Pizza Margherita

I love pizza. All kinds of pizza. I especially love when it swims in melted cheese and lots of pepperoni. Alas, vegans don't eat that sort of thing. So I wondered if I could come up with a decent alternative. Something that would taste like pizza, have the mouth-feel of melted cheese, and the tangy bite of pepperoni.

I failed time and time again. So I decided to give this illusive entity one last try. Now I'm not going to tell you that it tastes exactly like the real thing. But as a vegan, I was more than happy with the outcome. In fact I'm so happy with it that it will be my Saturday night fare for weeks to come. Hubby and I always indulged ourselves with pepperoni pizza on Saturday nights. And while hubby has gone to live in heaven, I think I'll re-instate my Saturday night fare. Fond memories all around.

Before I give the recipe, let me share some things I've learned. The best vegan cheese I've found that melts like the real thing is Daiya. I used the vegan mozzarella shreds. I put them all over the pizza, just as I would have real mozzarella. When it melted, it was a puddle of white. I used too much. This cheese melts so well, a little goes a long way.

To my palate, the vegan mozzarella doesn't taste like the real thing. It seemed rather like melted provolone in my mouth. No matter. It was quite good and while it didn't string like real mozzarella does, it dripped into a lovely mess on my plate. You'd better know I scraped it all up and stuck it on my leftover crust. Yes, it was that good.

I purchased a vegan pepperoni. While it has the slight smell of pepperoni, it is missing the peppery bite of the real thing. Just so you know, it wasn't awful, but in the future, I'll leave it off and just make a regular pizza margherita--my favorite anyway.

The pizza dough I prefer is one that is thin and crisp. The recipe I'm sharing is like that. If you prefer a crust that is soft and bready, this isn't the crust for you. But I like the crunch of the crust to go with the tomato and cheese softness. They pair well together.

Because the pizza dough needs about an hour to rise, I made it early on. I used my food processor and had the whole thing in a greased bowl and rising before more than ten minutes had passed. If you don't have a food processor but you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, use that. If all else fails, make the dough like your grandma did. By hand. It just requires more time and a lot of kneading to get the dough elastic and pliable.

PIZZA DOUGH

Into the food processor bowl put:

3/4 cup of warm water, about 110 degrees

1 package rapid rise dry yeast

Let it set a minute or two until you see bubbles forming. That shows the yeast is alive.

Add to the processor bowl:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. olive oil.

Turn the processor to dough or mix or whatever your appliance has for mixing and let it rip. I always let the processor do all the kneading for me. If your dough doesn't form into a nice ball inside the bowl, add up to 2 more Tbs. water, a bit at a time, until a nice ball forms. Transfer the dough ball to a greased bowl, cover with saran and set it in a warm place to rise. I leave my bowl on the back of the stove top. It will rise to double in 45 minutes to an hour. When the dough is ready, roll it into a large circle if you have a pizza pan or a long rectangle if you're baking it on a sheet pan. 

THE PIZZA PIE

I'm showing the pizza before baking as it is easier to see the arrangement. Once the pie was cooked,
it was difficult to tell how I'd put it together.

Set your oven to 500 degrees

Brush the crust with olive oil to seal the dough. Skip this step and the the toppings will leave the bottom crust limp and doughy.

Cover the oiled crust with red sauce. I cheated and used a jarred spaghetti sauce. It takes less than a cup of sauce. Add more and your topping will all roll off into your lap when you try to eat a slice of this pie.

Atop the red sauce, add the Daiya cheese. Because it melts so well, use less than you think you'll need. You can always change the ratio next time you make pizza.

Now add fresh basil leaves on top. Put them all over the pie. 

Slice 2 large, ripe tomatoes into thin slices. Spread them all over the pie. If your tomatoes are small, use as many as needed to cover the cheese.

I put a few pieces of vegan pepperoni on my pizza. I won't go to that expense again. The pie was great and didn't need the faux meat.

Sprinkle the pizza with a drizzle of olive oil and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and the cheese is melted. Try not to moan while you eat.

Serves 1-4 people, depending on how hungry they are.

When a vegan wants something bad enough, she will go to any extreme to find a way to make it.

Fanatacism

By now you have probably figured out that I am obsessed with summer tomatoes. My last few columns have been about fresh, locally grown tomatoes. A few columns back in the winter were about longing for a good tomato. I dream about tomatoes and look forward all week long to visiting the local farmer's markets to see what new varieties are available. I buy more tomatoes than I need and give them to friends, neighbors and complete strangers. I have tomatoes for breakfast.I post photos of them on Facebook. I am obsessed.

Tomato testing at the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks.

The editors of  The Washington County Observer,the local paper I write for are gracious enough to put up with my obsession. I imagine though they think I am a bit of a fanatic. After all, how many columns does one really want to read about tomatoes? The Maginots of Beyond Organics Farm in West Fork have been writing a few columns lately in the same paper about how to grow them. They give useful information like when to plant, how much to water, when to harvest and what to do when those prehistoric looking green tomato horn worms attack. The grow some incredible varieties and I am at the West Fork Garden Market every Saturday morning to see what lovelies they have to offer. Sometimes I'll show up at their farm during the week with a jar of honey or a bundt cake; a gesture of neighborly love. They are not fooled though. They see me peering over their fence and coveting their Chocolate Striped, Purple Cherokees, Arkansas Travellers and Black Krim. They know what I am after. They can identify a zealot when they see one.

So, this week I decided no more columns about tomatoes. Enough is enough. Then I heard about the Ozark Slow Food tomato tasting at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. Sixty varieties of sweet summer goodness to be sampled. Sixty! Tomato heaven! According to their website, Ozark Slow Food's mission is “to promote a sustainable farmer/consumer community and the celebration of healthy foods.” What's not to like about that? Eat local, eat slow, eat your veggies. A celebration! I even brought my own salt shaker!

Turnout was heavy with lines out the door waiting to get in. Seems there is big interest in tomatoes these days! Informational kiosks, complimentary recipes, television cameras and free tomatoes were everywhere. Varieties I had never heard of like Sun Gold, Parks Whopper, Mountain Fresh and Black Cherry were sampled. Lectures were offered. There was even balloting to name the tastiest variety. What fun! And, it's nice to know I am not the only fanatic.

But, that's it. No more columns this year about tomatoes. Enough! Besides, okra is coming into season. Think of it, fried okra, gumbo, pickled okra, okra with tomatoes. The possibilities are endless. Now, I am an okra fanatic. After all, why do anything if you can't do it to excess?

To learn more about Ozark Slow Food, please visit www.ozarkslowfood.org

Zesty Corn Salad



I served this salad to company and was barely able to save enough for a photo. I kept what was left and surrounded it with flour tortillas warmed over an open flame and ate it for lunch the following day. The spicy juice was every bit as good as the zesty veggies and I used up my last tortilla as a dipper. Yum.

 Since becoming a vegan, I think I've seen at least a dozen recipes for corn salad and every one of them includes black beans. While I adore black beans, sometimes I just want a vegan recipe sans beans of any kind. From time to time, my mouth hungers for something out of the ordinary. Something zesty that will titillate my taste buds. Something for my own table or a family potluck or a church dinner that will cause people to seek me out and beg me to tell them how to make it.

I can't tell you where I got this recipe because I've had it for so long I've forgotten. Most likely, it was at one of those family gatherings or church potlucks where, ego in check, I begged for the recipe myself. Wherever it came from, I think you'll enjoy it. With summer's bounty hitting the grocery stores and Farmer's Markets, there is no better time than now to seek out vegetables fresh from the fields. Once the produce is picked, it takes but a few hours for their  natural sugars to convert to starch, so the sooner we get them on the table, the happier our taste buds will be with the party that's going on in our mouth.

ZESTY CORN SALAD 

In a medium size bowl, combine 2 Tbs. Mexican Spice Mix (recipe follows) with 1/4 c. of  olive oil and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. Whisk together.

Add to the bowl:

2 cups of cooked corn, kernels cut from the cob taste best

2 large tomatoes, cut into bite size pieces

1/2 cup sliced black olives
1/2 cup diced chili peppers (I use either fresh Anaheim or Pasilla, sometimes called Poblano, as they are the mildest. If you like spicy, toss in some jalapeno.

The seasoning mix contains salt, so I didn't add any extra, but if the salad isn't just right for your palette, add salt and pepper to taste.

Stir everything together, cover with plastic wrap and leave it in the refrigerator at least two hours. Overnight is better. Before serving, sprinkle the salad with 3 Tbs. chopped cilantro. Approximate servings: 4

This dish is good as a stand alone salad, but it serves well as a filling for avocado halves, topping for a veggie-burger, wrapped inside a warm flour tortilla, or stuffed into a giant baked potato. Happy Summer!

Fresh corn is low in saturated fat, very low in sodium, and has no cholesterol. It is high in dietary fiber, magnesium, phosphorus, thiamine, and vitamin C. When purchasing fresh corn on the cob, look for tight husks, healthy silks, and plump kernels. It is best to eat fresh corn the day it is purchased but if it has to be stored, leave it in the husks to prevent drying out. The longer corn sits before cooking, the less sweet it will be because the natural sugars will convert to starch. If the corn had to sit too long after dad brought it in from the field, mom's trick was to add a bit of sugar to the water she boiled the corn in. Worked every time.

MEXICAN SPICE MIX

1 Tbs. chili powder

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. paprika

1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. sea salt (I used kosher)

1 tsp. black pepper

Mix everything together and store in an airtight container. This blend of ingredients is less costly than the seasoning packs from the grocery store and is easy to toss together. The blend is shelf stable for a good 3 months. Probably longer, but it usually gets used it up before then.

Copyright 2011 by Sandra L Keith, All rights reserved