(Mostly) Homemade Pizza

Another night, another dinner.  We made pizza tonight.  It was definitely nice to eat something hot out of the oven in contrast to the freezing weather outside!  We used store-bought, refrigerated pizza dough (it comes in one of those awesome tubes that you sort of peel open until it POPs).  We divided the pizza into three sections (one for each of us): my pizza was veggie + vegan sausage; Simon's was veggie + vegan sausage + mozzarella cheese; Rachel's was veggie + cheese.  I'll list all of the ingredients that were involved, but note that they weren't all consumed by all of us.

Recipe:
Vegan Pizza

• 1 package of refrigerated pizza dough; or, make your own!
• olive oil for sautéing
• 1 clove garlic, minced
  
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 can of diced tomatoes (or tomato sauce, if you like things less chunky)
• Other assorted vegetable toppings--mushrooms, olives, broccoli, etc.
• 1 tube of Gimme Lean vegan sausage, cut up into bite-sized pieces
• spices (garlic powder, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, etc.) to sprinkle over the top before or after baking

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spread the pizza dough on a cookie sheet and pre-bake it for five minutes before putting the sauce and toppings on it.  In the meantime, heat up the oil and garlic in a medium-sized pan (I always heat  garlic along with the oil instead of adding it later--that way, the garlic heats up slowly instead of scorching when added to hot oil).  Add the onion, bell pepper, and other vegetables (if desired) and sauté until everything gets tender and even starts to brown a little bit.  (This isn't a necessary step, but the end result will be tastier if you sauté things first!)  Add the diced tomatoes to complete the sauce mixture.  Once the crust is ready, spread the sauce mixture over the crust, sprinkle the veggie toppings and sausage on top, and add any spices you plan to use.  Bake for about 9-12 minutes. 

Comments:
This recipe is great for a couple reasons.  First, vegan pizza is definitely healthier (lower-fat) than cheesy pizza, but it's still very satisfying--yes, even without the cheese.  Second, it's great for a vegan/non-vegan group because it's so customizable.

Some people might be suspicious of the vegan sausage, and I don't blame you.  More often than not, I'm very suspicious of meat and dairy substitutes.  For instance, you'll notice that I didn't put any vegan cheese on the pizza.  To me, it's better without.  But, I love vegan sausage.  There's just something about the spices used in it that is actually gustatorily pleasing.  Simon also likes the sausage and chose to put it on his pizza, though Rachel didn't have any.  But again, that's the beauty of pizza!  Anyone can put anything on it.