All these take away pizzas are so for meat lovers only. Veggie versions are not inspiring and in addition to that they are made out of quite a bad quality dough, cheese and oil. Whilst there are some pizza chains that use a proper sourdough for their pizza bases, I just needed something that will work for me to cook at home.
This Cauliflower vegan pizza recipe is amazingly simple, you will need 45 minutes to an hour for the while thing (depending how quick you are in the kitchen!)
Cauliflower pizza base will definitely not be your normal one, it will not be that elastic and you will need to eat your pizza with cutlery rather than just grabbing a slice. Yet there are definite advantages: there is no gluten in this pizza at all, everything is done using vegetarian ingredients (yes, even parmesan style cheese is vegetarian).
Let’s start with the vegan pizza base.
You will need:
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- 1 large cauliflower
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- 80-100 g grated Parmesan style vegetarian cheese
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- chili flakes
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- seasoning
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- 1 garlic clove, minced
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- a table spoon of chopped basil
- 2 small eggs.
Get your food processor out and grate cauliflower florets so it resembles rice. Quickly transfer it to a clean surface or a baking tray and using kitchen towels quickly squeeze out any excess water. You won’t be able to do that entirely, but just so your base is not overly watery. Add seasoning (you can also use onion and garlic powder for more kick, I have decided to use fresh minced garlic and chili flakes), add grated parmesan style cheese and whisked eggs. Add your basil (you can also use it in tomato sauce so it doesn’t matter much), opt for a fresh one but you can also buy a packet of frozen chopped basil – I love this taste so much so I always have some if fresh one is too expensive or not available.
Now use your baking tray or pizza tray and line it with baking parchment, transfer your cauliflower dough to it and using another piece of baking parchment on top of it simply flatten your mixture to a 5 mm thick base. I hope you have pre-heated your oven to 220C by now, so just put your base to bake for 25-30 minutes on a lower or middle shelf. Check it out when you are approaching the end of baking time just to ensure it is rather crispy, not watery but also not too black-ish.
Tomato sauce
Use a jar, cook from scratch or for clever ones I would suggest re-using our Marinara Tomato Sauce that we’ve just covered in our vegan lasagna post. Simple store in the your fridge until you need to use it for pasta dishes or, in our current case, pizza!
Quite naturally, as with other homemade pizzas you are now in full control to what is going to be your topping. I have made one with aubergines, peppers and tofu slices with more grated cheese on top!
I will recommend you lightly fry slices of aubergines and peppers so you have them almost cooked for your pizza.
Top tip: the dough will absorb a bit of tomato sauce so make sure it is not too much of it that you put on top of your dough and that it is not too watery. Otherwise your pizza will turn into a big mush when you try to cut it.
Bake your pizza with topping of your choice for 10 minutes to ensure the cheese has melted and you have a wonderful and healthy veggie pizza!
For more delicious and easy vegan recipes and tips visit Kind and Healthy Lifestyle website.
Enjoy!
If you are hosting a party, consider buying a mixed case of vegan wine so to pair it to different taste preferences. We’ve got a tip for you: a large list of vegan wines is available at Organic Wine Club.
