Easy From Scratch Pizza |Vegan Recipe|

I was so excited to have pizza a couple of weekends back on my birthday. My dear friends made the base and we topped it with tomato sauce, mushrooms and the Vegusto vegan cheese I got specially for the day! I had quite a bit of cheese left and did a review on it and Tesco's version last week and thought I'd make it from scratch as I've not made pizza in ages. My skills with yeast in the kitchen are limited and my patience even more so, therefore this is a quick and easy pizza base. The sauce took longer than I expected though...and Charlie's use of bolognese sauce is going to stay my go to as well...

Easy to copy and paste recipe at the end as always!

Start by setting your tomatoes out in a tray to roast cut side down. Sprinkle them with a little oil, some paprika, a smidge of cayenne pepper and some mixed herbs and basil (fresh if you have it, dry is fine if not). Whack that in the oven for half an hour to forty minutes until they're nicely crisped up.

While they were cooking, I prepped the veg that I wanted on my pizza. Mushrooms and two different coloured peppers suited me, but you could add anything, I'd recommend sun dried tomatoes if you want to add tomatoes on top too as I've made it with fresh before and it always seems to end up soggy! Maybe that's just me!

Once your tomatoes are roasted, blitz them up in a blender and strain them through a sieve to get all the seeds etc out. Make sure to really press it with the back of your spoon and get all the extra off the underside of the sieve after!

Set the sauce into a pan to boil and reduce down for about ten minutes until it's a nice thick, pizza sauce kind of consistency. While it's simmering, get your bases ready.

 

Thank-you Rose for gorgeous mixing bowl/jug from TK Maxx!

Sift your flour into a bowl and add your margarine. Get your (hopefully washed!) hands in there and rub it all together to form breadcrumbs. Start adding your soy milk, it wants to be a slightly sticky dough. Bring it all together into a ball and put on your well floured surface ready for kneading.

 

 

I split my dough in two here and it will do two smaller pizzas or one massive one depending on your preference.

Roll out your pizza bases to about one cm thickness and put them on your tray ready for topping.

 

Spread your lovely tomato sauce on, top with your veg and cheese and bake in a 190 degree oven for around twenty minutes.

Hey presto, yummy pizza!

It's better than takeaway I reckon! What's your favourite takeaway dupe?

Jo :)

 

Ingredients:

Base:

225g Self Raising Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

60g Margarine

100ml Soy Milk (you may not need all of it!)

Tomato Sauce:

12 Medium Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Basil

Garlic

Paprika

Method:

Cut the tomatoes in half, and fill baking dish with them cut face down

Drizzle over a little oil and preferred herbs and spices

Roast in 190 degree oven for 40 mins

Sift flour and salt into bowl

Rub margarine in with fingers to form breadcrumbs

Bring together with required amount of milk to form slightly sticky dough

Roll dough out onto floured surface till 1cm thick when you're ready to top it

When roasted, blend tomatoes into sauce and strain through sieve using back of spoon to push through

Simmer for ten minutes until thickened

Top pizza bases with sauce and preferred toppings

Bake for 20mins at 190 degrees until crispy!

Vegan Cheese - Tesco vs. Vegusto |Review|

Cheese. One of the most lamented and perceived losses from the diet according to most who contemplate the vegan way. (Aside from chocolate, but have you tried bournville?!)

I was certainly a bit worried about it as I did enjoy cheese a lot before. I've tried a few different brands and mostly been disappointed. The solid soy versions seem to have a weird after taste an I just can't get on with them. However, it was my birthday last weekend, and I haven't had pizza since last year, so I decided to treat myself to the No-Moo Melty cheese from Vegusto having read very good reviews on the stuff. Coincidentally, the friend my Mum was staying with had bought some of Tesco's Creamy Cheddar Style Spread to try as well. So a comparison was born.

I'll admit to having high hopes for the Vegusto cheese and low expectations from Tesco which may have influenced me somewhat, but they both had to go through rigorous testing to see which I preferred! It's a hard life!!

 

 

Cheese on Toast

 

Pre-Melting

The late or lazy dinner staple.

The No-Moo Melty cheese can be sliced to put on things, but I found it was better to grate it for more even coverage, as although it sort of melts and feels creamy when you eat it, it doesn't spread, so the circles just kind of sit there….it does crisp up nicely on top making it feel more authentic. It's got a pleasant taste, although a lot of it can be quite strong and tangy. The creaminess is really nice, but definitely more like a sort of mozzarella than the cheddar that would normally grace my toast. It will burn fast though if you don't watch it.

 

 

The Spread went on rather crumbly straight out of the fridge, and it, like the Melty, got creamier as it was heated, but held it's shape. It tastes really good, I wouldn't have said like cheddar, but like a smoky sort of cheese. I really liked it. It doesn't crisp up which was a little disappointing even if it was not expected.

 

 

Melty: 7/10 pleasant flavour, good crisping, creamy texture.

Spread: 6/10 good flavour, no crisping, creamy texture.

Baked Potato with Cheese and Beans

I sliced and spread two halves of a baking potato with the cheeses and topped with piping hot baked beans. The Melty again went slightly creamy but kind of held it's shape and didn't really mingle with the beans at all, whereas the Spread being slathered all over the potato, mixed in quite nicely as I cut it all up.

It all tasted the same as before, and to be honest the Melty behaved more like real cheese, perhaps I should have grated it on top rather than sliced underneath? I preferred the Spread though as I preferred the flavour and the fact there was no real difference in texture as it blended well.

Melty: 7/10 behaved like real cheese, nice and creamy.

Spread: 8/10 blended well, I preferred the flavour.

Pizza

Tesco Spread on Pizza!

The real test! Plus it's the reason I bought the Melty in the first place!

A bit sticky to grate the No-Moo Melty...

I made both pizzas from scratch (recipe next week!) and the only difference was the cheese topping. The Melty actually had the better flavour on here which surprised me (more is more with Melty?) and crisped up really nicely. Plus because it grates it's more authentic than the Spread. I really, really enjoyed this pizza, and it's also amazing cold. Just like the real (non-vegan) thing!

No-Moo Melty Crsiped up Nicely

The Spread was difficult to get onto the pizza in the first place. I warmed it slightly in the hope of it spreading easier, but actually I think you'd be better putting little chunks on straight out of the fridge. (and now I'm wondering if you could freeze and grate it, but that's an idea for another time!!). It went nice and creamy again, but not quite as good as the Melty. It also crisped up a bit which I think was a function of being in the oven for longer than on the cheese on toast. It had a very strong taste in fairly large quantities, and it was a little overpowering….I was a tad (lot) greedy and ate rather a piggy amount of pizza and the Spread slices left me feeling a little blegh. In moderation though it's almost certainly fine!!

Even the Spread crisped a bit!

Melty: 10/10 I really think this is the closest you'll get to real cheese on the pizza front!

Spread: 5/10 It was good, certainly tasty, but difficult to use and the quantity required made the taste overpowering.

ALL IN:

Vegusto No-Moo Melty: 24/30 (£7.49 plus shipping for 400g)

Tesco Creamy Cheddar Style Spread: 19/30 (£2.25 for 255g)

Both Delicious Pizzas

All in when you consider price as well I probably won't buy the Vegusto except for special Pizza occasions. It was undeniably better on the pizza (I'm restraining myself from eating more right now…) but sadly the cost puts it out of my reach for an everyday cheese. The Tesco one I have bought a few times now and I think it's brilliant. It'll do all your basics of sandwiches, crackers and anything else cold, and it's great hot too. I've mixed it with pasta, and added it to baked potato skins. It's been great every time.

Too much Vegan Cheese?

Now, I've eaten far too much cheese this weekend, so excuse me while I go detox!! Have you tried Vegan Cheese?

Jo :)