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Vegan Pizza Pepporanata

Madhuram — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:05:24 +0000

Even though I love to bake and have had little success with cakes and cookies, I’m not good enough to create my own recipes. I’m simply a “recipe follower”. I can make some substitutions here and there, but that’s it. That’s why I prefer cooking and other non-risky oven tasks like baking pizzas etc. You can come up with different recipes and even though it does not turn out as expected, there is always something you can do to make it right.

I think some culinary Muse has laid her merciful eyes upon me, because I have had lot of success creating new recipes in my kitchen in the past one week. It started with this vegan pizza recipe. I got the idea for this pizza from my vegan pasta pepporanata recipe. I thought why not cook the peppers, top it over refrigerated pizza dough and bake it. I also got another idea to use the oven preheating time efficiently. I wanted to cook the peppers before topping it on the pizza. Instead of preheating an empty oven and cooking the peppers on stove top, I decided to roast the vegetables in the oven itself while it was preheating.

The idea worked very well. The peppers, onions and garlic cooked enough in the 15 minutes. It was also my first try with thin crust pizza dough and I loved it. The pizza slices were nice and crispy. The added bonus, my son loved the pepper masala very much. He was simply eating the peppers not letting me to top it on the pizza dough. I did not miss the cheese at all. You also don’t need to be a vegan to enjoy this vegan pizza.

Ingredients

Refrigerated pizza crust (I used Pillsbury Thin crust) 1 pack

Green Pepper, medium size, thinly sliced 1

Red Pepper, medium size, thinly sliced 1

Yellow Pepper, medium size, thinly sliced 1

Orange Pepper, medium size, thinly sliced 1

Onion, big, thinly sliced 1

Olive oil 1 to 1 and 1/2 tablespoon

Garlic cloves, minced or sliced 2-3

Salt as per taste

Black pepper powder as per taste

Red chilli flakes as per taste

Italian seasoning 1/2 to 1 tablespoon

Sugar 1/4 teaspoon

Yield: 8 rectangles

Procedure 1 Switch on the oven to 400F. In a large cookie sheet (use the one which you think will fit the pizza dough) add all the ingredients except the pizza dough. That is, the thinly sliced peppers, onion, garlic, oil and the seasonings. Mix it well and spread it on the baking sheet.

2 Cook it for 15 minutes stirring occasionally. I also broiled it for another 5 minutes, keeping the oven door open. Transfer the caramelized vegetables to a plate or wax paper.

3 Usually while baking the pizza dough you have to oil the baking sheet. Since we have roasted the vegetables already you can see that the baking sheet is already greased. So simply remove the dough from the can and unfold it on the cookie sheet. Spread it evenly to cover the cookie sheet. The dough may tear, but don’t worry, because you can always repair it using your fingers to stretch the dough and cover the holes.

4 Top the dough with the cooked pepper and onion mixture evenly.

5 Bake it for 12-16 minutes, until the bottom turns golden brown and the top is also baked enough.

6 I did not want to scratch my baking sheet while cutting the pizza, so removed it from the cookie sheet before cutting it.

My Notes 1 Since it is a thin crust dough the bottom starts becoming brown around 10-11 minutes itself but the top does not get cooked properly by then. After another 5 minutes the top also is baked enough. I took out mine after 16 minutes.

2 This pizza is slightly on the sweeter side because of the sweet peppers. I think that’s the reason my son liked it so much. So for the adult version you may want to spice it up with some extra black pepper powder and red chili flakes.

This vegan pizza is my entry for It’s a Vegan World:Italian started by Vaishali.

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Spinach and Mushroom Pizza Pockets Without Cheese

Madhuram — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:26:44 +0000

Have you tasted a pizza without cheese before? Not me! So when I saw this recipe in the Vegan Italiano book, I had to give it a try. This book is by Donna Klien and I would definitely recommend it to everybody especially vegans. The recipes are very simple, easy to prepare and they do not call for items which you can get only in speciality stores. So look for it in the library during your next visit.

The original recipe was for preparing a calzone. I was not able to fold the dough properly to make a calzone. Instead I just rolled the dough to form pizza pockets. Whatever the shape may be the final product tasted very good. So much different from the regular pizzas yet satisfying and no guilt whatsoever for indulging in more than one piece.

Ingredients

Refrigerated Pizza Crust – 1 (I used Pillsbury Pizza Crust Classic, 13.8oz)

Garlics, finely chopped – 4

Fresh Baby Spinach leaves – 4 cups

Onion – 8 slices (I cut them into thin strips)

White Button/Cremini Mushroom, sliced – 4oz

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 2 tablespoons

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Yield: 4 pizza pockets

Step-By-Step Procedure

(Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view)

1. Preheat ovent to 425F (220C)
2. Grease a baking sheet.
3. Unroll the dough ont the prepared baking sheet and adjust it to fit the sheet.
4. Cut it into 4 rectangles.
5. Sprinkle the chopped garlic evenly over the rectangles.
6. Top each rectangle with 1 cup of spinach, 2 onion slices or 1/4th of the onion strips and 1/4 of the thinly sliced mushrooms.
7. Drizzle with 1/2 tablespoon of oil on each rectangle and sprinkle salt and pepper as per your taste.
8. Now roll each rectangle either horizontally or vertically whichever seems easy for you and pinch the ends to close the pockets.
9. Bake on the middle rack for 10-12 minutes or until it is golden brown.

It can be had as an appetizer or as part of a meal completed with a light soup. We had ours with homemade mushroom soup.

My Notes It’s actually my husband’s tip and I think it’s a good one. Instead of using fresh spinach, if the spinach is sauteed for a minute or 2 until it wilts down, we will be able to use a little more than the 1 cup mentioned in the recipe, which increases our intake of greens, which is never enough. Moreover rolling the dough topped with fresh spinach is a little tricky too. So the next time I make this, I’m going to sautee all the ingredients for the filling and then proceed with making the pizza pockets.

This recipe goes to Hima’s Sunday Snacks – Bake It.

I would also like to submit the first picture of this post to Jugalbandi’s CLICK: September 2008 (Crusts) Event.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Eggless Spicy Buns made with Pizza Dough

Madhuram — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:23:57 +0000

I don’t know whether I can call this dish a bun, but it was inspired by Shilpa’s Spicy Stuffed Potato Buns. Maybe we can also name it as Stuffed Pizza, Indian Style. It’s very simple to make and is delicious. I wanted to try Shilpa’s recipe, but I doubted whether I could handle the yeast action and stickiness. I know I have to take a daring step to bake breads and buns. But I’m gonna postpone it for later. Suddenly an idea flashed, why not try baking it using refrigerated pizza dough. Last week I got two of those, one of which I used for the Twirly Whirly Pizza. I had another recipe in mind for the 2nd packet, but I wanted to try this one.

Stage 1:
Pre-heat the oven at 400F (200C).

Stage 2:
Prepare any type of stuffing you want. I cooked Shilpa’s onion masala.

Stage 3:
Flour the work area and unroll the dough. Also flour a rolling pin and roll the dough once to reduce the thickness of the dough. Be very careful to maintain the rectangular shape, otherwise you will be having a hard time like me. (See My Notes section)

Stage 4:
Take a medium size round shape cookie cutter and cut circles from the dough.

Stage 5:
Place a spoonful of the masala on one circle and close it with another. Do likewise for the remaining also.

Stage 6:
Place all the stuffed buns on a greased pan, brush the buns with oil and bake it for 20 min or until the tops are golden brown. Enjoy it with a cup of hot tea!

My Notes:

1. When I unrolled the pizza dough there was a hole in the middle of the rectangle, so I just cut out 2 circles and then made the mistake of kneading the dough into one big ball, thinking that it will be easy to handle. I thought that I can just pinch small balls of dough, roll them and cut out perfect circles. What was I thinking? I pinched a golf ball size of dough and started rolling it, but I was not able to roll them into proper shape at all. I lost my patience and just wanted to get my hands off the dough. Now you can understand why 5 out of the 6 buns are in some odd shapes like amoeba. So try to maintain the rectangular shape of the dough and quickly cut as many circles as possible.

2. As I say always, try with 1 bun first. By this you can get an idea of the baking time, thickness of the dough etc.

3. I set the oven at 400F, because Shilpa’s recipe calls for that temperature for the spicy potato buns. I think 425 F should also work fine.

4. The buns were not soft and fluffy as you would imagine a bun to be (I guess it’s either the pizza dough or I should have made the circles thinner), but it was very very tasty. Give it a try. Don’t get mislead by the shapes.