Cheap & Vegan Pesto Pizza

Having acid reflux makes it hard for me to enjoy a delicious slice of cheap pizza. Fortunately, I have a brain and managed to come up with a cheap alternative to pesto sauce that would also work for a vegan diet! I have also included a recipe for easy pizza dough.

Dough recipe

Start the dough first because it has to sit and rise for about an hour.

3 1/2 cups bread flour (AP works fine)

1 1/4 Tbsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp garlic powder

Start by mixing your lukewarm water and yeast in a medium sized bowl. Let the yeast dissolve, about 10 minutes.

Add the flour, olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon until most of the flour is wet, then work the dough with your hands, kneading until the dough is sticky and smooth.

Roll into a ball and put the dough ball into a well oiled bowl covering it with a damp paper towel. Let this sit and rise about 1 hour.

For the pesto sauce you will need:

1 large bunch of parsley, flat or curly

1 cup olive oil

4 -5 cloves garlic, raw

pinch of salt

1/4 cup almonds, blanched

1/4 cup cashews, blanched

if you have salted nuts, they can be used, just don’t add as much salt to the mixture

3 Tbsp nutritional yeast, for the cheeeesey flavor

I also threw in a handful of spinach because I wanted to make a bit more to freeze.

Put all of these ingredients into a food processor, and blend. Do NOT over blend, we don’t want to pulverize the leaves, just finely mince them. I put the mixture into the fridge until the dough had risen.

Once the dough finishes blowing up like a pasty blowfish, sprinkle some cornmeal or flour onto a flat surface and roll the dough out into whatever shape or size you want. Brush a little olive oil around the rim of the dough and use a large spoon to spread the pesto sauce around the pizza. I put a verrrrry good amount on.

Cheese is up to you. We used Daiya vegan mozzarella, sprinkle that shit on it real good. Cheese cheese yayaya!

Put everything into the oven at 350 degreeese for about, I’d say, 25 minutes, but watch it!

Take it out and eat it.

My FAMOUS Vegan Mac n’ “Cheese”

Scott tried vegan mac n’ cheese at our only local vegan restaurant, and it was disgusting. I don’t know what they added to it, but it tasted more like a cheddar kugel and even that sounds disgusting. So we found some recipes, and after some trial and error, came up with this recipe, and, guys, I have made this dish almost a dozen times and it disappears as quickly as it was served!

Ingredients:

8 oz macaroni

2 slices of bread

2 tbs and 1/3 c Earth Balance

2 tbs shallots

1 c potatoes, diced

1/4 c carrots

1 c water

1/4 c cashews, raw is better but salted works too

2 tbs sea salt

1/4 tsp garlic, minced

1/4 tsp dijon mustard

1/8 tsp cayenne

1/3 c onion

Veggies of your choice! We use broccoli because it’s my favorite!

Directions:

1. Cook macaroni w/ salt according to the package.
2. In a food processor, make breadcrumbs.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, cook shallots, carrots, onions, potatoes in a saucepan until soft with 4 qts of water.
4. Blend cashews, salt, garlic, and 1/3 c Earth Balance, mustard, cayenne, salt and pepper in processor. I’d do this in parts unless you have a large blendy machine. Then blend the soft vegetables and potatoes. Mix all together.
5. Blanche your extra veggies. Toss pasta with the cheesey sauce and add your blanched veggies vegetables and pour into a loaf pan or casserole dish. Top with breadcrumbs.
6. Cook for 30-40 minutes or until cheesey sauce bubbles.
7. SERVE AND EAT~!!!