Usually once a week I mock up a pizza of some sort. I keep a couple of store bought whole-wheat pizza shells in the freezer, and then it's just a matter of choosing toppings.
This time, I simply spread on some tomato sauce, then topped with strips of cooked Lightlife Tempeh Bacon on top, and decided to play tic-tac-toe with halved cherry tomatoes!This layer was then topped with thinly sliced shallots. You must know that I do not like raw onions. At all. Too strong and leave me tasting onion all day. So, I will always saute or otherwise cook them for any dish.
But for a pizza, if I slice them thin enough, they cook through and become golden crispy. Totally delicious. Give it a try, and be sure to put the onions on the top to get crispy - and slice thin, thin, thin. After that, a sprinkling of fresh thyme and freshly ground black pepper completed the pie.We had the pizza with a biggie salad, not pictured. If I'm having a sharp, savory pizza (or other entree) like this - with the smoky tempeh, crispy onions and thyme - a palate cleansing salad is a welcome accompaniment. It must have some crunchy, juicy veggies like cucumber, bell peppers, or jicama, and some chunks of avocado also add a nice cooling touch.
It was very, very good. Pizza is such fun food... yes, even without cheese... in fact especially without cheese! Need some other pizza-making ideas? Check out some of these other pizza posts.
11 comments:
I bet there was a slurry of balsamic-flax oil drizzled over this, right? :)
I think that I could write an ode to vegan pizza. I love it so much but I rarely have it- especially since I cook for one. Lately I've taken hint from your tortilla pizza recipes and used pita instead. I separate the pita into 2 and have 2 thin crust personalized pizzas. And I must say that tempeh is a perfect pizza topping. I've never tried the lightlife bacon- usually I just use their regular tempeh package and crumble some on top. Haha and of course no cheese- it's funny because sometimes when I see non-vegan pizza I forget that it traditionally comes with cheese.
Oh I wish I had more people to eat with so that I could buy some delicious rustic crust and make a yummy pizza.
-Teresa
Hey maybepigscanfly...I've been making my own pizza dough and freezing pizza-for-one size balls of dough so I can make a personal pizza with real pizza dough whenever I want. (Although I do love Dreena's totilla pizza sometimes I really want yummy tomato sauce and yeasty dough!)
I've never tried that tempeh bacon on a pizza. That's a great idea (for next time!)
Thanks, Dreena!
Aimee
I do love pizza... The tempeh bacon sounds perfect on it (and I love the tic tac toe)! I'm with you on raw onions--I usually leave onions off pizza, but next time I'll try your little trick!
Hyphen_helena, now how did you know???! :) But of course, pizza is just not pizza in our house with out the slurry!!
Teresa, you can write your ode and post it here!! We are huge pizza fans too. Personalized pita pizzas are marvelous, and like you said allow you to whip one up just for yourself. With the frozen w/w crusts I buy, sometimes I partially thaw and then cut out a large wedge to make a small pizza for our girls. Just a tip if you want to go that route too. I reseal the pizza shell in its crust, and back into the freezer. If you buy a rustic crust, you could pre-slice it into maybe 6 wedges, and then freeze the whole thing already slice. You may have some sauce/toppings dripping off when baking, but some parchment paper on your pan will solve that problem!
Aimee, that's a terrific tip - thanks for sharing. I'm with you, some nights you want a thinner crust, then other nights a little more bread-y substance is in order!
Laura, yes, the tempeh bacon is delish on the pizza... and it's so smoky you don't need to use the full package - even 1/2 a package crumbled over top is good. Definitely try the onions some time - and use a mild onion or shallot the first time to see how you like it. Sliced super thin is the trick!
I can't get enough of pizza. I'm almost saddened that I make less of it in the warmer weather! I actually just made one a couple days ago, it's on the ole blog - loaded with toppings of course!
ohhh i love pizza with onions or shallots!!
the tempeh tic tac toe pizza looks like alot of fun!
JENNA
Pizza is my absolute favorite junk food meal. And I'm a huge fan of the onion. Jim on the otherhand doesn't care for onions, but insists on mushrooms. ICK! So I'll do a half and half. Sometimes I'll add veggie pepperoni. Why didn't I think of veggie bacon?? Thanks for the wonderful ideas. Again!
Jess, me too... though I find myself making pizza through the summer as well. Your pizza is amazing looking, and I love pineapple on pizza too - that contrast of a bit of sour/sweet with all the savory toppings... so good! Hope you're having fun at the VegFest event - wish I was there - I love veggie food festivals!!
Thanks Jenna, yeah, I got carried away doing the lattice pattern on the pizza, and then had to add the tomatoes for fun - even though it didn't show well with the onions on top.
Carrie, we were typing at the same time!! :) I don't think I've ever tried the veggie pepperoni, but then I was never much of a fan of pepperoni way back when I was eating meat anyhow. Don't like mushrooms? At all... or just on pizza? I certainly don't like those canned mushrooms that get thrown on take-out pizzas sometimes - gahhh they are awful! I remember eating those on pizzas as a kid... they're not even like real mushrooms - they're like some form of rubberized vegetable, bizarro!
How fun! :)
I'm back blogging again...and often. Vegan Momma is really the only one who has been commenting but then again I have lost touch with a bunch of people. I hope you will stop by when you have a chance...I've missed ya!
Harmonia
http://harmonia.wordpress.com
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