Vegan Recipes from Cassie Howard

Vegan Insanity >> Vegan recipes that are delicious and easy to make. Plus, kitchen, cooking & shopping tips!

Mini Vegan Tortilla Pizzas

5 Comments

This past weekend was awesome for 2 reasons:

Sunshine. Lots of sunshine.

These mini vegan tortilla pizzas. Ohhhhhhh yes. They were good.

vegan-mini-pizzas
It’s as easy as cutting up tortillas, popping them in a muffin tin, throwing on some toppings, baking, and stuffing your face.

I’m not even going to tell you how many of these I ate, but believe me when I say it was MORE THAN I SHOULD HAVE.

Worth it, though. Totally worth it.

mini-pizzas

You can put on any kind of toppings you want – that’s what makes pizza so freakin’ amazing. It’s versatile.

My husband doesn’t like Daiya cheese shreds, so for some of his pizzas, I put our homemade vegan nacho cheese, and on some others, I didn’t put cheese at all – just loaded them up with sauce and veggies.

He approved. I approved. The kids approved. Everyone approved.

This was an awesome meal.

baked-mini-pizzas-vegan

I think these would also work as dessert pizzas, by just swapping out sauce, cheese and pizza toppings, and instead baking she shells, then putting melted chocolate and fresh fruit inside, freezing until semi-firm, and topping with coconut whipped cream.

Mmmm, yes, that is a good idea.

Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard.

mini-pizzas-vegan

I made these babies for dinner, alongside a big kale salad, but they would also work well for lunch, as an appetizer (just halve the recipe), and even as a snack.

They would work  pretty much any time of day. Except breakfast. Unless you’re into pizza for breakfast. In which case – you could eat these pizzas any time of day and be happy and full and satisfied. Enjoy!

vegan-baked-mini-pizzas

Mini Vegan Tortilla Pizzas
Recipe Type: Snack, Lunch, Appetizer
Cuisine: Pizza
Author: Vegan Insanity
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 8 small flour tortillas (corn may work too, but I haven’t tried)
  • 1 cup tomato sauce
  • cheese of choice (I used, vegan parmesan, Daiya shreds, and [url href=”http://www.veganinsanity.com/recipes/quinoa-black-bean-burger-with-nacho-cheese-sauce/”]nacho cheese sauce[/url])
  • toppings of choice (I used green lentils, green pepper, kalamata olives, and zucchini)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375F. Spray 2 muffins tins with non-stick cooking spray (or use refined coconut oil) and set aside.
  2. Using a doughnut cutter or small drinking glass, cut out your mini pizzas from the tortillas. I placed mine over the muffin tin first, to see how big to make my pizzas. You want them to be a bit bigger than the opening of the hole.
  3. Place your tortilla pizzas inside your muffin tins, pressing down gently.
  4. Add a bit of sauce, then cheese, then toppings, to each tortilla pizza.
  5. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the tortilla is a nice golden brown color, and the sauce & toppings are warm and the cheese has melted.
  6. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes. If you handle them too early, they may not pop out of the tins easily.
  7. Run a butter knife around each pizza, and pop it out – but only if it’s ready. If it doesn’t come out easily, let it cool for a few more minutes.

 

Homemade Vegan Calzones with Sun-Dried Tomato & Pesto Spread

13 Comments

homemade-vegan-calzones

I don’t think you’ll find many people who don’t like pizza, but sometimes, pizza just ain’t enough – you need something new, something different.

And so, the calzone was born. I’ve never found a store-bought calzone I’ve ever liked, but this homemade version is crazy good.

Calzones-Vegan

The possibilities are endless when it comes to what you can put in your calzone! For this recipe, I chose zucchini, green olives, spinach, and a bit of vegan cheese shreds (mozzarella). Super tasty!

I love how the sauce/spread is used, instead of just regular ol’ tomato sauce. It makes the calzone much more interesting. The flavour of that stuff is incredible!

The dough is flaky, with just enough “chew” to make it taste exactly like pizza crust. What could be better than a pizza folded in half, and stuffed full of all your favourite pizza toppings?

Vegan-Calzones

Homemade Vegan Calzones with Sun-Dried Tomato & Pesto Spread
Recipe Type: Pizza
Author: Vegan Insanity
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3-4
Ingredients
  • Dough
  • 1 1/2 Cups kamut or all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/8 tsp fast acting yeast
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 3/4 cup warm water, or as needed
  • Sun-Dried Tomato & Pesto Spread
  • 1/2 cup raw cashews (soaked for at least 4 hours)
  • 1 large garlic clove
  • 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, drained
  • 1 medium tomato
  • 1/3 cup fresh basil, packed
  • 1/4 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Assembly
  • Veggies of your choice
  • Vegan cheese (optional, but recommended)
Instructions
Dough
  1. Add the flour, yeast, salt, sugar and oil to a large mixing bowl. Mix until combined.
  2. Add the water, as needed, until the dough is soft and has come together nicely. Form into a ball.
  3. Place the dough ball in a well-oiled bowl and cover with a clean dish towel. Allow to rise, until it has doubled in size, which can take up to 1 hour (it was 40 minutes for me).
Sun-Dried Tomato & Pesto Spread
  1. Add all ingredients to a high-powered blender or food processor and blend/processed until smooth, adding a bit of water, if needed.
Assembly
  1. Preheat oven to 500F.
  2. Divide the dough into 3 or 4 portions. and roll each one into a thin layer. Be careful not to make them too thick!
  3. Spread the sauce on each calzone, without going all the way to the edges.
  4. Add the “toppings” – veggies and vegan cheese – on one side of the calzone.
  5. Fold into a semicircle and seal the edges.
  6. Poke a few holes into each calzone, brush with a bit of oil, and sprinkle some dried basil on top (or fresh!).
  7. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the bottoms have browned nicely.
  8. Enjoy!

 

Thin Crust Pesto Pizza

2 Comments

Pesto-Pizza-Vegan

I used to be all about the frozen pizzas. Delissio here, Dr. Oetker there. And then I switched to a vegan diet and BAM. Those pizzas were a no-no for me. Which is a good thing anyway, considering how high they are in salt, sugar and other crap your body doesn’t need.

So, I started making my own pizzas at home. Okay, so, my husband is usually the one that makes them, but I always assist with toppings, so that counts.

I love that I can experiment with different flours, different sauces and different toppings, and still come out with a tasty, healthy pizza (usually). This is one of them!

Vegan-Pesto-PizzaEven though everyone on the planet seems to be able to, I can’t make a circular pizza to save my life, so I made them rectangular. The pizza still tastes the same, so who cares, right?

Thin Crust Pesto Pizza
Recipe Type: Pizza
Author: Vegan Insanity
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
  • For the crust
  • 3/4 cup warm water (not hot, not cold)
  • 1 3/4 cup flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat, 3/4 cup kamut)
  • 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • For the sauce
  • 2 large garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1/3 cup pine nuts (I’ve also used cashews or almonds)
  • 4 cups fresh basil leaves
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • For the toppings
  • Whatever your heart desires! (I used zucchini, yellow pepper, kalamata olives and tomatoes)
Instructions
For the crust
  1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in water and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
  2. Pre-heat oven to 500F.
  3. Add flour and salt to the yeast and sugar. Mix until combined.
  4. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes.
  5. Press dough into a large circle and place it on a lightly greased pizza pan (or sprinkle some cornmeal on a [url href=”http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B002RC4X0C/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=15121&creative=390961&creativeASIN=B002RC4X0C&linkCode=as2&tag=mrsjan0b-20″ target=”_blank”]wooden pizza wheel[/url] (to later slide onto a pizza stone in the oven).
For the sauce
  1. Add all sauce ingredients to a food processor or high-powered blender and process/blend until smooth.
Putting it all together
  1. Spread the sauce on the pizza crust, add your toppings, and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 10 minutes, or until the edges have lightly browned and the middle of the pizza is cooked all the way through.