a twist!

The inspiration for this pizza comes from one we had at Providence Coal Fire Pizza. Essentially, it is a Margherita Pizza topped with a few handfuls of fresh arugula after baking. Fantastic!

The homemade crust you see here is from Julie Hasson's new book, Vegan Pizza, for which I was lucky enough to be a tester. 

This is the whole wheat version of her homemade dough, which is quick, simple, NO knead, and comes out fantastic every time! The recipe for the "Easy-Peasy" basic white flour pizza dough can be found here in this article from The Oregonian. To make you dough whole wheat, simple replace two (2) cups of the white flour with whole wheat flour (I use Bob's Red Mill). One of the many things I can say about being a tester for this book, is that I have lost ALL fear of homemade dough, and working with yeast. Pizza is now in the regular dinner rotation here at our house. Thank you, JULIE!

So for the rest, we have:

THE ROCKET (adapted and veganized from Providence Coal Fire Pizza)

• 1/2 batch of whole wheat pizza dough form Vegan Pizza, (brushed with extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkled with Italian seasoning, salt, pepper)
• 1/2 cup San Marzano tomato puree
• 1 tsp Greek oregano (from the festival)!
• 6-8 slices of Teese mozzarella (sample from Vida Vegan Con)!

Bake pizza at 500 degrees on a PREHEATED pizza stone for 11-12 minutes. 
*Try and preheat your stone for at least 30 minutes. I roll my dough out on parchment paper on top of my cutting board, top the pizza with sauce, cheese and/or toppings, and then use the cutting board to transfer the parchment right to the pizza stone. I try and work as quickly as possible, so the oven doesn't loose any of that wonderful heat while the door is open.

While the pizza bakes, toss several handfuls of baby arugula with a small drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some sea salt to taste. When the pizza comes out of the oven, I spray it a bit with the fantastic chili basil oil (pictured in the back of the first photo), that my mom brought me back from Italy. And, then top with the fresh arugula and a bit of nutritional yeast. Today, we also had some leftover cherry tomatoes, which I thought looked nice on top, too!

Slice in to 8 pieces and ENJOY!!  The peppery arugula gives this traditional plain pie a nice fresh kick. Try it out and let me know what you think. ^_^