vegan culinary experience (pizza edition)

http://www.veganculinaryexperience.com

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Click on any of the titles to take you to the appropriate piece

Features Columns

Pesto is Besto 15 By Jill Nussinow, MS, RD

Jill writes about some of her extra

delicious pesto options, from

arugula pesto to oil‐free pesto.

Pizza without Borders 18 By Robin Robertson

Pizza doesn’t just live in Italy

anymore! Check out Robin’s

excellent recipes for her

muffaletta pizza and bahn mi

pizza.

My Love Affair with Pizza 22 By Madelyn Pryor

Most of us grew up eating pizza,

but as Madelyn grew up, so did

her tastes, except for one special

pizza her mom used to make.

Creating a Heart Healthy

Pizza 25 By Mark Sutton

Mark shows us how to create

pizzas using healthy ingredients,

interesting combinations, and

creative techniques.

Pizza by the Crust 29 By Jason Wyrick

Read about how to make classic

crusts like the traditional Napoli

crust and the Chicago Deep Dish

crust.

What’s Cooking? 4

Find out what’s up with the Vegan

Culinary Experience this month.

Vegan Cuisine & the Law:

Mid‐year Updated of Legal

Matters Affecting Barnyard

Animals 42 By Mindy Kursban, Esq. & Andy

Breslin

A lot has happened in the last few

months in the legal and political

sphere for farm issues and animal

welfare and rights issues.

From the Garden: Mastering

the Art of Grilled Pizza 46 By Liz Lonetti

Liz departs from the garden and

heads to her grill to show us the

secrets of a perfect grilled pizza!

The Vegan Traveler: Across

the USA 49 By Chef Jason Wyrick

Chef Jason recounts his

experiences in Portland, Richmond,

Cleveland, and Sedona.

Marketplace 10

Get connected and find out about

vegan friendly businesses and

organizations.

see the following page for

interviews and reviews…

Pizza! August 2012|1

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Features Contd. Reviews

A Slice of Advice: Vegan

Cheeses for Your Vegan

Pizza 34 By Madelyn Pryor

Learn about the best tools to get

the most out of your pizza making

experience.

Peels & Stones: Tools of the

Trade 37 By Jason Wyrick

Learn about the best tools to get

the most out of your pizza making

experience.

Columns Contd. Recipe Index 76

A listing of all the recipes found in

this issue, compiled with links.

Interviews Author Hannah Kaminsky 53

Hannah is one of the most

creative minds currently writing

vegan cookbooks.

Vegan Photographer Sharon

Lee Hart 55

Sharon is a professional

photographer, educator, and now

author of the new book Sanctuary,

a beautiful collection of animals

from Sanctuaries across the U.S.

Book Review: Practically

Raw 66 By Madelyn Pryor

Simple, straightforward recipes

that shine either raw or cooked.

Book Review: Grilling Vegan

Style 67 By Jason Wyrick

Great info about grilling with

decent recipes.

Book Review: Vegan a la

Mode 69 By Madelyn Pryor

A cornucopia of frozen vegan

desserts.

Book Review: The Starch

Solution 70 By Jason Wyrick

An inspiring and informative book

about how to lose weight, keep it

off, and rejuvenate your health.

Book Review: Rawmazing 72By Madelyn Pryor

Raw recipes everyone can bite

into.


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Interviews Contd. Reviews Contd.

Vegan Bodybuilder Robert

Cheeke 59

Robert is one of the most

influential vegan athletes of our

time. Read about what he’s

currently up to.

Super Activist Bruce

Friedrich 63

Bruce is one of the luminaries of

the animal activist world, having

lead campaigns for PeTA and now

Farm Sanctuary and is responsible

for saving thousands of animals

around the world.

Pizza vs. Pizza 74By Jason Wyrick

The first cheese we’ve come across

that actually tastes like cheese.


The Vegan Culinary Experience

Pizza! August 2012

Publisher Jason Wyrick

Editors Eleanor Sampson,

Madelyn Pryor

Nutrition Analyst Eleanor Sampson

Web Design Jason Wyrick

Graphics Jason Wyrick

Reviewers Madelyn Pryor

Jason Wyrick

Contributing Authors Jason Wyrick

Madelyn Pryor

Liz Lonetti

Sharon Valencik

Mark Sutton

Bryanna Clark Grogan

Jill Nussinow

Angela Elliott

Robin Robertson

Amber Shea Crawley

Mindy Kursban

Andy Breslin

Photography Credits

Cover Page Jason Wyrick

Recipe Images Jason Wyrick

Madelyn Pryor

Milan Valencik of

Milan Photography

Bryanna Clark Grogan

Jill Nussinow

Mark Sutton

Liz Lonetti

Restaurant Photos Jason Wyrick

Native Bowl Photo Courtesy of Julie Hasson

Tapsi Jim Stanfield

Pizza Peels, Semolina GNU Free Documentation

License

Mad Cow Public Domain

Bruce Friedrich Courtesy of Carolyn Mullin

Symphony & Gabriel Courtesy of Farm Sanctuary

Robert Cheeke Courtesy of Robert Cheeke

Sharon Lee Hart Courtesy of Sharon Lee Hart

Aries, Russell, & DeeDee Courtesy of Sharon Lee Hart

WWhhaatt’’ss CCooookkiinngg??

My time in Italy taught me a true

appreciation of good pizza. Like many people, I grew up eating frozen pizza out of a box or when my parents ordered take‐out from Pizza Hut. Going to Mr. Gatti’s was an infrequent treat. I thought those were good. I had no idea what real pizza was. I have

since learned otherwise and I am so happy that I did. You see, pizza is beautiful. Pizza is the nexus of rustic cooking, tradition, and spectauclar ingredients. There is something unassuming about real pizza, but a good pizza will knock your socks off. San Marzano tomatoes, in‐season basil picked right from the garden, fresh porcini, capers, olives, eggplant, squash, potatoes, spinach, white bean spreads, olive oil and garlic. All of these can be found on pizzas, but a good pizza only features a couple components. A good pizza lets these ingredients speak for themselves. I was so inspired by my pizza experience that I am even constructing a wood‐fire pizza oven on my patio! This issue is broken up a bit differently than our other issues. The recipes are separated into different components, namely crusts and sauces, and then the actual pizza recipes are simply expressions of these components. Many of the pizza recipes will refer to one of these parent components. You will also learn about equipment, techniques, and get plenty reviews of vegan cheeses and pizzas. I hope you love this issue as much as I did putting it together. Eat healthy, eat compassionately, and eat well!


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Jason Wyrick ‐ Chef Jason Wyrick is the Executive Chef of Devil Spice, Arizona's vegan catering company, and the publisher of The Vegan Culinary Experience. Chef Wyrick has been regularly featured on major television networks and in the press. He has done demos with several doctors, including Dr. Neal Barnard of the PCRM, Dr. John McDougall, and Dr. Gabriel Cousens. Chef Wyrick was also a guest instructor in the Le Cordon Bleu program. He has catered for PETA, Farm Sanctuary, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Google. He is also the NY Times best‐selling co‐author of 21 Day Weightloss Kickstart Visit Chef Jason Wyrick at www.devilspice.com and www.veganculinaryexperience.com.

Madelyn Pryor ‐ Madelyn is a lover of dessert, which she celebrates on her blog, http://badkittybakery.blogspot.com/. She has been making her own tasty desserts for over 16 years, and eating dessert for longer than she cares to admit. When she isn’t in the kitchen creating new wonders of sugary goodness, she is chasing after her bad kitties, or reviewing products for various websites and publications. She can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].

Bryanna Clark Grogan ‐ Author of 8 vegan cookbooks, Bryanna has devoted over 40 years to tasty, healthful cooking, 23 as a vegan. She was a frequent contributor and reviewer for Vegetarian Times magazine for 5 years, and, more recently, wrote and published a subscription cooking zine, “Vegan Feast”, for 5 years. She is moderator of the Vegsource “New Vegetarian” forum. Bryanna has conducted cooking workshops and classes locally (including a 5‐day Vegan Cooking Vacation on beautiful Denman Is.), and at numerous vegetarian gatherings in North America. Bryanna’s recipes appear in the The Veg‐Feasting Cookbook (Seattle Vegetarian Association); on Dr. Andrew Weil's websites; in No More Bull! by Howard Lyman; and in Cooking with PETA. Bryanna also developed the recipes for the ground‐breaking book, Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes. Robin Robertson ‐ A longtime vegan, Robin Robertson has worked with food for more than 25 years and is the author of twenty cookbooks, including Quick‐Fix Vegan, Vegan Planet, 1,000 Vegan Recipes, Vegan Fire & Spice, and Vegan on the Cheap. A former restaurant chef, Robin writes the Global Vegan food column for VegNews Magazine and has written for Vegetarian Times, Cooking Light, and Natural Health, among others. Robin lives in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. You may contact her through her website: www.robinrobertson.com.



Mindy Kursban, Esq. ‐ Mindy Kursban is a practicing attorney who is passionate about animals, food, and health. She gained her experience and knowledge about vegan cuisine and the law while working for ten years as general counsel and then executive director of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Since leaving PCRM in 2007, Mindy has been writing and speaking to help others make the switch to a plant‐based diet. Mindy welcomes feedback, comments, and questions at [email protected].

Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, The Veggie Queen ‐ Jill is a Registered Dietitian and has a Masters Degree in Dietetics and Nutrition from Florida International University. After graduating, she migrated to California and began a private nutrition practice providing individual consultations and workshops, specializing in nutrition for pregnancy, new mothers, and children. You can find out more about The Veggie Queen at www.theveggiequeen.com.

Liz Lonetti ‐ As a professional urban designer, Liz Lonetti is passionate about building community, both physically and socially. She graduated from the U of MN with a BA in Architecture in 1998. She also serves as the Executive Director for the Phoenix Permaculture Guild, a non‐profit organization whose mission is to inspire sustainable living through education, community building and creative cooperation (www.phoenixpermaculture.org). A long time advocate for building greener and more inter‐connected communities, Liz volunteers her time and talent for other local green causes. In her spare time, Liz enjoys cooking with the veggies from her gardens, sharing great food with friends and neighbors, learning from and teaching others. To contact Liz, please visit her blog site www.phoenixpermaculture.org/profile/LizDan.

Angela Elliott ‐ Angela Elliott is the author of Alive in Five, Holiday Fare with Angela, The Simple Gourmet, and more books on the way! Angela is the inventor of Five Minute Gourmet Meals™, Raw Nut‐Free Cuisine™, Raw Vegan Dog Cuisine™, and The Celestialwich™, and the owner and operator of She‐Zen Cuisine. www.she‐zencuisine.com. Angela has contributed to various publications, including Vegnews Magazine, Vegetarian Baby and Child Magazine, and has taught gourmet classes, holistic classes, lectured, and on occasion toured with Lou Corona, a nationally recognized proponent of living food.

Sharon Valencik ‐ Sharon Valencik is the author of Sweet Utopia: Simply Stunning Vegan Desserts. She is raising two vibrant young vegan sons and rescued animals, currently a rabbit and a dog. She comes from a lineage of artistic chef matriarchs and has been baking since age five. She is working on her next book, World Utopia: Delicious and Healthy International Vegan Cuisine. Please visit www.sweetutopia.com for more information, to ask questions, or to provide feedback.



Andrew Breslin ‐ Andrew Breslin is the author of Mother's Milk, the definitive account of the vast global conspiracy orchestrated by the dairy industry, which secretly controls humanity through mind‐controlling substances contained in cow milk. In all likelihood this is a hilarious work of satyric fiction, but then again, you never know. He also authors the blog Andy Rants, almost certainly the best blog that you have never read. He is an avid book reviewer at Goodreads. He worked at Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine with Mindy Kursban, with whom he occasionally collaborates on projects concerning legal issues associated with health and food. Andrew's fiction and nonfiction have appeared in a wide variety of print and online venues, covering an even wider variety of topics. He lives in Philadelphia with his girlfriend and cat, who are not the same person. Amber Shea Crawley ‐ Amber Shea Crawley is a linguist, chef, and author specializing in healthful vegan and raw food. Known for her flexible recipes and friendly voice, she was classically trained in the art of gourmet living cuisine at the world‐renowned Matthew Kenney Academy, graduating in 2010 as a certified raw and vegan chef. In 2011, she earned her Nutrition Educator certification at the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute. Her first cookbook, Practically Raw: Flexible Raw Recipes Anyone Can Make, debuted in March 2012. Amber blogs at AlmostVeganChef.com and can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Mark Sutton ‐ Mark Sutton has been the Visualizations Coordinator for two NASA Earth Satellite Missions, an interactive multimedia consultant, organic farmer, and head conference photographer. He’s developed media published in several major magazines and shown or broadcast internationally, produced DVDs and websites, edited/managed a vegan cookbook (No More Bull! by Howard Lyman), worked with/for two Nobel Prize winners (on Global Climate Change), and helped create UN Peace Medal Award‐winning pre‐college curriculum. A vegetarian for 20 years, then vegan the past 10, Mark’s the editor of the Mad Cowboy e‐newsletter, an avid nature photographer, gardener, and environmentalist. Oil‐free for over 5 years and author of the 1st vegan pizza cookbook, he can be reached at: [email protected] and http://www.hearthealthypizza.com

Milan Valencik ‐ Milan Valencik is the food stylist and photographer of Sweet Utopia: Simply Stunning Vegan Desserts. His company, Milan Photography, specializes in artistic event photojournalism, weddings, and other types of photography. Milan is also a fine artist and musician. Milan is originally from Czech Republic and now lives in NJ. For more information about Milan, please visit www.milanphotography.com or www.sweetutopia.com.


http://www.encpress.com/MM.html

http://andyrantsandraves.blogspot.com/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/820871.Andrew_Breslin

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0980013151/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=almovega-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0980013151

http://almostveganchef.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AlmostVegan


Eleanor Sampson – Eleanor is an editor and nutrition analyst for The Vegan Culinary Experience, author, and an expert vegan baker with a specialty in delicious vegan sweets (particularly cinnamon rolls!) You can reach Eleanor at [email protected].


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Become a Subscriber Subscribing to the VCE is FREE! Subscribers have access to our Learning Community, back issues, recipe database, and extra educational materials. Visit http://veganculinaryexperience.com/VCESubscribe.htm to subscribe. *PRIVACY POLICY ‐ Contact information is never, ever given or sold to another individual or company

Not Just a Magazine Meal Service The Vegan Culinary Experience also provides weekly meals that coincide with the recipes from the magazine. Shipping is available across the United States. Raw, gluten‐free, and low‐fat diabetic friendly options are available. Visit http://veganculinaryexperience.com/VCEMealService.htm for more information.

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An Educational and Inspirational Journey of Taste, Health, and Compassion

The Vegan Culinary Experience is an educational vegan culinary magazine designed by professional vegan chefs to help make vegan cuisine more accessible. Published by Chef Jason Wyrick, the magazine utilizes the electronic format of the web to go beyond the traditional content of a print magazine to offer classes, podcasts, an interactive learning community, and links to articles, recipes, and sites embedded throughout the magazine to make retrieving information more convenient for the reader. The VCE is also designed to bring vegan chefs, instructors, medical professionals, authors, and businesses together with the growing number of people interested in vegan cuisine. Eat healthy, eat compassionately, and eat well.


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Welcome to the Marketplace, our new spot for finding vegetarian friendly companies, chefs, authors, bloggers, cookbooks, products, and more! One of the goals of The Vegan Culinary Experience is to connect our readers with organizations that provide relevant products and services for vegans, so we hope you enjoy this new feature! Click on the Ads – Each ad is linked to the appropriate organization’s website. All you need to do is click on the ad to take you there. Become a Marketplace Member – Become connected by joining the Vegan Culinary Experience Marketplace. Membership is available to those who financially support the magazine, to those who promote the magazine, and to those who contribute to the magazine. Contact Chef Jason Wyrick at [email protected] for details!

Current Members Bad Kitty Creations GoDairyFree.org Robin Robertson (www.badkittybakery.blogspot.com) (www.godairyfree.org) (www.robinrobertson.com) Bryanna Clark Grogan Sweet Utopia Milan Photography (www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com) (www.sweetutopia.com) (www.milanphotography.com) Jill Nussinow, MS, RD Amber Shea Crawley (www.theveggiequeen.com) (www.almostveganchef.com)

Non‐profits

Vegan Outreach Rational Animal Farm Sanctuary (www.veganoutreach.org) (www.rational‐animal.org) (www.farmsanctuary.com)

The Phoenix Permactulture Guild (www.phoneixpermaculture.org)


http://www.veganoutreach.org

http://www.rational-animal.org



http://www.sweetutopia.com

http://www.theveggiequeen.com



http://www.robinrobertson.com

http://www.godairyfree.org



http://www.milanphotography.com

http://www.farmsanctuary.org

http://www.almostveganchef.com



http://www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com

http://www.phoenixpermaculture.org

I didn’t grow up eating pesto. I never ate pesto

until I was an adult. Mining my memories, I think

that I first had pesto at a small Italian restaurant

that my then‐boyfriend and I used to frequent

when I was in graduate school. I immediately fell in

love. What’s not to like?

Pesto is paste. Great paste at that. Most people are

not thinking “big antioxidant boost” when they

make, and eat, pesto. Yet, that’s what pesto does

for you, as well as adding lots of flavor. So, you

need to like whatever is in your pesto.

Traditional pesto is fatty, salty and flavorful and

elevates your pasta to a new level. So, as soon as I

could figure out how to make pesto, I started and I

began experimenting with various nuts, cheeses

and herbs. (That was more than 20 years ago when

I ate cheese.) I used almonds and lemon basil. I

used walnuts and cinnamon basil. I could go on but

you get the idea.

When I started teaching people how to follow an

oil‐free plant‐based diet (I have been teaching the

McDougall program for the past 10 years), I had to

change my pesto recipes to follow suit. I love pesto

on pizza because I find it much more interesting

than tomato sauce.

Here are a few variations of my non‐traditional oil‐

free pesto and a bean and vegetable spread that

can also be used as a base for making pizza.

Additionally, any pesto can be thinned down with

broth to make a dressing for salad, pasta or grains.

I love pesto because you can easily change the

recipe to use the herbs or vegetables that you have

on hand. If you don’t like sundried tomatoes, make

only herb pesto. If you don’t like arugula, make an

all‐parsley pesto. A small food processor helps the

process a lot. If you can dream it, you can do it.

If you make more pesto than you can use, freeze it

in ice cube trays. Pop out the cubes once frozen

and put them in freezer bags that you label and

date. The summer, when the herbs are abundant,

is the best time to make pesto and it will definitely

brighten up your winter pizzas. You’ll thank

yourself later.

Recipes follow.

The Author Jill Nussinow, aka The Veggie Queen™, eats gluten‐free pizza. Her favorite is made with oil‐free pesto, with lots of vegetables including shiitake mushrooms, olives, eggplant and tomatoes, when they are summer ripe.

Pesto is the Besto for Pizza and other Dishes By Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, aka The Veggie Queen™


The Veggie Queen’s Simple Arugula Pesto Makes about ½ cup

If you love arugula, you will like this, if not,

you can substitute spinach leaves for a much

milder flavor.

1 clove garlic

1 bunch (2 cups) arugula

½ cup Italian parsley leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon miso

¼ cup or more vegetable stock

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Freshly ground black pepper and/or

Parmesan cheese, if desired

Combine the garlic and arugula in a food

processor. Add the parsley, olive oil, miso

and vegetable stock and process until

smooth. Add the lemon juice. Add cheese, if

desired. If mixture needs more liquid, add

more stock or lemon juice, to taste. Add

freshly ground black pepper and/or vegan

The Veggie Queen’s Oil-Free Pesto

Makes about 3/4 cup

It’s hard to believe that this could taste so

good but it does. You can mix it with blended

silken tofu to make a creamy pesto for pasta,

if you desire.

3 cloves minced garlic

3 cups chopped fresh basil leaves

1 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

2 to 3 tablespoons pine nuts

1 slice gluten‐free, white or sourdough

bread or ¼ cup dry bread crumbs

1‐2 Tbsp light miso (to taste)

¼ to 1/3 cup water or broth

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

In food processor, combine everything except

water or broth. Pulse till finely minced. With

machine running, slowly add water until it

reaches desired consistency.

Roasted Red Pepper and White Bean Spread Makes about 2 cups

This light pink spread not only looks good but tastes great. You can roast the peppers yourself when they are in

season. Use instead of tomato sauce on pizza, placing your other vegetables on top.

1 ½ cups cooked white beans, such as cannellini

¾ cup roasted red peppers, drained if jarred or 2 roasted red peppers

1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped

2 teaspoons fresh thyme

½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine beans, olive oil, lemon juice, sage, thyme and salt and pepper in food processor. Process until smooth.


SunDried Tomato Pesto (Oil-free) Makes about ½ to ¾ cup

This is rich and has deep umami flavor from the tomatoes. A pair of scissors helps you cut the

tomatoes easily.

½ cup diced sundried tomatoes, not in oil

¼ cup warm water or vegetable broth

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 to 3 tablespoons nuts, your favorite, toasted

½ teaspoon oregano leaves

1 to 2 teaspoons Bragg liquid amino acids or ½ teaspoon salt (optional)

Put the diced tomatoes in the warm water or broth and let sit for at least 30 minutes to

an hour. While you are waiting for the tomatoes, add the garlic and nuts to the small

processor. Process until they are finely chopped. Add the tomatoes when they are

rehydrated with the soaking liquid, oregano and the Bragg. Process until smooth.

All recipes ©2012, Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, The Veggie Queen™ http://www.theveggiequeen.com


Growing up in an Italian‐American family, I literally cut my teeth on pizza. The numerous pizzerias in my hometown sold delicious and inexpensive New York style pizza, so it was one of the few foods my mother rarely made herself. Pizza night gave mom a rare respite from cooking and it was always a special treat to have a steaming hot pizza delivered. To this day, pizza remains one of my favorite foods. When I went vegan nearly twenty‐five years ago, it was the only non‐vegan food I missed. Back then, vegan cheese wasn’t as available (or tasty) as it is now, so I searched for other ways to enjoy the savory pie beyond the ooze of melted cheese. When I visited Italy, I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of pizza toppings on restaurant menus didn’t include any cheese at all. Instead, the crisp and delicious crusts were topped with a variety of vegetable combinations, including paper‐thin slices of tomatoes, zucchini, artichoke hearts, onion, mushrooms, olives, and many others. It was in Tuscany that I enjoyed my first pizza topped with a garlicky white bean spread, and pizza hasn’t been the same for me since. Once I realized that a creamy bean puree makes a flavorful and protein‐rich foundation for other toppings, I began experimenting with global flavors that might translate well into tasty pizza variations. Some of my more recent nuances include a Manchurian Cauliflower Pizza and a Buffalo Cauliflower Pizza – the doughy crust providing the perfect foil for the spicy roasted cauliflower. I’ve also made Vegan Queso Pizza, Puttanesca Pizza, Hummus Pizza, Cheeseburger Pizza (complete with

ketchup and pickle slices), and countless variations on that original Tuscan White Bean Pizza. Two of my favorite creations are inspired by my favorite sandwiches, the luscious bahn mi of Vietnam and the zesty muffaletta of New Orleans. The pizzas I based on these sandwiches are delicious examples of how pizza can truly be enjoyed with global flavors. I’m happy to share these recipes with you, and I hope you’ll be inspired to consider the ingredients and flavors of various cultures to create your own "pizza without borders." * Recipes follow The Author

Robin Robertson ‐ A longtime vegan, Robin Robertson has worked with food for more than 25 years and is the author of twenty cookbooks, including Quick‐Fix Vegan, Vegan Planet, 1,000 Vegan Recipes, Vegan Fire & Spice, and Vegan on the Cheap. A former restaurant chef,

Robin writes the Global Vegan food column for VegNews Magazine and has written for Vegetarian Times, Cooking Light, and Natural Health, among others. Robin lives in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. You may contact her through her website: www.robinrobertson.com.

Pizza without Borders by Robin Robertson


Muffaletta Pizza The olive salad that gives the classic muffaletta sandwich its piquant character becomes the topping for this luscious pizza that would be great served as a main dish or cut into small pieces to enjoy as an appetizer. If you don’t have time to make your own pizza dough (using the recipe provided), ready‐to‐use pizza dough (available in most supermarkets) gets this pizza in the oven in minutes. To save time, substitute 1 cup (or more) of prepared Italian olive salad or giardiniera for the topping ingredients, available at Italian grocers, some supermarkets, or online. The Dough 2 ¾ cups all‐purpose flour 2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup lukewarm water Olive oil The Toppings 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 3 cloves garlic, crushed 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano or ½ teaspoon dried 2 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard ½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce Salt and black pepper 6 oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and sliced ½ cup pimiento‐stuffed green olives, coarsely chopped 1/3 cup Kalamata olives, pitted, coarsely chopped 1 small Hass avocado, peeled, pitted, and chopped 2 teaspoons capers 2 scallions, minced 2 tablespoons chopped parsley Dough: In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and

salt. Stir in the water until combined then use your hands to knead it into a soft dough.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Shape into a smooth ball and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature in a warm spot until double in size, about 1 hour.

Transfer the risen dough to a floured work

surface, punch it down and gently stretch and lift to make a 12‐inch round crust about ¼‐inch thick. Transfer the crust to a floured baking sheet or pizza stone. Use your fingertips to form a rim around the perimeter of the crust and let rise for 20 minutes.

Position the oven rack on the lowest level of

the oven. Preheat the oven to 425F. Toppings: In a food processor combine the chickpeas,

garlic, lemon juice, oregano, mayonnaise, mustard, Tabasco, and salt and pepper to taste. Process until smooth. Spread the mixture evenly onto the pizza crust, to within ½ inch of the edge of the perimeter. Arrange the artichoke slices evenly on top of the pizza. Bake on the lowest oven rack until the crust is golden brown, about 15 minutes.

While the pizza is baking, in a bowl, combine

the green olives, kalamata olives, avocado, capers, scallions, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix well to combine. When the pizza comes out of the oven, top evenly with the olive mixture and serve hot.


Bahn Mizza Like the bahn mi sandwich that inspired it, this pizza features a variety of texture, temperatures and flavors, from the crisp hot crust and hoisin‐laced tofu spread, to the crunchy carrots and fresh cilantro. Heat‐seekers may way to add extra sriracha and jalapeños. The Dough 2 ¾ cups all‐purpose flour 2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup lukewarm water Olive oil The Toppings 1 cup finely shredded carrot 1 teaspoon natural sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon rice vinegar 2 teaspoons water ¼ cup hoisin sauce 3 tablespoons soy sauce 3 teaspoons sriracha sauce, divided 1 pound extra‐firm tofu, drained and cut into ¼‐inch slices 3 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise ½ English cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced 2 tablespoons sliced pickled jalapenos 1 cup cilantro leaves (or mint or Thai basil) Dough: In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and

salt. Stir in the water until combined then use your hands to knead it into a soft dough.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and

knead until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Shape into a smooth ball and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature in a warm spot until double in size, about 1 hour.

Transfer the risen dough to a floured work

surface, punch it down and gently stretch and lift to make a 12‐inch round crust about ¼‐inch

thick. Transfer the crust to a floured baking sheet or pizza stone. Use your fingertips to form a rim around the perimeter of the crust and let rise for 20 minutes.

Toppings: In a bowl, combine the carrot, sugar, salt,

vinegar, and water. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. Drain completely before using.

In a small bowl, combine the hoisin, soy sauce,

and 1 teaspoon of the sriracha. Mix well. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a

baking sheet or arrange a piece of parchment paper on it. Arrange the tofu slices on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the hoisin mixture onto the tofu slices and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. Increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees F.

Transfer half of the tofu to a food processor or

blender and process until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more hoisin, soy sauce, sriracha, or a little water, if desired.

Arrange the dough onto a pizza pan, stretching

to fit. Spread the pureed mixture evenly onto the pizza crust, to within ½ inch of the edge of the perimeter. Arrange the remaining tofu slices evenly on top of the pizza. Bake the pizza on the bottom rack of the oven until the crust is golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes.


While the pizza is baking combine the mayonnaise and remaining sriracha in a small bowl, adding more sriracha if desired. Set aside.

When the pizza is baked, cut it into 8 wedges,

then drizzle with the sriracha mayo. Top with the cucumber slices, drained carrot mixture, jalapeño, and cilantro. Serve immediately.


Some little girls grow up dreaming of owning a

horse, or growing more roses than they can pick. I

grew up dreaming of the next time my mom would

make pizza. There were a few mitigating factors in

this. First, I was a ‘foodie’ before I knew the word

for it. I was a happy, slightly gluttonous child who

already had a pony and more flowers than I could

pick in a lifetime. But pizza, pizza was a treat.

Maybe a love of pizza is in our blood. My

grandfather came from Sicily. There, he was a

neglected orphan. He came over to our country,

joined the military, became a citizen and reveled in

the culture of the 1950’s. In him, the gene that

loved pizza was silent. He had traded in the

peasant food of his childhood for the foods he

cooked outside on the massive brick barbeque

monster he built himself. My mother, his eldest,

loves Mexican food even more than Italian food.

She grew up in south Phoenix where her friend’s

mother, Mrs. Flores taught her to cook. She raised

me with homemade

tortillas, salsas, and took

pride in how much I loved

burritos and quesadillas.

I remember my first pizza

experience at five years

old. It was one of my

mom’s sheet pan

cheeseburger pizzas. To

this day, the very thought

of it makes my mouth

water. Baked on an 11”x17”

jelly pan, it was made with a

thick, fluffy crust, lots of sauce, hamburger and

cheese. Like many of you, I was raised on a non‐

vegan diet. I remember my mom blowing on my

food to cool it, then my eyes rolling up as I dug in.

It was kiddo nirvana. I loved it so much that my

mom made this at least once a month for me. I

knew then that pizza was awesome!

My life gained a richness and depth when mom

started making calzones. Remember in Lord of the

Rings when Pippen finds out that ale comes in

pints? That was the look on my face when I found

out that pizza came in ‘portable’. I was a tomboy by

nature, always out on my bike and about. A calzone

could be taken with to provide field rations for me

and my other friends as we played at being GI Joes

and saving the world from Cobra. Even cool,

calzones were bready, saucy delicious wonders. My

mom’s calzones are literally one of my happiest

childhood memories.

As I aged, I ate my fair

share of store pizzas. As

you move on to teen

years, most discover

the cardboard that the

big chains deliver to

your house. It doesn’t

taste great, it makes

your face look like the

food, and you still eat it

because your friends

are. I was no better or

no worse, but yuck.

My Love Affair with Pizza by Madelyn Pryor

as a kid, I might have been stopping to smell the flowers, but I was dreaming of pizza!


in a place as remote as this, my mom had to make all my pizzas, and I would not have had it

any other way

Luckily, I grew up. I became vegan as a way to

excavate the healthy girl out of my chubby girl

shell. It wasn’t the smoothest of transitions. I was a

new vegan with all the fire and brimstone of a tent

revival preacher… but I was the only vegan I knew. I

had a few quickly battered vegan cookbooks that

were ok but not great. I had to learn how to eat all

over again, so I ate a lot of salads, beans, and rice. I

love that stuff still, yet it was not the same. I

needed more. I needed my pizza. I still have a

strong, happy memory of Amy’s pizza, because she

told me pizza came in ‘vegan’. I was a poor college

student, so at the time, her vegan pizza was

alluring, yet, it was more than I had to spend. Still,

it gave me an idea.

That night, I made my first vegan pizza. It had

bread, sauce, and veggies. My mom was

encouraging as only mothers can be, and it was ok.

It was even pretty good. The pizza did not suffer for

the fact it was vegan, it suffered because it was not

‘mama pizza’ and I was a new cook. With a sigh, I

decided I had to just keep going. I made pizza when

I could, growing in skill every time.

It was graduate school that created one of my most

famous creations – the Seven Pounder. Yes, it does

have to be capitalized. In grad school, living alone

in the cold I needed to make big food that could be

eaten for a long time. The Seven Pounder was that,

a monster that gained its name when a visiting

friend weighed herself, and then while holding an

unsliced pizza. Yep, it was in fact a little over seven

pounds. I recommend that you make when you

have a party, and a back brace. I had grown in the

‘force’ and the pizza had grown with in size and

flavor profile.

Graduate school gave me the biggest gift I have

ever received. It made me so miserable I knew that

I had to quit. Maybe it was the hours, the death

threat, or the isolation but I needed out. All I could

grasp was my ability to cook and bake. By now, I

was known not just as ‘the vegan’, but my food was

coveted by all in my department, and my friends. If

I was strong in the Force before, now I was a full on

Jedi. I made great food. I needed to make more. I

needed to get away. I met Jason, quit, and started

cooking for people full time. It was the best of all

worlds. Pizza came with me on this adventure like

the true friend it is.

Now, instead of just churning out recipes based on

what I want, I teach cooking class, write for this

wonderful magazine, work on my blog and help

convert family recipes. Food has become my life in

a way that it is not for most other people. Over the

last three years, my ability to cook great food has

grown again. No, I am not Yoda yet. I am working

on Jedi Master status. My latest creation, Sundried

Pepperoni shows that I have grown. Instead of

panicking when I could not make it to the store to

buy some name brand product, now I make my

own seitan! How awesome is that?

Yes, my life has changed. I’ve moved from being a

kid who loved cheeseburger pizza to a vegan adult


the famous cheeseburger pizza

who loves cruelty free cheeseburger pizza. Instead

of a stressed college student, I am a semi‐stressed

instructor. But pizza is still there, a constant in my

life. Now I have good friends, good food, and a

great life. What is more comforting than that?

The Author Madelyn is a lover of dessert, which she celebrates on her blog, http://badkittybakery.blogspot.com/. She has been making her own tasty desserts for over 16 years, and eating dessert for longer than she cares to admit. When she isn’t in the kitchen creating new wonders of sugary goodness, she is chasing after her bad kitties, or reviewing products for various websites and publications. She can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].


There are few aspects of life as emotionally

satisfying as eating a tasty pizza, unless perhaps it's

making a pizza from the bottom up and with solely

plant‐based ingredients. Even more so, crafting

and baking your own fresh "heart healthy" pizzas at

home elevates this enjoyment to a whole new level.

Instead of using oil‐based processed cheese

substitutes in trying to duplicate the dairy‐based

toppings from the pizzas of our childhood, through

the creative use of legumes, grains, vegetables,

and/or small amounts of nuts, it's possible to

design highly nutritious flavorful "cheese‐like

sauces" that range in texture from a smooth

velvety "taste feel" to that of a slightly firm custard.

These sauces, whether used on the top or beneath

a myriad of colorful vegetable fillings, provide a

greater quality of nutritional and flavor diversity for

a truly unique, scrumptious, and healthy pizza

experience. Blended as a thick pancake‐like batter

and augmented with fresh herbs or spices, they are

baked with the foundation crust and fillings of

choice, thereby adding little extra preparation time

in creating fully realized pizza concepts.

Be imaginative when making a pizza! Use tomato

slices over chopped greens, shape the dough into a

rectangle, construct a lattice of topping sauce...

and above all, enjoy the process. There is no right

or wrong in making a pizza; it's an ongoing learning

experience to be embraced and the final product

savored.

With this in mind, here are some recipes to help

guide the heart healthy pizza cook in learning this

new approach.

PIZZA FOUNDATION RECIPES

There are many pizza dough or crust recipes

available on the Internet and in cookbooks. Here

are two: a "basic" pizza dough and a nifty gluten‐

free oat flour crust.

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH

INGREDIENTS:

¾ cup warm water

1 t. sugar (or sweetener of choice)

1 T. oil (optional)

½ t. salt (optional)

2 ¼ cups all‐purpose or bread flour

2 to 2 ¼ t. yeast (1 packet)

METHOD (Bread Machine):

1. Put in warm water 1st, optional oil, sweetener,

flours (pre‐stirred with optional salt), and yeast.

2. Select "Pizza" or "Dough" setting on the bread

machine and press "Start."

VARIATIONS:

Substitute 1 cup of the flour above with 1 cup of

cornmeal, soy flour, or semolina flour. The addition

of semolina flour makes for a slightly nuttier taste

and lighter texture.

Creating a Heart Healthy Pizza

by Mark Sutton


NOTE:

The dough can be used after the first rise, although

2nd rise is preferred.

Granulated sugar, agave nectar, molasses, rice

syrup, barley syrup, or maple syrup can also be

used as sweeteners.

This is for 2 thin 12" crusts, 1 large thin (if

rectangular, 10" x 24"), or 1 thicker 12" crust.

About 2 lbs. of dough and 8 servings.

OAT FLOUR CRUST (GLUTEN‐FREE)

INGREDIENTS:

2 ½ cups rolled oats

1 cup warm water

2 ¼ t. yeast

1 t. sugar (or sweetener of choice)

1 T. flax seeds

2 t. dried Italian herbs

½ t. salt (optional)

METHOD:

1. Whisk together water, yeast, and sugar in a large

mixing bowl. Cover, let rise for 10 to 12 minutes.

2. Grind flax seeds in a spice mill and mix into yeast

mixture.

3. Put oats into a blender or food processor to

make oat flour (about 2 cups worth).

4. Mix remaining ingredients together and slowing

add to the yeast mixture, stirring with a large

spoon. Gradually fold dough into a large flat ball

(the dough will be stiff).

5. Cover and let rise for 30 to 45 minutes.

6. Pre‐heat oven to 425 degrees F.

7. Shape into a ball with your hands, and press the

dough into a lightly oiled non‐stick baking pan into

the shape desired. If necessary, lightly wet your

fingers to help with the shaping process.

8. Bake in oven for 5 minutes (crust's bottom

should be starting to turn brown).

9. Arrange toppings and sauce(s) on dough, bake

for 10 to 15 minutes (or until toppings are cooked).

NOTE:

Add water for kneading the dough in 1 tablespoon

increments if it is not elastic enough or too stiff.

This recipe makes a 12 to 14" pizza.

"TOPPING SAUCE" RECIPES

Leftover sauce can be used with pasta, thinned as a

dressing for salads, or served over cooked

vegetables.

SWEET POTATO, OATS, CARROT, AND

GREEN CHILE SAUCE

This recipe makes a fluffy sauce. The sweet

potatoes and carrots add a nice dose of Vitamins A

& C, with oats providing even more fiber.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup raw sweet potato (peeled, ½” dice)

½ cup carrots (¼” dice)

2/3 cup rolled oats

4 oz. can diced green roasted chiles (undrained)

1 T. Dijon mustard (to taste)

2 T. corn starch

1 to 1 ¼ cup water (water plus leftover cooking

broth)

METHOD:

1. Cover potatoes and carrots with water in a small

pot. Bring to a boil, and let simmer for a few

minutes until “fork tender.” Remove cover, let cool.

2. Add drained vegetables and remaining

ingredients to a blender or food processor,

reserving the water.

3. Add liquid in incremental amounts, blending

carefully until a smooth thick pancake‐like batter

consistency has been achieved. There may be a


a pizza using the sweet potato, oats, & green

chile sauce

need to use less or more water depending upon

how carrots and potato were prepped.

NOTE:

This recipe makes more than enough sauce for two

12″ to 14″ pizzas (around 3 ½ cups).

GREAT NORTHERN BEANS, MILLET, AND

CASHEW SAUCE

A thicker sauce texture is made using beans for

fiber, and millet for its amazing nutritional profile.

INGREDIENTS:

1 15 oz. can of great northern beans

½ cup cooked millet

¼ cup cashews

3 T. corn starch

¼ t. ground black pepper

½ t. dry mustard (or 1. T wet mustard)

½ t. paprika

1 ¾ cup water

METHOD:

1. Rinse and drain beans (to remove salt).

2. Add great northern beans and millet to a blender

or food processor and pulse a few times.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, then add some

of the nuts and water. Pulse a few more times,

adding the rest of the water and nuts, and

processing until you have a smooth pancake‐like

batter.

NOTE:

White beans can be substituted for great northern

beans. Adjust amount of water used if necessary.

Makes about 3 cups, sufficient for two 12" to 14"

pizzas (from 2 lbs. of dough)

And NOW, A PIZZA RECIPE

FRIENDLY FRANKFURTERS & KALE

The "Super Vegetable" kale helps power this

"comfort" pizza.

CRUST:

Pizza dough of choice

LAYERING INGREDIENTS:

Tender raw kale or spinach leaves (rinsed, drained,

de‐stemmed and chopped)

Sliced tomatoes

Sliced onions

Sliced no/low‐fat vegan hot dogs sliced crosswise

Sweet pickle relish (optional)

Mustard of choice (use a squeeze bottle to apply)

Great Northern Beans, Millet, And Cashew Sauce

METHOD:

1. Pre‐heat oven to 425 or 450 degrees F.

(depending upon your oven).

2. Make a 1/4" layer of kale or spinach on top of

prepared and shaped dough.

3. Arrange tomato slices.

4. Put on onion slices.

5. Sprinkle with hot dog slices.

6. Dot with pickle relish

7. Apply mustard.

8. Pour on topping sauce.


9. Bake pizza for 15 to 20 minutes.

VARIATIONS:

Substitute left‐over or canned chili for mustard

and/or relish.

Substitute drained, rinsed, then drained again,

sauerkraut for relish and mustard (as desired).

All recipes and photos ©2012 by Mark Sutton, from:

"Heart Healthy Pizza: Over 100 Plant‐based Recipes

for the Most Nutritious Pizza in the World."

http://www.hearthealthypizza.com

The Author

Mark Sutton has been the

Visualizations Coordinator

for two NASA Earth

Satellite Missions, an

interactive multimedia

consultant, organic farmer,

and head conference

photographer. He’s developed media published in

several major magazines and shown or broadcast

internationally, produced DVDs and websites,

edited/managed a vegan cookbook (No More Bull!

by Howard Lyman), worked with/for two Nobel

Prize winners (on Global Climate Change), and

helped create UN Peace Medal Award‐winning pre‐

college curriculum. A vegetarian for 20 years, then

vegan the past 10, Mark’s the editor of the Mad

Cowboy e‐newsletter, an avid nature photographer,

gardener, and environmentalist. Oil‐free for over 5

years and author of the 1st vegan pizza cookbook,

he can be reached at:

[email protected] and

http://www.hearthealthypizza.com

THE PIZZA BY LAYERS

kale makes a super nutritious first layer

next are the tomatoes, onions, and veggie dog

slices

the finished pizza, topped with northern bean,

millet, and cashew sauce and then baked


The key to a good pizza isn’t the toppings, or even

the sauce. It’s the pizza dough! It may seem

counterintuitive. After all, we talk about toppings

and sauce when we describe a pizza, but the pizza

crust is, literally, the bulk of the pizza. In fact, I can

eat an outstanding pizza crust all by itself!

There is an entire culinary culture built around

pizza crusts. Some pizza makers from Napoli only

consider a pizza a true pizza if the crust is pliable,

rolled out with the fingers, no more than three

centimeters thick, and baked for 60 to 90 seconds.

In Roma, the pizza is thin and crisp, while in Sicily,

the pizza crust is often a sfinciune, a thick, spongy

crust similar to focaccia. Sicilians often roll their

pizza crusts, stuff them, or even place one crust on

the bottom and one on the top. No one tells a

Sicilian what to do! NYC pizza crusts chewy, but

crisp enough on the bottom that you don’t need a

second hand to support the tip, with blackened

spots from a brickfire oven and Chicago style crusts

are thick and soft with a crisp bottom and a buttery

flavor. California style pizzas, made famous by

Wolfgang Puck, are a bit puffy and very crisp with a

strong note of sourdough to them. And those are

just the main styles of pizza crust! There are a host

of variations found throughout the world. In order

to achieve sanity, I will only be covering the main

ones I wrote about above. Now, let’s talk pizza

dough.

Napoli Pizza Crust

Brick pizza ovens are prolific all across Campania,

the Italian province for which Napoli is the capital.

Not surprisingly,

Napoli is also the

birthplace of

pizza itself, at

least as we know

it. To get the

best, authentic

flavor from your

crust, you need

one of these

ovens, but don’t

despair if you don’t have one. You can still make a

fine Napoli‐style pizza crust by cranking up the

temperature of your oven at home to a respectable

550 degrees F. Or, you can visit my house where I

am in the process of building my first brickfire pizza

oven! Just make sure you call first, and bring some

wine.

2 cups (250 grams by weight) of Type 00

Flour (I prefer the brand Antico Molino

Caputo)

¾ cup + 1 tbsp. of warm water

1 tsp. of sugar

1 tsp. of salt

¼ tsp. of yeast

Combine the ingredients and knead the

dough until it is elastic, about 6 minutes. It

should still be soft. This will allow the edges

to bloom up in the oven. Place this in a

covered bowl and allow it to rise for 2 hours.

Punch it down and press out any other air

bubbles. Form this into a ball and lightly

dust it with flour. Cover it and let it rest for

an hour.

Pizza by the Crust By Chef Jason Wyrick


Lightly flour a working surface. Gently press

the ball flat and start stretching it out with

your fingers until you have a stretched it out

into about a 14” disc. It should be just over

1/8” thick, so a fairly thin crust. Lightly

brush the crust with olive oil.

When spreading the toppings onto it, leave

an inch clear to create a rim, which will

bubble up as the pizza cooks. In a brickfire

oven, the pizza will only take about 90

seconds to cook. In a traditional oven, turn

the oven up as high as possible (usually 550

degrees F) and cook the pizza for 5 minutes.

The combination of ingredients, proportions, and

technique creates a tender crust with a hint of

smokiness that will bubble up around the edges

and support a light sauce with a thin layer of

ingredients. The flour used in the recipe also keeps

the pizza feeling light once you eat it. For those of

you who are technically minded when it comes to

the kitchen, this is because the flour is ground very

fine and the Caputo flour only has an 11%‐12%

gluten content.

Roman Pizza Crust

Roman pizzas are thin, but unlike the Napoli crusts,

they are crispy with browning around the edges

and bottom. Like the Napoli pizza crusts, they

bubble up around the edges. To accomplish this,

you will need either a brickfire oven or, more

commonly, a pizza stone.

7 tbsp. of warm water

1 tsp. of sugar

¾ tsp. of yeast

1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. of olive oil

½ tsp. of coarse salt

1 cup + 2 tbsp. of all purpose flour

Combine the water, sugar, and yeast. Let it

sit for about 5 minutes. Add the oil and salt

and stir. Add the flour and stir. Knead this

for about 6 minutes, until it is no longer

sticky. Place it in a bowl, cover it, and allow

it to rise for about 2 hours.

Roll the dough out until is about ¼” thick.

Brush it with olive oil. Sauce and top the

pizza, leaving 1 ½” – 2” clean around the

edges. Bake in a brickfire pizza oven for

about 4 minutes or at 550 degrees F for 7‐8

minutes.

As you can see, this is similar to the Napoli style

pizza crust, but the crust is going to be browner

and crisper, thicker (which is required for the

prolonged heat), and it’s not quite as finicky.

Sicilian Sfinciuni Pizza Crust

Sicilian pizzas are very different from pizza in rest

of Italy. Sicilian pizzas can have thick, bready crusts,

may be rolled, or even covered with another crust

on top. Sfinciuni is a spongy crust, similar to

focaccia, and is my favorite of all the Sicilian style

pizzas I have tried. Classic toppings include onion

and tomatoes, very similar to a Greek style pizza

called ladenia. This pizza, more than any of the

other ones, is primarily about the bread. Typically,

sfinciuni is baked in a rectangular or square pan

and cut into rectangles to serve.


3 cups of all purpose or whole wheat pastry

flour

¾ tsp. of salt

1 tsp. of sugar

2 tsp. of yeast

1 cup + 3 tbsp. of water

3 tbsp. of olive oil

Combine the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast

together. Add the water and oil and

combine thoroughly. Knead the dough until

it no longer sticks to your hands. Lightly oil

it, place it in a bowl, and cover it. Allow the

dough to rise for 1 ½ hours. Punch it down

and allow it to rise 30 more minutes.

Lightly oil a rectangular baking dish, about

12”x8”. Spread the dough into the dish.

Typically, this pizza will bake at 400 degrees

F for 35 minutes.

Because the pan is oiled and the crust is a bit

bready, it should end up lightly fried on the

bottom. Like other breads, this is best when it

comes right out of the oven.

NYC Pizza Crust

NYC pizzas are famous throughout the U.S. Chances

are, you have a pizza joint serving NYC pizzas near

you. A bit part of that experience is the crust. It’s

thicker and moister than an Italian pizza crust and

has more of a rise to it because of the extra yeast.

It also has a nice, crispy bottom to it that should

taste lightly fried. The dough rests an entire day,

giving it a slight sourdough taste. It’s great stuff

and perfect with a sweet tomato sauce!

1 ½ cups of all purpose or whole wheat

pastry flour

2/3 tsp. of salt

¾ cup of warm water

1 tsp. of yeast

1 tsp. of sugar

Up to ¼ cup more of flour


Combine the flour and salt in one bowl and

the water, yeast, and sugar in another bowl.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture.

Lightly flour a working surface using the ¼

cup of extra flour. Knead the dough for

about 10 minutes, until it is soft, but elastic.

Form it into a ball. Oil the dough with the

olive oil, place it in a bowl, cover it, and let it

sit for one day (at least 10 hours) in the

refrigerator.

Once it has rested for at least 10 hours, take

the dough out of the refrigerator and let it

come to room temperature.

Roll the dough out to ½” thickness and tap

the edges to create a thicker, raised edge

around the pizza.

Sprinkle cornmeal or flour onto a pizza

stone, let the pizza stone get hot, top the

pizza, slide it onto the stone, and bake it at

500 degrees F for 6‐8 minutes.

Letting the moist dough rest for so long allows the

natural yeast and bacteria to begin fermenting the

dough, which is how it gets its sour taste. The long

rest time also changes the gluten structure to

create that soft, thick dough that is so much a part

of classic NYC pizzas.

Chicago Pizza Crust

If you’ve ever had a Chicago deep dish pizza, it is

likely and experience you are never going to forget.

The deep dish is widely accepted to have been

created at Pizzeria Uno in Chicago by a Texan. It


semolina flour

quickly became insidiously popular, with copycat

pizza houses popping up all across the city. No

wonder. The dough is thick and lusciously soft, the

center almost melting beneath the sauce. Speaking

of sauce, one of the hallmarks of this style pizza is

that the sauce often goes on top of the other

ingredients, counterpoint to what we often see in

most other pizzas.

½ package of yeast

¾ cups of warm water

½ tsp. of sugar

¼ cup of olive oil

1 ¾ cups of all purpose or whole wheat

pastry flour

½ cup of semolina flour

½ tsp. of salt

¼ cup more of all purpose of whole wheat

pastry flour


Combine the yeast, warm water, and sugar

and allow it to sit for about 10 minutes. Add

the olive oil to the wet mix. Combine the

flours and salt and then add them to the

wet mix, making sure everything gets

thoroughly combined.

Lightly flour a working surface with the ¼

cup extra of flour. Knead the dough for

about 8 minutes, just to the point where it

stops sticking to your hands and no longer.

Form the dough into a ball, oil the dough,

place it into a bowl, cover it, and let it rise

for 1 ½ hours.

After the dough has risen, punch it down

and give it two or three more kneads.

Spread it out into your deep dish pan. The

dough should be about 1” deep. As you

press the dough into the pan, press from the

center out towards the edges so the edges

raise about ¼” to ½” higher than the rest of

the dough.

Top the pizza and bake it on 375 degrees F

for 30 minutes.

Because there is so much oil in the crust (part of

the reason it is so soft), it is important to let the

yeast, sugar, and water sit for 10 minutes to allow

the yeast to begin developing. If you add the oil to

the water right away, it will slow down that

process.

California Pizza Crust

This is the crust made famous by Wolfgang Puck in

the early 1980s. It’s a touch sweeter than other

pizza crusts (chef Puck’s uses honey instead of

agave), and crisper all around, the better to hold

the myriad of ingredients found on these highly

creative pizzas. This is the place where fusion

pizzas grew up, from BBQ pizzas to grilled pizzas

with smoked asparagus. More so than any other

pizza, the California pizza crust has a strong note of

sourdough, created by letting the dough refrigerate

a day or two before using it.

1 tsp. of yeast

1 ½ tsp. of agave

½ cup of warm water

1 ½ cups of all purpose or whole wheat

pastry flour


½ tsp. of salt

2 tsp. of olive oil

Combine the yeast, agave, and warm water.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and

salt. Fold the dry mix into the wet mix ½ cup

at a time until thoroughly combined.

Do not flour your working surface. Knead

the dough for about 5‐6 minutes, until it is

elastic and no longer sticky. Form it into a

ball.

Oil the dough and cover it, allowing it to

rest for 30 minutes. Once it has sat, it needs

to be refrigerated for 1‐2 days in order to

develop its signature sourdough taste.

Roll the dough out until it is about ¼” thick. Top the pizza and bake it on 500 degrees F

for 10 minutes.

The Author

Jason Wyrick is the

executive chef and

publisher of The

Vegan Culinary

Experience, an

educational vegan

culinary magazine

with a readership of

about 30,000. In 2001, Chef Jason reversed his diabetes

by switching to a low‐fat, vegan diet and subsequently

left his position as the Director of Marketing for an IT

company to become a chef and instructor to help others.

Since then, he has been featured by the NY Times, has

been a NY Times contributor, and has been featured in

Edible Phoenix, and the Arizona Republic, and has had

numerous local television appearances. He has catered

for companies such as Google, Frank Lloyd Wright

Foundation, and Farm Sanctuary, has been featured in

the Scottsdale Culinary Festival’s premier catering

event, and has been a guest instructor and the first

vegan instructor in the Le Cordon Bleu program at

Scottsdale Culinary Institute. Recently, Chef Jason wrote

a national best‐selling book with Dr. Neal Barnard

entitled 21‐Day Weight Loss Kickstart. You can find out

more about Chef Jason Wyrick at

www.veganculinaryexperience.com.


Good pizza doesn’t necessarily require cheese, but good cheese can make a good pizza even better, if you pick the right one. There are a few good vegan cheeses, but you need the right tool for the right job. Below are a few different vegan cheeses and I talk about how to use them and which pizzas they work best on.

Daiya

Daiya is one of those products that I just keep at the house. I usually stock mozzarella, cheddar, and even pepper jack. The mozzarella helped me make many of my recipe contributions to this issue. The cheddar does have a nice sharpness, and melts decently. I most often use it to make ‘cheese’ crisps at home, but I used it to make my ‘cheeseburger’ pizza for this issue. The pepper jack does not have an overly peppery flavor. Some may appreciate this fact, but it makes me a bit sad. I would like it to be a little spicier. The mozzarella takes very similar to the cheddar, so it has a bit more ‘kick’ than a mild traditional mozzarella should. You can use that information as you wish. Either it sounds great, or it will have you running for the hills. However, if you are starting on the path of veganism, Daiya is an excellent cheese substitute. The best thing Daiya has going for it is that it melts nicely. The

flavor is full with some sharpness to it, so it needs to be paired with a pizza that doesn’t have delicate flavors.

Dr Cow These are raw ‘cheeses’. We tried both the aged cashew & crystal manna algae cheese and the aged cashew cheese. Both were excellent. I love my husband and it took everything I had not to grab the plate with both of them on them and run so I could eat them by myself. They are my favorite vegan cheeses of all time for an application like eating with crackers. However, while it would be excellent with a raw pizza, it would not be a good choice for your cooked pizzas, unless you wanted to use it as a finishing cheese after the pizza came out of the oven. If you do that, I suggest crumbling it onto the pizza. They are on the pricy end, but delicious and worth it for a nice occasion or fancy party.

A Slice of Advice: Vegan Cheeses for Your Vegan Pizza by Madelyn Pryor


Follow Your Heart A softer vegan cheese, Follow Your Heart has been a product I have used for six years now. It comes in a handful of flavors, including cheddar, mozzarella, nacho cheese, and Monterey jack. I have had all of them, and this product also largely tastes the same. It does melt to some degree, but not perfectly. Since some of my friends find the taste of Daiya too assertive, I love mixing it with equal amounts of Follow Your Heart. It’s a great way to mellow out the flavor of Daiya and still have a melty cheese on your pizza. Follow Your Heart mozzarella is also the cheese pictured on my Seven Pounder Pizza. It has a mild flavor, a slightly soft texture, but will grate if you do not press too hard. It is also good sliced on crackers as part of a ‘cheese tray’ which is my favorite use for this.

Heidi Ho Organics I tried two flavors, the chipotle cheddar and the smoked gouda. I had not before tried any of this brand, and I have to say, I will not be trying anything else from them. First, the texture is rubbery and gelatinous at the same time. If you have ever had really awful vegan cheese, especially really bad homemade vegan cheese, you have had

something very similar to this product. To make matters even worse, there was little taste to it. The Chipotle Cheddar has some flavor, but not the boldness one might expect when they see ‘chipotle’, and the Smoked Gouda did not taste smoked at all. This had limited melting power, and I would not recommend it for use with any pizza, or consuming it any other way. There are better alternatives out there.

Sheese For this review, I was only able to sample this company’s famous blue ‘cheese’, but they make many other flavors, including smoked cheddar, medium cheddar, strong cheddar, mozzarella, and gouda. The blue cheese was a little hard, and it contained no blue ‘coloring’ but it had a strong, nice blue cheese flavor. With a little bit of work it crumbles well enough to incorporate into salad dressings or to use on a pizza. Jason used this on the blue cheese sausage pizza, with great results. It won’t really melt, but I don’t want a blue cheese to do that. Because the flavor is so pronounced, it needs to be used sparingly or paired with other ingredients that have very bold flavors. Everyone at the pizza tasting party loved this one, and I almost beat up one of my best friends for the last bit.


Teese Though limited in some areas of the United States, Teese is a tasty little vegan cheese available in a variety of flavors. I sampled nacho cheese sauce, cheddar, and mozzarella. This little cheese comes in tubes, but do not let the packaging put you off in any way. This vegan cheese is delicious! The nacho cheese is so analogous to the dairy varieties that you could easily fool someone if you wished to do so. The taste and texture are spot on. The cheddar does not taste exactly like cheddar but is still very tasty with a nice finish and a good texture. The mozzarella is also very spot on. Jason used this on his Pizza Margarita this issue, and it was perfect. Even our meat eating, dairy loving friends were fighting over the last slice. I would recommend that you use the mozzarella on your vegan pizzas, and I know that you would not be disappointed. This is a cheese that can be grated, but really shows off when it is thinly sliced and laid directly on the pizza and it will accentuate your other high quality ingredients. It melts and tastes great!

Veg Cuisine My favorite from this line is their Soy Bleu. It does not have a terribly pronounced musty blue cheese flavor, but it does have a nice herbal note and a

creamy crumble which also lends itself to both salad dressing and crumbling onto a pizza. It does not melt very well, it just gets softer. You can see it in action on my hot wing pizza in this issue. Everyone, both vegan and omnivore liked it on that pizza, and this is an item we purchase when we get to the one store in our area that carries it. To use it on a pizza, crumble it and then sprinkle it on either before or after cooking. Before cooking will mellow it out a little bit, but it is already pretty mellow for a blue cheese. The Author Madelyn is a lover of dessert, which she celebrates on her blog, http://badkittybakery.blogspot.com/. She has been making her own tasty desserts for over 16 years, and eating dessert for longer than she cares to admit. When she isn’t in the kitchen creating new wonders of sugary goodness, she is chasing after her bad kitties, or reviewing products for various websites and publications. She can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].


Good pizza doesn’t require much. Just some love,

quality ingredients and a few techniques. Great

pizza, however, requires a few more helpers.

The Pizza Stone

If you don’t own a

pizza oven (see

below), and really,

not many people do

outside of southern

Italy, a pizza stone is

a must. A pizza

stone is a porous

disc of ceramic or

clay that both crisps the bottom of the pizza and

helps cook it evenly. If you bake a pizza on a flat

piece of metal, like a baking sheet, the dough is

going to release a tiny amount of steam as it cooks,

which will get trapped between the bottom of the

pizza and the pan. Trapped steam equals soggy

crust. Because the pizza stone is porous, it absorbs

that excess moisture and allows the bottom of the

crust to dry, or crisp. Also, because stone retains

heat so well, the heat becomes evenly distributed

throughout the stone, which in turn cooks the

bottom of the pizza evenly. You want one that is at

least four inches in diameter bigger than the pizza

you want to cook. That leaves a two inch space all

around the pizza for bare stone. That space makes

handling the stone and pizza much easier to deal

with. Most stones range anywhere from $20 to

$35, depending on the size and brand.

Because the stone is porous, you will want to clean

it only with a brush and some water. Do not use

soap or detergent, unless you want those flavors in

your pizza! Also, to prevent cracking, do not place a

room temperature stone directly inside a hot oven.

Allow the stone to warm up with the oven to

mitigate thermal shock and prevent fracturing. If

you don’t have a pizza stone, you can always use

a…

Holey Pizza Pan, Batman!

Pizza pans

attempt to

do what the

stone does

by making

the pan itself

porous,

albeit in the

largest way. Pizza pans have small holes in the

bottom to allow steam to escape the bottom of the

crust. Because this isn’t quite as even as the stone,

the crust won’t crisp perfectly, but it will be way

better than if the pizza was cooked on a simple

baking sheet. If you use one of these, make sure

you get a good, thick pan. If the pan is very thin

and made of cheap materials, it may warp when it

hits the hot oven.

Iron Skillet

Aside from being able to be wielded as a weapon,

an iron skillet makes the perfect deep dish pizza

pan. It’s heavy and thick, so it will retain heat quite

Peels and Stones: Tools of the Trade By Chef Jason Wyrick


well, ensuring that

the crust of your

pizza cooks evenly.

Most are also deep

enough that they

can handle the two

inch high deep dish pizza without spilling over and

you can serve the pizza directly in the iron skillet

for presentation. You can press the dough directly

into the skillet and even let it rise in the skillet for a

brief time if you desire. The sides of the skillet will

help you form the raised edge of the pizza as you

press the dough against them. Just make sure your

skillet is well oiled so that the dough does not stick

to it. Also, you can put these into the oven cold. It

does cause a small amount of stress to the pan, but

because it is a thick piece of iron, it is incredibly

resilient. Many people will tell you that you should

not clean them, but I am against simply leaving

dirty oil in an iron skillet and calling it “seasoned.”

Instead, wipe the pan down when you are done

using it with a little water, soap, and a rag, and

then make sure to thoroughly wipe it down with a

dry towel so it does not rust. Immediately wipe a

thin layer of oil onto it to provide a thorough layer

of protection. That oil can serve as the oil for you

pan on your next pizza endeavor.

Rectangular Baking Dish

If you want to make a rectangular pizza, and there

are several made in that fashion, almost all of

which have very thick crusts, you will want a good

13”x9”x2” glass baking dish. I prefer glass over the

sheet metal ones solely because glass generally

holds heat a bit more evenly. If you want a very

crispy crust, the metal one is a better way to go.

Both of these will need to be oiled, so if you are

going completely oil free, there are even some

silicon options out there. Silicon is naturally non‐

stick and will peel away from the pizza and reform

back to its original shape.

Tapsi

Want to create the

quintessential

Greek pizza

experience? You

may want to hunt

down a tapsi, a

traditional round Greek baking pan made of metal

about 1 ½” deep with a slight inner curve. Make

sure you get a good one made of stainless steel or

cast iron instead of a cheap aluminum one. This is,

of course, a specialty item and absolutely not

necessary unless you want to go true authentic. Do

I have one? No. Do I want one? Of course I do!

Pizza Peel

Aside from the pizza stone or pizza oven,

this is the next most important pizza

tool to have in your kitchen. It is

indispensible for delivering the pizza to

the oven and lifting it out while keeping

the integrity of the pizza intact and not

getting burned! A pizza peel is basically a

super‐wide spatula, wide enough to hold

an entire pizza. They come in wood,

bamboo, laminate, aluminum, or

stainless steel, with short handles for

conventional ovens and long handles for

pizza ovens. The long handle is

necessary with a true pizza oven to keep your

hands away from the intense heat of the oven. I

have a long one used for the pizza oven I am


building that I somehow manage to navigate

around my kitchen, but I do not recommend doing

that. If anyone else is in the kitchen, they will need

some serious dodge skills.

Some peels purely decorative, perfect for serving a

pizza, but not something you want to jerk around

in your oven. If you don’t want it to get scraped up,

don’t use it as a true pizza peel. For practical use, I

prefer the aluminum and stainless steel versions.

They are very thin, which makes delivering the

pizza and grabbing it out of the oven very easy. The

wood ones are

naturally thick,

so they have

to taper at the

end to slide

underneath

the pizza,

making them a

bit tougher to

use.

To deliver your pizza to the oven using the peel,

sprinkle cornmeal onto the peel, then gently slide

your uncooked crust onto the peel. It is much

easier if you sauce and top the pizza after it is on

the peel. Open your oven and place the front of the

peel at the front of your pizza stone or delivery

area in your pizza oven, tilting the peel at about a

15 degree incline. Quickly jerk the peel forward and

back to get the pizza to slide off the peel onto the

cooking surface.

To retrieve your pizza using the peel, place the peel

just in front of the pizza at a very minimal incline,

almost in line with the cooking surface. Jerk the

peel forward to grab the pizza. The peel should

slide right underneath it. Lift the pizza out of the

oven and let it slide off onto your cool down

surface or cutting board.

Corn Meal

Corn meal may be edible, but when it comes to

making pizzas, it is an invaluable tool. Its

coarseness keeps the pizza crust from resting

completely on the pizza peel. This allows it to easily

slide off the peel, like walking on marbles on a hard

surface, and it also allows the pizza to more easily

be lifted off the stone. Any residual cornmeal will

also crisp during cooking and help absorb excess

moisture. Make sure to get a large grain cornmeal.

Pizza Cutter

The standard pizza cutter

is the pizza wheel, which

you’ve probably seen. You

roll them along the pizza

and the sharp wheel slices

it. I had mixed results with

these until I got a heavy

one. The problem with

pizza wheels is that they

drag ingredients along with them and if they are

not heavy or sharp enough, they can have trouble

slicing through the pizza. The extra weight of a

heavy one helps get the proper slice, so you don’t

have to keep running the wheel back and forth

over the pizza. Another trick to use with these is to

run the wheel under water for a few seconds to get

it wet. This keeps the ingredients from sticking as

much on the initial slice.

My favorite pizza

cutter, however, is the

rocking pizza cutter.

It’s basically a long,

curved blade with the

handle over the blade.

You place it straight

down on the pizza and

rock it back and forth.


The downward pressure makes for an easy cut and

it tends not to drag ingredients around as much.

Make sure to get one that is about as long as the

pizzas you typically make.

The Pizza Oven

This is the big one, the tool of the truly dedicated

pizza aficionado. This is typically a brick outdoor

oven that holds a very high thermal mass and it can

do so for a very long time. It also happens to be

great for baking bread and for fire roasting, but its

purpose in life is to bake the best pizza in the

world. You may see some rectangular pizza ovens,

but I strongly suggest the round ones. Round pizza

ovens distribute the heat evenly throughout the

oven while the rectangular ones end up with

pockets of warm and pockets of hot and the air

doesn’t move quite right throughout the oven.

Most pizza ovens are now made with fire bricks, a

special type of brick that won’t crack under intense

heat and will refract the heat from the fire back

into the oven. These are not your typical fire bricks

that you would find in a fireplace, however. For a

pizza oven, you want to choose low‐duty firebricks

and you will most likely have to look for them at a

specialty brickyard or masonry shop. I am on the

hunt for some myself, currently. The dome of the

pizza oven is covered with insulating material to

keep the heat in, a chimney in the front of the oven

to let the smoke out (instead of out the door and

into your face), and heat resistant board on the

bottom on top of which lays brick or concrete to

keep the heat from escaping from the bottom of

the oven.

So why a pizza oven? Not only does it serve as a

conversational point for a backyard party, you can

pop pizzas in and out of it and have them done in 1

½ to 3 minutes. Because of the way they conduct

heat and the composition of the oven, they crisp

the bottom of the pizza while perfectly cooking the

ingredients on top, all within that short amount of

time. You can pop pizzas in and out quickly while

entertaining your guests at the same time and it’s

just such a fun experience!

If you plan on having someone build one for you,

you will probably pay anywhere from $2,000‐

$5,000 for one. For the industrious, however, you

can build one yourself for less than half the cost.

I’ve got the layout of my pizza oven and the first

few bricks already arranged on my patio and I can’t

wait to finish it. I planned on writing a detailed

article about how to build one, but I can’t do better

than the people at Forno Bravo. Forno Bravo has

the absolute best information on how to build your

own pizza oven and you can also order the supplies

and kit from them. Check them out at

www.fornobravo.com for guidance and inspiration.

The Author

Jason Wyrick is the

executive chef and

publisher of The

Vegan Culinary

Experience, an

educational vegan

culinary magazine

with a readership of

about 30,000. In 2001, Chef Jason reversed his diabetes

by switching to a low‐fat, vegan diet and subsequently

left his position as the Director of Marketing for an IT


company to become a chef and instructor to help others. Since then, he has been featured by the NY Times, has















1. Cage Disputes

In July 2011, the Humane Society of the United

States (HSUS) and the United Egg Producers (UEP),

reached an Agreement that formed the basis of a

proposed federal welfare standard for egg laying

hens, the Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments

of 2012.

Proponents of the Act, in addition to HSUS,

included Farm Sanctuary, Mercy for Animals, and

Compassion Over Killing. The Act would mandate

enriched cages with perches, nesting boxes, and

scratching areas that provide nearly double the

space for each hen as the current barren cramped

battery cages and egg carton labels that identify

the housing system so consumers would know if

the eggs they’re buying come from caged hens.

Some animal protection organizations took a

different stand. Nicknaming this legislation “The

Rotten Egg Bill,” a coalition of smaller groups that

include the Humane Farming Association, Friends

of Animals, and United Poultry Concerns argue that

this would create cages as the national industry

standard, denying state legislatures the ability to

enact laws to outlaw cages or otherwise regulate

egg factory conditions.

The measure was denied consideration when

initially tied to the Senate version of the 2012 Farm

Bill. As of this writing, the Act is still before the

House and Senate as stand‐alone legislation

(S.3239/H.R.3798).

If cages, even so‐called enriched cages, are given

the imprimatur of acceptability from the animal

protection community, will egg‐laying hens ever be

free from cages?

2. California’s Ban on Delicacy of Despair Takes

Effect

Foie gras is made by force‐feeding corn mash to

ducks and geese using a pneumatic tube jammed

down the animal’s esophagus. The intended result

is a disease called hepatic lipidosis, causing the

birds’ livers to swell to ten times normal size.

Amazingly, some people consider a diseased

swollen liver from a horribly mistreated bird to be a

delicacy.

On July 1, 2012, after a seven‐year grace period for

diners, it is now illegal to produce and sell foie gras

in California. Chefs are looking for ways to

circumvent the law. Corporate interests filed a

lawsuit days after the ban went into effect seeking

to get the law declared invalid and prevent its

enforcement.

This is a continuing story that will hopefully end

well for the ducks and geese at the center of the

Vegan Cuisine and the Law: Mid-year Update of Legal Matters Affecting

Barnyard Residents By Mindy Kursban, Esq. & Andy Breslin


http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2011/07/egg_agreement.html

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s3239

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/hr_3798.html

http://stoptherotteneggbill.org/site/c.8qKNJWMwFbLUG/b.7865469/k.3BC1/Humane_Farming_Association_enriched_cages_battery_cages_United_Egg_Producers.htm

http://www.wattagnet.com/154745.html

http://www.farmforward.com/farming-forward/legislation

http://abcnews.go.com/US/californias-foie-gras-ban-effect/story?id=16687059

http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2012/07/03/lawsuit-filed-to-overturn-california-foie-gras-ban-read-it-in-full-here/

portion of a hemp field

controversy.

3. Adios to Gestation Crates

Expectant pigs are continuously confined during

their pregnancies in a cage just about the size of

their bodies, essentially immobilizing them

completely for four months. As of this writing,

Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine,

Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and, most recently, Rhode

Island have banned them.

Forced by public pressure, many big companies

have announced they will stop buying pork from

suppliers who use gestation crates, including

McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Hardees, Carl’s

Jr., Denny’s, Cracker Barrel, Safeway, Kroger,

Hormel Foods, Bon Appétit Food Services.

Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork

producer, says it will phase out gestation crates by

2017.

4. Slime for a Change

The meat industry suffered its biggest setback this

year in March when ABC News ran a story about

what the industry prefers to call “lean finely

textured beef.” More popularly known as “pink

slime,” it’s even grosser than that name implies.

Low‐grade beef trimmings that come from the

most contaminated parts of the cow were once

used only in dog food and cooking oil. In 1991, a

company called Beef Products, Inc. (BPI), began

processing these trimmings and spraying them with

ammonia to kill pathogens such as salmonella and

E.coli. The finished product – “pink slime” – is then

added as filler to ground beef and other beef

products, making hamburgers, deli meats, beef

sticks, frozen entrees, and canned foods cheaper

and less fatty.

It’s an understatement to say the public did not

react at all well to pink slime. School districts, fast

food restaurants, and huge grocery chains around

the country stopped buying it. Whole Foods put

signs in front of their stores announcing “No Pink

Slime since 1980.” BPI was forced to close three of

its four factories, and another beef processor filed

for bankruptcy.

5. Let US Farmers Grow Hemp

Government farm policy supports the annual

harvesting of 90 million acres of corn, most of

which becomes animal feed and high fructose corn

syrup. Those same government policies make it

illegal to grow hemp.

Hemp ‐ hemp seeds, hemp protein, hemp oil, hemp

milk ‐ is a very healthy source of protein and other

nutrients. Hemp is also derived from the same

species of plant that produces marijuana, providing

the misguided justification for this ban.

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden introduced legislation

as part of the 2012 Farm Bill to allow farmers to

grow hemp. A companion House bill was previously

introduced by Texas Representative and famous

libertarian, Ron Paul.

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap CEO, David Bronner,

locked himself in a steel cage along with a dozen

hemp plants in front of the White House to protest


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/21/rhode-island-bans-gestation-crates_n_1616635.html

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/is-pink-slime-in-the-beef-at-your-grocery-store/

http://www.rodale.com/hemp-benefits

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/ron-wyden-industrial-hemp-amendment_n_1578205.html

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.1831:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/11/pro-hemp-protester-arrested-near-white-house/

mad cow disease under the microscope

the ban – and was forcibly removed by power‐saw‐

wielding cops.

6. Mad Cow Madness

When transmitted to humans who have eaten a

stricken cow, mad cow disease, also known as

bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is

incurable and 100% fatal, eroding the brains of

victims as they succumb to a debilitating loss of

mental faculties, ending with death. Naturally, our

government protects its citizens

by testing the 34 million cows

slaughtered every year in the US

for BSE.

Okay, they don’t test all 34

million of them. But they test

some of them. And by “some” we

mean one tenth of one percent.

That’s not a typo. It’s just insane.

If they were testing all 34 million

and found one positive result, this might

reasonably be written off as an anomaly. But when

99.9% of cows go untested, a single positive result

should be enough to send a beef‐eater into a panic

that his brain might melt long before the colon

cancer had a chance to devour his intestinal tract.

Up until this past year, they didn’t find any, which

must have been reassuring to people who are very

bad at math.

In April 2012, USDA testing found one. But finding a

contagious disease that literally rots your brain was

no cause for concern. The government assured

every American man, woman, and child that eating

cow flesh and drinking cow’s milk is safe. Bon

appétit.

7. Superbugs are Superbad

Eighty percent of antibiotics are given to factory‐

farmed animals so they don’t succumb to

unsanitary living conditions and to promote their

growth. This has led to the creation of antibiotic

resistant “superbugs.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has done

nothing since 1977 when it first noted this alarming

health risk. A federal court in New York recently

issued two decisions that require the FDA to

determine whether feeding antibiotics such as

penicillin and tetracycline to healthy animals is safe

for human health. If FDA finds

that such use is not safe, as it

should, it must withdraw

approval.

The ramifications of these court

orders are profound. If the

indiscriminate use of antibiotics is

banned, animal agriculturalists

may be forced to raise animals in

less intensively confined

conditions. That’s a little good

news for the animals right away. It also means that

meat prices will likely rise, reducing demand and

resulting in fewer animals raised for food overall.

8. Arsenic and Pink Chickens

Arsenic has been a perennial favorite of poisoners

for centuries. If it doesn’t just kill you right away,

like it’s supposed to, it may cause cancer, diabetes,

and heart disease, and has been linked to fetal

developmental disorders. You might think putting

arsenic in chicken feed would be such a

phenomenally asinine prospect, that nobody would

ever need to ban it. As is often the case when you

speculate about the absurdity of animal

agriculture, you’d be dead wrong.

Though initially used to kill internal parasites,

arsenic is now widely employed to increase chicken

weight‐gain and turn their flesh a more


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/04/24/mad-cow-disease-case-confirmed-by-usda/

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2012/120605.asp

“appetizing” pinkish color by causing chickens’

blood vessels to burst.

Maryland is now the first state in the nation to ban

arsenic in chicken feed, following in the footsteps

of Canada and the European Union. Now one state

out of fifty makes it illegal to put one of the most

toxic and well‐known poisons into chicken feed.

Progress.

9. Lunch Hour. The Movie.

Back in June, the Library of Congress was host to a

special screening of Lunch Hour, a new

documentary film that shines a national theatrical

spotlight on the troubles with the national school

lunch program.

Lunch Hour features food show host Rachel Ray,

Howard Stern co‐host Robin Quivers, Food Politics’

Marion Nestle, and PCRM’s Dr. Neal Barnard, to

highlight how a nutrition program initially intended

to feed hungry children is now one of the causes of

the childhood obesity epidemic.

The film’s writer, director, and producer, James

Costa, is vegan and a vocal advocate for veganism.

The Authors

Mindy Kursban is a

practicing attorney who is

passionate about animals,

food, and health. She gained

her experience and

knowledge about vegan

cuisine and the law while

working for ten years as

general counsel and then executive director of the

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Since

leaving PCRM in 2007, Mindy has been writing and

speaking to help others make the switch to a plant‐

based diet. Mindy welcomes feedback, comments, and

questions at [email protected].

Andrew Breslin is the author

of Mother's Milk, the

definitive account of the vast

global conspiracy

orchestrated by the dairy

industry, which secretly

controls humanity through mind‐controlling substances

contained in cow milk. In all likelihood this is a hilarious

work of satyric fiction, but then again, you never know.

He also authors the blog Andy Rants, almost certainly

the best blog that you have never read. He is an avid

book reviewer at Goodreads. He worked at Physicians

Committee for Responsible Medicine with Mindy

Kursban, with whom he occasionally collaborates on

projects concerning legal issues associated with health

and food. Andrew's fiction and nonfiction have

appeared in a wide variety of print and online venues,

covering an even wider variety of topics. He lives in

Philadelphia with his girlfriend and cat, who are not the

same person.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/maryland-set-to-ban-arsenic-containing-drug-in-chicken-feed/2012/05/20/gIQAFoIodU_story.html

http://lunchhourmovie.org/

http://theseedexperience.com/2012/06/jamescosta/

http://www.encpress.com/MM.html

http://andyrantsandraves.blogspot.com/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/820871.Andrew_Breslin

Summer time is a great time to fire up the grill and

keep the heat out of the house. We love having a

party and serving pizza fresh off the grill because

they are so quick to make and taste fantastic!

Crispy crust with a smoky char and favorite

toppings are a crowd pleaser and best of all, once

the grill it hot, you can be serving your pie in less

than 10 minutes!

The grill must be preheated to 500 degrees F. We

keep it really simple and use Trader Joe’s premade

Pizza Crust dough and skip the work it takes to

make it from scratch. Let the dough rest at room

temperature for about 15 minutes to make it more

workable. Oil a baking sheet and gently stretch the

dough out over it and lightly oil the top of the

dough.

Be sure to collect and drain all the other toppings

you want to use on your pizza. The idea is to

create a thin and crispy pizza crust, and soggy

toppings won’t help you get there! I drain the

olives and artichoke hearts well and then spread

them on paper towels to really pull the moisture

out. All the toppings need to be prepped ahead of

time and ready to put on the pizza quickly, trust me

you will need to work fast! An organized work area

is a must. Feel free to use your own recipes for the

dough and sauce, but premade works just fine.

Tomato sauce, fresh basil, an optional cheese of

your choice and you are ready to assemble.

Once the grill has reached 500 degrees, flip the

dough out onto the hot grate. Yes, raw bare dough

directly onto the hot grate! Remove the baking

sheet and close the top of the grill. You don’t need

Mastering the Art of Grilled Pizza by Liz Lonnetti


the grill is hot and the pizza dough is ready to be flipped onto it

the flip

pan removed

after the pizza dough has been flipped onto the grill,

before the pan is removed

ready for toppings

to oil the grate first, just boldly flip that dough out

onto the hot grill.

Wait for about 2 minutes and check to see if the

crust has bubbled and the bottom is lightly

browned with darker grill marks and it’s time to flip

the crust.

Once the crust has flipped it’s time to get those

toppings on fast. Using a large spoon, spread a

light layer of sauce over the crust. Fresh basil,

veggies and a cheesy substance are all scattered as

quickly as possible and the cover closed in order to

keep as much heat in the grill as possible. It will

only take a couple more minutes to finish the pizza

if you worked fast.


topped with yummy goodness

finished!

Once the toppings have heated through (don’t

expect to be able to actually ‘cook’ toppings on the

grilled pizza – precook things like onions and

mushrooms unless you like them raw) and the

bottom of the crust is browned it’s time to remove

the finished pie. Loosen up the crust with your

spatula and then slide the original cookie sheet

underneath to lift the pizza off and remove to your

cutting board.

This is when your guests start to get very hungry,

but let it rest another minute and then slice it up

and serve to great applause! Once you try making

pizza on the grill will wonder why you ever

bothered with your oven, it is easy, fun and

delicious!

The Author

As a professional urban designer, Liz Lonetti is passionate about building community, both physically and socially. She graduated from the U of MN with a BA in Architecture in 1998. She also serves as the Executive Director for the Phoenix Permaculture Guild, a non‐profit organization whose mission is to

inspire sustainable living through education, community building and creative cooperation (www.phoenixpermaculture.org). A long time advocate for building greener and more inter‐connected communities, Liz volunteers her time and talent for other local green causes. In her spare time, Liz enjoys cooking with the veggies from her gardens, sharing great food with friends and neighbors, learning from and teaching others. To contact Liz, please visit her blog site www.phoenixpermaculture.org/profile/LizDan.

Resources www.urbanfarm.org www.phoenixpermaculture.org


Recently, I’ve been traveling across the U.S.

teaching cooking classes, and during my travels I’ve

had an amazing opportunity to try vegan hotspots

from one coast to the next. While a tiny amount

were not so great, many of them were fun

adventures. A few, however, stand out above the

rest. These are the places I can’t wait to go back

and visit!

Native Bowl Food Truck

I’ve been to food trucks all over the country and

Native Bowl is my favorite. Jay and Julie Hasson

serve up delicious and creative vegan bowls at the

Mississippi Marketplace in Portland, OR. At Native

Bowl, you’ve got five different bowls to choose

from. I’ve eaten there several times before and the

Mississippi bowl, with BBQ soy curls, ranch, and

crispy cole slaw was my go to meal, but I recently

tried the Alberta, a bowl with garlic tofu, hot sauce,

sesame seeds, and seaweed is now my new

favorite. The combination of salty and spicy is just

too hard to beat. I’ll admit, though, that I don’t

choose. When I was there last time, I got both!

While you’re there, don’t pass up an opportunity to

get a macaroon or two. These have just the right

balance between moist and chewy and I would

make a lunch out of them if I could! Visit Native

Bowl at www.nativebowl.com. It’s easily the best

vegan meal you can get in the city.

The Bye and Bye Vegan Bar

The Bye and Bye was one of the coolest

experiences I’ve had in my travels. Vegan

restaurants aren’t too difficult to find anymore, but

a vegan bar? Pure awesome. I loved that I could go

out late at night, even on a Sunday, and get a good

vegan meal. My favorite on the menu was the

meatball sub. I was hungry before the first one, and

full when I ordered the second one, but it was so

good, I had to have two. Just the right meal to

accompany a fine vegan beer. Speaking of alcohol,

they are no slouches when it comes to the good

stuff. Expect to get a strong drink when you visit

the Bye and Bye and unlike most strong drinks,

they actually taste good. Add on a comfortable

Vegan Traveler: Across the U.S.A.

By Chef Jason Wyrick


patio and no‐smoking policy and you’ve got a place

I would be happy to visit several times a week.

Don’t bother visiting the website. It’s just a satellite

map of the location. You would be better off

looking it up on Yelp, VegGuide, or Happy Cow.

Richmond, VA Vegetarian Festival

Richmond is the food festival capital of the country.

There is one going on almost every weekend, but I

lucked out because the vegetarian festival just

happened to be going on the same weekend I was

there to teach a class. The bad part? It was in the

middle of July. I live in Phoenix. I can handle lots of

heat. Couple that with extreme humidity and I’m

toast. Soggy toast, but still toast. Despite that, I

stayed around the festival for a couple hours

sampling the various offerings and watching some

of the iron chef competition. While the

competition was a disappointment (I’ll get into that

later), I got to try a few different sandwiches, a

wrap, paella, some Ethiopian food, and some of the

best vegan sweets I’ve had from Chelly’s Cakes‐n‐

Pastries (www.chellybakes.com.) Cornbread,

muffins, cupcakes, brownies, and most were much

better than the ones I’ve had at the famous vegan

bakeries. Yum! Rooster Cart and Chelly’s were

definitely the highlights of the show. Not so much

with the Iron Chef competition. The pantry was not

very well stocked and the ingredients were odd,

almost like a light version of Food Network’s

“Chopped” than an Iron Chef competition. In an

Iron Chef competition, I want to see the chef’s go

to town, not be limited by a lackluster, strange

pantry. Not only that, one of the chefs wasn’t

vegan and another one wasn’t even vegetarian.

Frustrating, but in spite of that, a good festival to

spend a few hours. www.veggiefest.org.

Rooster Cart Food Truck

I lucked out. I got to eat at Rooster Cart twice while

I was in Richmond. Once at the festival, but before

that at one of their regular food truck locations.

Rooster Cart is a vegan sandwich food truck. The

sandwiches are big with bold flavors and

interesting combinations. Their bahn mi was one of

the best vegan sandwiches. Just the right amount

of tang and sweetness made me willing to sit in the

rain just to munch on a bite of this treat. I also

enjoyed the Dill Presidente, which had an

interesting combination of vegan chorizo and dill

sumac sauce that I was skeptical about at first, but

won me over with the first bite. The chef, Jen, is

one of the more creative minds I’ve encountered

on the road, making soul‐satisfying, unique, vegan

sandwiches that are sure to please vegans and non‐

vegans alike. They don’t have a website, but you

can check them out on Facebook.


The Flaming Ice Cube

The Flaming Ice Cube is located in Cleveland (with

another café in Boardman). It has a small diner

feel, and the menu has some diner style items, but

it’s far more diverse than it sounds. There are a

plethora of vegan sandwiches and burgers, many of

which use some sort of mock meat, but there are

also quite a few innovative salads, a few bowls, and

some nice appetizers. Like I said, a lot of these

feature mock meats, but even if that isn’t your

thing, the Flaming Ice Cube has something to offer.

They also have several organic dishes. I happened

upon it late on a Saturday night after teaching a

class and was treated to their Pesto Burger, the

Tempeh Chickenless Salad Sandwich, and the

Sunshine Salad. All of the food was well above

what you find in most vegan diners and I would

gladly go back there again. Plus, they are open late

and the staff was super friendly.

Chocolatree

Chocolatree is an organic vegan restaurant in

Sedona, AZ that is heavy on the raw side of things.

Not only do they have a café, they also sell a lot of

vegan chocolates (hence the name), many of

which, again, are raw. I was very happy to find this

place because it is the only vegan restaurant in the

area and it also happens to be good. My wife and I

split the raw platter for two and the Sedona burrito

and I was a bit happier with the raw platter. It

came with a raw hummus that was excellent,

guacamole (a bit underseasoned), and a trio of

excellent raw crackers, all made from different nuts

and seeds, along with some fresh veggies. This

platter was deceptively filling and I ended up taking

some of the crackers back to the hotel. They were

easily the best part of the meal and I would love to

learn how to make some of them. The burrito was

comprised of a raw

wrap, a sweet

dressing, hot sauce,

quinoa, and more

guacamole. I

particularly enjoyed

the quinoa, sweet

dressing, and hot

sauce combination,

but my wife did not

care for it as much.

We also tried their

kale “nachos,” which

were excellent. They

were basically kale chips that had been dehydrated

with a coating of cheddar flavored cashew cheese.

They sell them packaged in the store as well and

we each got two bags to go. Definitely worth the

money. Of course, the chocolates were wonderful

as well, but my sweet tooth had been worn out by

this time. It’s a fun little restaurant with a laid back

Sedona feel to it.

The Author

Jason Wyrick is the

executive chef and

publisher of The Vegan

Culinary Experience, an

educational vegan

culinary magazine with

a readership of about

30,000. In 2001, Chef

Jason reversed his


diabetes by switching to a low‐fat, vegan diet and

subsequently left his position as the Director of

Marketing for an IT company to become a chef and

instructor to help others. Since then, he has been

featured by the NY Times, has been a NY Times

contributor, and has been featured in Edible Phoenix,

and the Arizona Republic, and has had numerous local

television appearances. He has catered for companies

such as Google, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and

Farm Sanctuary, has been featured in the Scottsdale

Culinary Festival’s premier catering event, and has been

a guest instructor and the first vegan instructor in the Le

Cordon Bleu program at Scottsdale Culinary Institute.

Recently, Chef Jason wrote a national best‐selling book

with Dr. Neal Barnard entitled 21‐Day Weight Loss

Kickstart. You can find out more about Chef Jason

Wyrick at www.veganculinaryexperience.com.


Please tell us a bit about yourself. Where to begin? Well, I’m 23 years old and have just released my third cookbook, Vegan a la Mode. I tend to find myself on the sweeter side of the kitchen, as all of my books have featured desserts so far. Besides that, I work part time to Health in a Hurry in Fairfield, CT, am attending the Academy of Art University to earn my BFA in commercial photography, and do freelance photography on the side. I’m the staff photographer for VegNews magazine, and regularly contribute recipes to a number of kosher magazines as well. Basically, if it involves vegan food prep, writing, or photography, I’m all over it! What led you to become vegan and how has that impacted your life? I initially went vegetarian in high school, when I suddenly found myself with many vegetarian friends. It was only after I began to do research about the reasons for the dietary change that I actually understood the true underlying cruelty in even that decision. Though it was a completely new concept to me at that time, I went vegan within a month of that first big adjustment, and haven’t looked back since. It’s actually opened up my palate immensely, because I used to be a very picky

eater. Now, my philosophy is that as long as it’s vegan, I’m willing to try anything once. Your recipes are very creative. What gets you excited about making a new recipe? There are just so many possibilities when it comes to combining flavors! I feel inspired by just about everything, from seasonal ingredients to classic desserts to what I have kicking around in the pantry. Besides that, I just love being able to share something delicious with friends and family. There’s nothing more gratifying than making someone else happy, and good food is a universal mood enhancer.

What is the development process like? It probably looks a whole lot like anyone else fiddling about in the kitchen. I scribble down the main ingredients I want to feature and then

start to fill in with the supporting characters. Once I get the basic formula figured out, I write in measurement that seem reasonable for what I want to make, and then keep tweaking it all as I

An Interview with Cookbook Author Hannah Kamminsky!


actually start to assemble everything. Sometimes the recipe changes radically by the time I actually get the dish finishes, and sometimes I don’t touch it once. Every recipe has a life of its own. Often I have to make it two or three (or more) times to perfect the end results, too. What challenges have you faced as a vegan author and how did you overcome them? Happily, the distinction of being a vegan author creates no greater challenges than being an omnivorous cookbook author. Sometimes I’ll get the usual questions about protein and vitamins, or a skeptic who thinks that vegan food is all nuts and berries, but if you offer a person a dessert to sample, that tends to erase any doubts. I feel lucky that veganism is much more accepted and understood than ever amongst mainstream eaters. What is your favorite, unusual ingredient that you like to work with? Picking a single favorite ingredient is like picking a favorite child‐ Nearly impossible! As for unusual finds though, I did happen to stumble upon a package of Vegg while in London, and am kind of having a little love affair at the moment. What do you like to cook for yourself? Standard meals are very simple affairs‐ I rarely have the time to cook full recipes all in one go, unless it’s for a photo shoot that allows me to eat the leftovers. I like to cook components and have them all ready to assemble at a moment’s notice. Cooked beans, baked tofu, a wide variety of sauces, nuts, and seeds, plus frozen rice and tons of miscellaneous veggies are always on hand. That means I eat lots of nutrient‐dense salads and rice bowls on the fly. The key is to keep the savory stuff relatively healthy, to balance out the abundance of desserts in the kitchen.

What advice can you give new vegan cookbook authors? My advice would be the same for any new cookbook (or blog) author, vegan or not. Just keep on doing what you love, and do it with passion. It’s a tough business with tons of competition, so if you don’t make the impact you hope for, don’t let it get you down. As long as you’re learning, growing, and genuinely enjoying the process, it will all be worthwhile. It only means that your next book will be that much better. What's next for you? I’m already working furiously to compile another set of over 100 new recipes for the next cookbook! I don’t want to give too much away yet before I have some real results to show for it, but it involves a whole lot of pastry. While this latest volume is still primarily dessert‐centric, it will actually incorporate a few savory recipes into the mix as well. Thanks Hannah! Bio Growing up as a vegan with a voracious sweet tooth, Hannah Kaminsky had to learn to bake for herself at a young age. Endlessly experimenting with different recipes and creative combinations, there is always some new dessert or treat to taste in her busy kitchen. Developing her skills primarily through trials for her blog, www.bittersweetblog.com, food photography quickly became a passion as well, and is now the focus of her college degree. Contact Info You can find out more about Hannah at http://www.bittersweetblog.com.


Please tell us a bit about yourself. I recently moved to Lexington to teach photography at The University of Kentucky. If I have down time, you will find me puttering about in my yard planting or weeding, reading, watching Breaking Bad or something on HGTV, and hanging out with my cats, Finnie and Maxwell. I recently purchased a bike, so have been cruising around on that lately. When did you become vegan and why? What was that process like? I became vegetarian when I was 12 years old for ethical reasons upon viewing animal rights material my cousin was using for a report. I had a visceral reaction to the photographs and stories I read, which was enough for me to make the change. I have always felt compassion and love for animals, throughout my life they have been among my best friends, so it felt pretty natural to not eat them. I became vegan after starting this project and was researching the treatment of farm animals and finally visiting them at the sanctuaries sealed the deal. I knew in my heart that it was wrong to

exploit animals in any way and I could not ignore that feeling. The transition was not too difficult, with the exception of eating out in Lexington, KY (which is not exactly a vegan mecca‐although Louisville is slowly becoming pretty darn veg‐friendly). This is not the worst thing in the world, as it requires me to cook more, which I enjoy. I save money and have become more aware of what exactly I put into and on my body. How did you become a photographer? I took a class in high school and was hooked‐I found it magical‐a combination of art, cooking, and science. Photography has given me an excuse to get out and about to explore what interests and intrigues me. Without photography, I would be more of homebody than I already am. I took time off from school, but found photography was a constant in my life. I ultimately got my MFA and now enjoying teaching. I am fascinated by photography, which includes making my own images, critiquing student work, and considering all kinds of photographic imagery and the impact it has on the world.

An Interview with Photographer Sharon Lee Hart!


aries

What is your book about? How did you come up with the idea for it? The book has dignified black and white photographic portraits of the farm animals I had the pleasure of meeting at the ten US farm sanctuaries I visited in 2009 and 2010. Each photograph is accompanied by the animal’s name and personal story handwritten by the folks that know them best. In addition, the book has moving essays by Karen Davis, president of United Poultry Concerns; Kathy Stevens, founder of the Catskill Animal Sanctuary; and Gene Baur, founder of Farm Sanctuary. Jeffrey Masson, who is the author of The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals and The Face on Your Plate: The Truth about Food wrote the introduction. I wanted to utilize my strengths and photography seemed like the best way for me to raise awareness about the plight of farm animals in a positive way that allows people to actively look and engage. Folks are disturbed by the images that depict the cruelty and torture that occurs on factory farms (and who can blame them, it IS unbearably disturbing). While I think those images are absolutely essential to help get truthful information to the public and I strongly admire the folks that make these difficult images (not to mention they put me on the path to vegetarianism) and undercover videos, I wanted to come from a different angle and create something that people did not want to look away from. What challenges have you faced with the book and how did you overcome them? During the time I was photographing for this project, I was working as an adjunct professor teaching five classes between two colleges. Visiting the sanctuaries and photographing was self funded on that meager salary, which was a major challenge. To deal with that, I visited sanctuaries

whenever I could, mostly when they coincided with another obligation or were located close to a friend or family member I could stay with. I also have a supportive family that would kick in to help me with lodging while I was working on this project. I feel privileged to have had the experiences I did at the sanctuaries I visited, but I would have liked to have the opportunity to spend more time at each sanctuary and visit sanctuaries on the west coast. Another issue that cropped up was deciding how to photograph the animals. For the most part, I knew I wanted to be able to look into their eyes and either photograph on their level or lower. This was especially important with the birds, as I think the disconnect some folks have with them is that they don’t have the opportunity to look them in the eyes. I was certain I wanted to make traditional, somewhat formal portraits because I felt this was lacking. I consider the animals ambassadors for their species and strived to capture their personalities with respect. I made the photographs of the animals in basically the same way I would a person.


russell

What inspires you the most as an artist? Reading, other artists, injustice, movies, animals, love, music, recipes, smells, everyday life, photographers, plants, activists, weather, and quiet. How did you manage to get all the amazing pictures in the book?

With a decent amount of waiting and patience. I was using a clunky camera, so that slowed me down in a good way. Some animals came right over to nuzzled/hugged me, which was a treat, but many times I would sit down and hang out for a while. I put myself in whatever position I needed to in order to engage with each animal I photographed. It was such a reward when a shy animal made their way over to check me out! Now for a foodie question. What is your favorite recipe you like to make at home? Of course this changes all the time, but my love for all kinds of peppers is a constant thing. Right now my favorite things to eat are watermelon, tomatoes from my garden, anything with peppers, or a kale pear vanilla smoothie. Meal ‐wise I am pretty dedicated to green beans with Thai basil, Bhutanese pineapple rice, and red thai tofu from Appetite For Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I also just made these amazing chewy lemon

coconut cookies (minus the frosting as I am not big on it) from Bryant Terry’s cookbook, The Inspired Vegan. What advice can you give aspiring vegan artists and how can they merge veganism and art into a viable product? What a great question! I feel my answer will not be worthy, but I will give it a shot! Try not to worry about the end results of your art‐at least when you are beginning a project; stay true to yourself, beliefs, and process. Chose subject matter you are passionate about, whatever that might be. Edit your work thoughtfully, often times we are not the best editors of our own work and if this is the case, be sure to have folks you trust to be honest assist with editing. Allow yourself time to experiment and fail. Ideas and success often come from that. Don’t undervalue yourself as an artist. You need to get paid for the important work you do. Make sure you know your medium well and take classes and workshops to brush up if needed. Sue Coe is an amazing illustrator and her book, “Dead Meat”, would not have the impact it does if it were not for her stellar drawing skills. Animal rights are some of the most important issues of our time. No one wants animals to be treated cruelly, so I think the audience for vegan artists is limitless (not that all vegan artists will make art that deals with vegan issues‐of course!). I do think the pressure is on for all things vegan, meaning for many folks it not only has to prove itself, but be better than what already exists, but luckily I think vegans are able to meet that challenge head on. What's on your plate next? Well, I have lived in Kentucky for almost a year and am feeling the need to take on a project about horses and horse culture. I also make mixed media work, so I am taking a bit of time to to explore a few ideas that might be great or they might be thrown in the recycling bin, but it is important to take the time to experiment.


deedee

Thanks Sharon! You are very welcome! Contact / Book Info The book can be purchased through this website: www.farmanimalsanctuaryproject.com The site also includes links to the sanctuaries, additional photographs from the project, a resource page, and contact info. 10% of the proceeds (from books purchased through the above site) will go the sanctuaries depicted in the book. Bio Sharon Lee Hart was born in Washington, D.C. and teaches photography at the University of Kentucky. Hart earned her MFA from the University of North at Chapel Hill and her BFA from Maine College of Art. A vegetarian for over 20 years, Hart became vegan after spending time with the amazing animals she met while working on her farm animal sanctuary photography project. She recently received a grant from the Tennessee State Art Commission and an activist award for her “Sanctuary” project from PhotoPhilanthropy. She has exhibited her photographs and mixed media works throughout the country. Her work can be viewed by visiting www.farmanimalsanctuaryproject.com and www.sharonleehart.com.


Please tell us a bit about yourself. I worked for 15 years at PETA (most recently as VP for policy and government affairs), for 2 years as a public school teacher (where I was my school’s teacher‐of‐the year my second year), and for 6 years running a shelter for homeless families and a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C. My wife works for PETA, fighting the good fight against torturing animals in laboratories; she was previously a tenured math professor in Canada and is the brains of our operation. What motivated you to become vegan? What kind of change did that incur for you? I adopted a vegan diet in 1987 after I read Diet for a Small Planet. I considered myself to be an environmentalist, but I’d never thought about all the extra crops required if you feed them to animals first, and all the extra stages of production. I wrote about the issue at some length for Common Dreams a few years back.

What got you involved in pursuing animal rights? Was it one event or a series of them? I was running a shelter for homeless families, had been vegan for years at that point for environmental reasons, and read Christianity & the Rights of Animals, by the Rev. Dr. Andrew Linzey, an Oxford theologian and Anglican Priest. This was around 1992 or 1993. That turned me on to the animal argument. Some years later, when I was ready to stop running the shelter, a few very good friends strongly recommended PETA to me. PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk and I share a fair number of personality traits—type A, irreverent, mission‐driven. It was a great match. What are the cornerstone philosophies for you behind what you do? We should cast our lot with the oppressed and against the oppressor. That’s the central message of Jesus, and it is how I’ve tried to live my life since

An Interview with Super Activist Bruce Friedrich!


http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/22/4022

I first started taking my faith seriously in the mid‐1980s. Here’s an interview I did about it with the San Francisco Chronicle some years back, and a more recent piece I wrote for the Huffington Post. What is the most moving experience you have had in your career? I’m deeply moved every time someone tells me that something I’ve done has had a positive impact on them. I suppose Peter Singer’s blurb for the book Matt Ball and I wrote was probably the most moving, because Singer is such an inspiration to me and doesn’t offer faint praise. You can check it out on the book’s web site; in general, the positive response to our book has been extremely gratifying. What do you do at Farm Sanctuary? I’m in charge of our legislation and litigation work and I work with Nick Cooney on the Compassionate Communities Campaign. I’m also raising money to launch a project called “Someone, Not Something,” which will focus on letting the world know about the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive capacities of farm animals. Our first pass at the Web page for it is available at www.FarmSanctuary.org/someone. We’ll be producing white papers, attending science conferences, and filling gaps in the current research—which is extraordinarily scanty, when compared to ethological work with wild animals and dogs. If anyone is interested in helping get the project off the ground (i.e., funding it), please contact me. What do you consider the most important project you are currently working on and how is progress going on it? Without a doubt, that’s the Someone Project (see previous answer). I’m also very excited about a video that Nick and I are working on. It will be similar to Meet Your Meat and Farm to Fridge, except that it also briefly tells the stories of three

animals who have come to Farm Sanctuary. Video has an amazing capacity to turn people vegetarian, because they see what they’re supporting when they eat meat, and they realize it’s indefensible. I think this video will make a big impact. There are quite a few other initiatives that I’m excited about, but those are probably the big two. Veganism has been a rising star the past few years. What do you think is propelling that and what do you think can be done to propel it even faster? There’s a confluence of understanding that eating animal products is destroying our planet, harming animals, and making people sick. Bill Clinton’s decision to adopt a vegan diet certainly didn’t hurt. The most important thing people can do to propel it further is to remember that if you’re a vegan, you are sparing dozens of animals per year; each person you convince to do the same doubles your lifetime positive impact—so in one interaction with a non‐vegan, you can double your impact. That’s some serious power, but it also means that we should be very serious about how we behave and represent ourselves as farm animal advocates. Our “Compassionate Communities Campaign,” which Nick runs, is focused on harnessing this power; readers can sign up to learn more and get involved at ccc.farmsanctuary.org.

Now for a food question. What do you like to make for yourself at home? I married the best vegan chef on the planet. Alka and I fell in love based on mutual passions and interests and all the indeterminable things that

symphony – someone,notsomething


http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Is-Eating-Meat-A-Catholic-Sin-2802645.php

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-friedrich/a-lenten-suggestion-from-_b_1285341.html

http://www.animaladvocacybook.com/

http://ccc.farmsanctuary.org/

cause two people to click, and none of that had to do with her amazing prowess in the kitchen, but I’ve definitely benefited from the fact that she is an absolutely amazing chef. We love everything in Robin Robertson’s Vegan Planet and Tal Ronnen’s The Conscious Cook. You can check out recipes on their Web sites; they’re all fantastic. What is the most common question you get about being vegan and how do you answer it? I wear a shirt that reads, “Ask me why I’m vegetarian,” so the most common question I get is “Why are you a vegetarian?” (it works!). I always try to drive the conversation to a discussion of a very basic point: Would you slice open animals’ throats? Most people wouldn’t—they wouldn’t do it; they don’t want to see it; they don’t even want to think about it. So where is the basic integrity in paying others to do this to animals? I discuss that concept here. All the other questions people ask are distractions; none of them offers an answer to this very basic concept. Get your own “Ask me why…” shirt from Animal Rights Stuff, Compassion Over Killing, Mercy For Animals, or Farm Sanctuary; yes, there are four different designs. I’m not aware of another shirt that has two designs—let alone four. That’s because it’s the Best. Shirt slogan. Ever. A lot has been achieved recently in regards to animal welfare. However, there is some debate in the community about whether we should be pursuing welfare or liberation? What is your take on that and how do you address the other side? I’m convinced that we should be pursuing both. Here’s something Peter Singer and I wrote about why the welfare campaigns are important, and here’s a debate that I took part in last year on the topic at the annual animal rights conference. At Farm Sanctuary, the majority of our education and advocacy resources go into promoting veganism, but we also work on legislative and litigation campaigns to try to stop the worst abuses of farm animals.

Why did you leave PETA after such a long tenure? I loved my years at PETA and I remain a supporter of the organization (and my wife works there!), but my heart is with farm animals, who are the vast majority of animals who suffer and die in the world. I’m convinced that the biggest obstacle to promoting plant‐based eating and securing robust legal protection for chickens, pigs, and other farm animals is the inability of so many people to relate to them, and Farm Sanctuary is uniquely positioned to change societal understanding in this area. We tell the animals’ stories and help people to understand that each animal is an individual—that there is no difference between abusing and eating a cat or a chicken, a dog or a pig. They’re all individuals who deserve equal consideration. I’ve been close friends and colleagues with Farm Sanctuary founder and President Gene Baur for more than 15 years, and I’ve always been struck by his integrity, good humor, and clarity. And I’ve been in awe of national shelter director Susie Coston for more than a decade; she really is the Jane Goodall of farm animals; her breadth and depth of knowledge is just stunning. Now that I’m working with them every day, I’m even more impressed.

What advice can you give people who want to enter the animal rights field as a career? We need people who want to do animal rights as a career, of course, so if you’re looking to move from your current career to animals rights, watch the jobs listings of the sites for your favorite groups. If you’re still in college or, better yet, just getting to college, major in finance or computers or

gabriel– someone,notsomething


http://robinrobertson.com/

http://www.talronnen.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-friedrich/resolved-eating-animals-i_b_671322.html

http://animalrightstuff.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=111B&Category_Code=SVV

http://www.cok.net/blog/2011/06/ask-me-why-im-vegetarian-new-t

http://www.mfablog.org/2011/06/take-mfas-new-ask-me-why-im-vegetarian-t-shirt-challenge.html

http://shop.farmsanctuary.org/store/p/1875-Ask-Me-Why-Unisex-Tee.aspx

http://www.satyamag.com/sept06/singer-friedrich.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNA6As85nkk

http://www.farmsanctuary.org/the-sanctuaries/rescued-animals/2012-rescues/

something where the animal community needs great people, but we can’t afford to compete salary‐wise. Psychology is also a great major, since a big part of being effective involves message‐framing. All that said, if you have the capacity to make a lot of money and funnel it back to the most effective forms of activism, that might be your best choice. Some of the people I find most inspiring are the philanthropists who are not working in animal rights, but they’re devoting most of their income to promoting the initiatives that most inspire them. What is coming up for you next? I’m most excited about the Someone Project, which we’ll be launching in earnest as soon as we have funding, but I’m also excited about the new pamphlet and video that Nick Cooney and I are working on and about expanding the Compassionate Communities Campaign. Also, we worked with the Humane Society of the United States and other groups to pass a ban on gestation and veal crates, and tail docking, in Rhode Island this year, and to save the foie gras ban in California, which went into effect on July 1, after an 8 ‐year waiting period. I’m eager to expand those efforts next year. Thanks Bruce! Thank you! Contact Info You can follow Bruce at www.twitter.com/BruceGFriedrich and at www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce‐friedrich.


When and why did you become vegan? I grew up on a farm and developed an appreciation for farm animals similar to the respect and appreciation someone might have for a dog or a cat. Given this perspective and my closeness to animals – raising them as pets – through my involvement in 4‐H, it seemed fitting to stop eating my animal friends. In the mid 90’s, as a teenager, I no longer wanted to contribute to animal cruelty and suffering and decided to go vegan. I have been vegan since December 8, 1995 (when I was 15 years old and 120 pounds – By 2003, I was up to 195 pounds and a competitive bodybuilder running www.veganbodybuilding.com). Was that before or after your interest in bodybuilding and what spurred that interest on? Growing up as a skinny kid, bodybuilding was always intriguing and something I was interested in from a young age. I didn’t pursue bodybuilding, or even weight training for that matter, until about five years after I became vegan. I quickly gained muscle and traded my running shoes for weight lifting gloves and became a competitive, 2‐time champion bodybuilder. What do you do for a living and what is your favorite part of that? In 2005 I joined Vega, a product line created by fellow vegan athlete Brendan Brazier and today,

continue to work for them. I work in sales for this innovative plant‐based nutrition company from Canada, focusing on outreach at vegetarian and vegan festivals around North America. Additionally, I run www.veganbodybuilding.com full‐time and am actively pursuing a writing career. Having published a best‐seller a few years ago called “Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness” I am currently editing my second book. My new project is a personal development book about finding your passion and making it happen. The best part of my work is that I am doing what I am passionate about, and the amazing travels and places it takes me to. In what ways does being vegan affect your ability to build muscle, maintain tone, and recover from workouts? From my experience as a vegan athlete the past seventeen years, coupled with my education from Cornell’s plant‐based nutrition certification program, I can say with a great deal of confidence that as opposed to a regular, meat‐centered western diet, a plant‐based whole food diet is optimal for providing energy, building healthy muscle and quickly recovering from exercise. This is because plant‐based whole foods are the original – and healthiest – sources of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, protein, fatty acids and other nutritional components necessary for optimal health. Getting nutrition from plants leads to

An Interview with Vegan Athlete Robert Cheeke!


higher levels of health and avoids the negative side‐effects that come with the consumption of lower quality foods (animal‐based and processed foods). There are numerous scientific studies, including the China Study, that show correlations between the foods we eat and numerous preventable illnesses. Therefore, a plant‐based diet appears to be best for bodybuilding or any other athletic or health‐centered pursuit. What challenges do you face as a vegan bodybuilder and how have you overcome them? The only challenges that come with a vegan bodybuilding lifestyle are defending the vegan lifestyle among others unfamiliar with it, especially before veganism was more mainstream and popular as it is today. In the 90’s and early 00’s there weren’t a whole lot of people in the mainstream athletic sphere who were vegan and talking about it. Now, many of the greatest athletes in the world are vegan, including some of the biggest names in tennis, boxing, ultimate fighting, powerlifting, professional football and Olympics. Veganism is coming of age before our eyes. Have you seen any changes in attitude in the athletics world in the past five years? We have seen more progress in the animal rights and vegan movements in the past five years than in the previous 50 years combined. What we have seen recently with some of the greatest athletes in the world becoming vegan has been inspiring, encouraging, and uplifting. The mindset among typical athletes appears to be more geared towards openness to new ideas. Veganism is one of those ideas being explored and embraced by many. You inspire quite a few people! What would you say is the achievement you are most proud of? My goal from the beginning was to save animal lives and reduce animal suffering and cruelty. That is still my primary objective and where my passion largely lies today. I am proud of the number of animals that have been saved and proud of the friendships and relationships that have been developed among the community members of my

website. Saving lives and bringing people together is something I am dedicated to doing for the rest of my life.

What do you like to eat to prepare for a competition? As I prepare to for competition, I ensure my diet is entirely comprised of whole foods – no processed foods. Foods such as yams, potatoes, oats, brown rice, greens, and fruits make up my pre‐contest diet. Avoiding processed foods is a great way to reduce the consumption of sodium, fat, and refined sugars which can have an adverse effect on bodybuilding. Eating cleanly leads to a lean and healthy physique. What is your favorite dish that you prepare at home? In general, my favorite types of food are Indian, Thai, Ethiopian, Mexican and Japanese. These types of foods include a variety of protein and quality carbohydrates, as well as healthy fats. At home, brown rice with beans and avocado is a favorite meal that is also quick and easy to prepare. I also eat fruit throughout the day. If I am feeling more adventurous I will make an elaborate green or fruit salad, focusing on presentation, flavor and whole food goodness. What advice can you give upcoming vegan body builders?


This is an exciting time to be a vegan athlete. Veganism is more popular than it has ever been. The opportunities for athletes to spread the vegan message, via their athletic platforms and achievements, are increasing by the day. Using athletic success to inspire others, save lives, and contribute positive messages to the world is what I would suggest vegan athletes do. Network with others, write about your experiences, document your progress and share it with audiences far and wide. Work hard, stay grounded and always remember why you decided to dedicate your life to benefitting others. Let that reminder fuel your passion. What's on the horizon for you? At the moment I am taking a break from bodybuilding to pursue other interests including working toward the completion of my next book and focusing on meditation, introspection, contemplation, writing and learning more about myself. I am continuously working to discover how I can most effectively and efficiently help others in numerous ways and share the vegan message. Thanks Robert!

Bio Robert grew up on a farm in Corvallis, OR where he adopted a vegan lifestyle in 1995 at age 15. Today he is a best‐selling author of the book Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness ‐ The Complete Guide to Building Your Body on a Plant‐Based Diet. As a two‐time natural bodybuilding champion Robert has been considered one of VegNews Magazine's Most Influential Vegan Athletes. He tours all over North America regularly giving talks about his story transforming from a skinny farm kid to champion vegan bodybuilder. Currently Robert works for Vega, a line of vegan whole‐food products, as a representative of the pro‐vegan film Forks Over Knives and also works full‐time running Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness on www.veganbodybuilding.com, which includes writing books, touring and maintaining the popular website. Robert recently moved to Austin, TX and continues to spread the vegan way of life leading by example as an accomplished vegan athlete. Contact Info You can find out more about Robert at www.veganbodybuilding.com.


There are a great many reasons to pick up and enjoy Practically Raw by Amber Shea Crawley. One of the reasons is for the great variety of tasty recipes. Another is the inspirational, bright and colorful pictures. Even another reason is because there are options in this book no matter what you like to eat, and that is what appeals to me. From the outset, Crawley confesses that while the vast majority of her diet is raw, she is not 100% raw. She embraces having flexible options, which is what this book is based upon. If you are 100% raw, she has you covered. I love the fact that there is a chapter just based on kale chips. That is awesome. There are mouth watering main dishes, many based on international cuisine, delectable desserts (I am so making the doughnut holes), and there is even a raw biscuits and gravy recipe! For our 100% raw readers, you will have many new additions to your library of recipes. For the rest of us, there are cooked options. No dehydrator? No problem. If you want your flax crackers baked, Crawley will tell you how to do that. All recipes have both cooked and raw directions, and take no more equipment than a basic knife, blender, etc. You do not need a bunch of crazy equipment and you can make these however your taste buds hit you at the moment. If you have someone in your family who is not raw but trying to avoid wheat, refined sugars, etc, this

is a great book for them. Because it deals with whole foods, seeds and grains, and has cooked options, it would make a wonderful gift for someone with a food allergy. I personally am on a path of eating both raw and cooked food at this time, and I am using Crawley’s book to work some more raw foods into my diet. On the chilly winter days that are coming, if I want those options cooked, I can. I love that concept and you will, too. Treat yourself to a copy of this wonderful book. Recommended.

The Reviewer Madelyn is a lover of dessert, which she celebrates on her blog, http://badkittybakery.blogspot.com/. She has been making her own tasty desserts for over 16 years, and eating dessert for longer than she cares to admit. When she isn’t in the kitchen creating new wonders of sugary goodness, she is chasing after her bad kitties, or reviewing products for various websites and publications. She can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].

Authors: Amber Shea Crawley Publisher: Vegan Heritage Press Copyright: 2012 ISBN: 978-0-09800131-5-3 Price: $19.95

Book Review: Practically Raw

Author: Amber Shea Crowley

Reviewer: Madelyn Pryor


Looking at other reviews of this book, I am

probably one of the few people that didn’t go crazy

over it, so this review is a bit mixed. I loved part of

it and was ambivalent about the rest.

First, let me tell you about the part that I thought

was exceptional, and that’s the non‐recipe part of

the book. A lot of cookbooks have a short overview

of the topic, maybe mentioning equipment, a few

techniques, or odd ingredients. This book goes far

beyond that and while it is by no means exhaustive

(that might make it a textbook!), it is very

extensive. There’s a section devoted to types of

grills, one on how to test for heat, another on tools

of the trade with a paragraph about each tool, how

it’s used, and why it is important, a section on

safety, a section on how different food types work

on the grill, and a long list of good ingredients to

sizzle over your outdoor fire, each with its own

paragraph on how it works and some uses for it.

That’s my kind of book and it made me excited

about reading it. Even if I didn’t use any of the

recipes in the book, it inspired me.

That does, however, bring me to the recipes, and

here I was a bit let down. Don’t get me wrong, the

recipes are decent and solid, but when a book

claims it is “blazing new trails,” I expect something

highly creative and well thought‐out. Perhaps

grilled watermelon looks new and fresh to

someone who only thinks about grilling slabs of

eggplant or veggie burgers, but watermelon, fruit,

citrus, lettuce, and other “exotic” foods have been

visiting the grill for a long time. When I see

trailblazing, I want to see those grilled ingredients

used in intriguing ways. A lot of the recipes felt like

moderately creative or simply average recipes with

a grilled element tossed in.

Aside from that, you will find some good recipes

for marinades and sauces and there are some real

gems in the book, like The Blue Pear, a dish of

sourdough, vegan blue cheese, and fresh pears.

Tasty! That one made me want to run out and start

my grill right away.

All in all, despite what may sound like a negative

review of the recipes, the book is still solid and a

worthwhile addition just for the first chapter, and if

Author: Grilling Vegan Style

Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books

Copyright: 2012

ISBN: 978-0-7382-1572-3 Price: $20.00

Book Review: Grilling Vegan Style

Author: John Schlimm

Reviewer: Jason Wyrick


you are one of those people who is looking to

move beyond the grilled veggie burger, this book is

a great start.

The Reviewer

Jason Wyrick is the

executive chef and



educational vegan



30,000. In 2001, Chef Jason reversed his diabetes by

switching to a low‐fat, vegan diet and subsequently left

his position as the Director of Marketing for an IT

















I have a confession to make: I am jealous of Hannah Kaminsky’s latest wonderful tome Vegan ἁ la Mode. This book is what a frozen dessert book should be: full of careful explanation, wonderful photos and delightful inspiration. Oh yes, it is also full of enough perfect recipes to not only get you through a horrific summer of 100 degree heat, but to delight you throughout the year. So what can you expect when you grab Vegan ἁ la Mode? If you are only into the classics, Hannah has you covered. You will find a recipe for French Vanilla that uses either whole vanilla beans or vanilla paste? Never used whole vanilla beans before? She is there to explain to you how to do it easily and with grace. Do you want something more adventurous? There is a recipe for Sesame Halvah ice cream, based on the Middle Eastern treat. She even molded it to resemble the original. A more American flavor is the Bloody Mary ice cream, complete with vodka! Talk about the perfect brunch item for a hot summer day. But those are just a few examples of her creativity or what you will find inside. Inside this book, you will also find a recipe for pup‐sicles, a treat for your doggie friends that you can adopt to your own tastes as well. There are treats based on fruits and veggies, classics, bakery inspirations, a section based on nuts and more! So many delicious goodies!! There are also recipes for items to share the spotlight with your ice cream,

like spiffy whip! I am very excited that Hannah cracked the code to making a delicious whip, because this will soon grace some of my homemade pies. If you do not already own a book on frozen desserts get this one. If you already have a book on vegan desserts get this one, too! There are amazing pictures of every recipe and her flavor combinations are amazing and inspirational! This book will improve your life, make you smile, and give you happy memories for summers to come. That is a great bargain for less than $20. Highest recommendations.


Authors: Hannah Kaminsky Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Copyright: 2012 ISBN: 978-1-61608-724-1 Price: $17.95

Book Review: Vegan a la Mode

Author: Hannah Kaminsky



This is my favorite of John McDougall’s books, and

I’ve been following him for awhile. If you are

familiar with John McDougall’s work, then you

know what this book about. A low‐fat, high‐starch

vegan diet to promote health, but even if you

already knew that and have been to every

Advanced Study Weekend of his, this book is still

an outstanding read with lots of new science‐

backed information. On top of that, the writing is

both clear and engaging and the information is

presented in a way that nearly everyone can

understand. Of course, there are plenty of tasty

recipes in the back of the book to help you along

your way!

The book is divided into three major portions. The

first is titled “Healing with Starch.” This section

talks about traditional diets and the major poisons

of animal foods. While many of us may already be

familiar with this, it’s an important topic for non‐

vegans to read. What inspired me the most about

this section, however, was the chapter on

spontaneous healing. As a former diabetic who did

exactly that, this hit home, and the stories of other

people who did something similar with their

ailments are both inspirational and moving. The

next section is about protein, calcium, fat, and

where to obtain good sources of each. Usually

when I get a book like this, I flip through to random

pages on my first pass to see what I can find. On

every page of this book where I did that, I found

myself pulled in to the text and I spent hours

reading on what is usually only a few minutes on a

first skim.

Of course, the book would not be complete

without a recipe section to give the erstwhile

reader a strong guide on their high‐starch vegan

eating plan. The recipes do not disappoint. For

those new to the kitchen, and you will have to

learn to cook to follow doctor McDougall’s advice,

there are sections on equipment you will need,

how to stock a pantry, menu plans, methods of

food prep that go beyond just recipes, and advice

on eating out.

Authors: John McDougall, Mary

McDougall

Publisher: Rodale

Copyright: 2012

ISBN: 978-1-6091-393-8 Price: $26.99

Book Review: The Starch Solution

Authors: John McDougall, MD and Mary McDougall

Reviewer: Jason Wyrick


All in all, this is a great book and a worthwhile

addition to my collection. If you don’t have it

already, I suggest adding it to yours!

The Reviewer

Jason Wyrick is the

executive chef and



educational vegan



30,000. In 2001, Chef Jason reversed his diabetes by

switching to a low‐fat, vegan diet and subsequently left

his position as the Director of Marketing for an IT

















Colorful, inspirational, and delightful are just a few of the ways to describe Rawmazing, Susan Powers raw ‘cook’book with over 130 recipes to make you want to walk away from your stove and over to your dehydrator. There are several things that make this cookbook a great addition to your cooking library. First, many of the recipes and be created without a plethora of special kitchen equipment. Second, there are vibrant photos of the majority of these delights to prod you into the kitchen, and lastly, these recipes are full of approachable ingredients. When I have examined other raw books in the past, I occasionally get frustrated at the amount of specialized equipment (and time) needed to make the recipes. I have a professional kitchen and an Excalibur dehydrator. If I need to invest hundreds more in specialty items, what chance does the average person starting out have? But this is not an issue with Susan Powers. Some of her recipes do require dehydration, but many others take blending, cutting and not too much else. It is a refreshing change of pace to be able to just go to my home kitchen and create all the raw food I would like from this fine book. The photographs in this book are beautiful and inspirational. I teach cooking classes for many people who are new to veganism, and have barely heard of raw foods. These beautiful photographs do a few things. First, they highlight how simple

and delicious raw food can be, and how approachable. They also give everyone the chance to do the classic check “Did I do it even somewhat right?” If you are someone who loves pictures with your recipes, this one is for you. Lastly, I love the fact that this book relies on ingredients that can be easily obtained at most supermarkets. I hate falling in love with a recipe only to find out that the ingredient has to be ordered from the internet and costs a fortune. With simple, healthy ingredients such as nuts and seeds, fruit and vegetables, anyone can find plenty of raw recipes that can be created with what you have on hand, or a very quick local supply run. If you are already raw, this book will inspire you with new recipes to try. If you have been flirting with trying out more raw recipes, this book will tempt you with its wonderful recipes. My only complaint is not about the author, but the publisher. There is no index of recipes, making it very hard to find what you are looking for. This is the only reason I gave this book 4 instead of 5 stars. Recommended.

Authors: Susan Powers Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Copyright: 2012 ISBN: 978-1-61608-627-5 Price: $16.95

Book Review: Rawmazing

Author: Susan Powers



Five pizzas go head to head in our pizza challenge!

Who will come out on top? Read on to find out

what my friends and I thought about these boxed

pizzas and who we picked as the ultimate winner

and the clear loser.

First up in our challenge is Garlic Jim’s Gluten Free

Vegan Pizza. I had hopes for this one. It actually

looked good in the package and the crust didn’t

look off like so many other gluten‐free crusts I’ve

seen. It didn’t have that crumbly look to it and that

was important. Other than that, it looked like a

pretty standard tomato and vegan cheese pizza.

Hard to go wrong, or so I thought. Once the pizza

came out of the oven, I gave it the cursory gluten‐

free inspection. The crust looked like it held up well

and even looked like a regular pizza crust. Good

marks there. The cheese, however, had that plastic

look. Trepidation began. My crew and I took the

first bite and the frowns around the room said it

all. Plastic cheese and lifeless sauce will defeat

even the best crust, gluten‐free or not. This pizza

went down in flames. Boring, artificial flames.

Next up was Amy’s Pizza Margherita. Pizza

Margherita is a traditional Napoli pizza meant to be

made a certain way. What I saw on the package did

not look like a pizza Margherita. There was too

much cheese and no basil showing. An imposter

and not even a good imposter, I thought! It baked

decently, so I gave it a chance. We passed it around

the room and the pizza ended up getting decent

marks. I think I had the most problem with it

because I knew what a pizza Margerita should be,

but even though Amy’s messed that part up, it still

had a good flavor and in the end, that is what is

most important. The crust was a bit bready, but the

sauce was good and the Daiya accentuated the

sauce well. This one was probably not going to be a

winner, but it was a huge improvement over Garlic

Jim’s travesty.

Pizza vs. Pizza By Chef Jason Wyrick


Our third pizza was Whole Foods’ Roasted

Vegetable Pizza with a whole wheat crust. This was

a little individual pizza, but right away I saw that we

were in trouble. I’ll just say this one was bland and

sweet. No, actually, I will say more. This pizza was

terrible! It’s bad bread with homogenous sweet

tomato sauce with frozen underprepared veggies.

Whole Foods should be ashamed to stock this on

the shelves. Even with a little bit of help from some

other ingredients we added, it was still terrible.

Stay away.

We could not wait to get to our next pizza, but we

needed a palate cleanser before that, so we took a

breather, had some drinks, and delved into the

Tofurky’s Pepperoni Pizza. I had tried this pizza

before, so I knew what I was in for. A pretty

standard packaged pizza, but vegan. It’s a bit spicy,

a bit sweet, and loaded with Daiya cheese. This was

one of the better pizzas of the bunch, but it

definitely looks and feels processed. Ironically, my

non‐vegan friends eschewed this pizza in favor of

the Amy’s pizzas while the vegans liked it more. It

had a bite and sharpness to it that I liked, but I did

not feel good after eating it. I gave this pizza

second place, but the rest of the group put it right

in the middle.

Our last pizza was Amy’s Spinach Pizza with Rice

Crust. Because the crust was made out of rice, it

had a crumbly texture to it. However, it was nicely

flavored, so much so that it made up for the

texture. Plus, the crust didn’t taste like rice flour.

Amy’s did an excellent job with this one. The pizza

was loaded with spinach, tomatoes, garlic, herbs,

and vegan cheese and the spinach and herbs were

well balanced. It easily had the best flavor out of all

of them and if it wasn’t for the texture, it would

have been a great boxed pizza. With the crumbly

crust, the pizza did not achieve greatness, but it did

achieve a win in our pizza challenge by a nearly

unanimous vote.

The winner? Amy’s Spinach Pizza with Rice Crust.

The loser? The Pizza That Shall Not Be Named (aka

the Whole Foods’ Roasted Vegetable Pizza). Look

for further food challenges in our upcoming issues!

The Lead Reviewer

Jason Wyrick is the

executive chef and



educational vegan



30,000. In 2001, Chef

Jason reversed his diabetes by switching to a low‐fat,

vegan diet and subsequently left his position as the

Director of Marketing for an IT company to become a

chef and instructor to help others. Since then, he has

been featured by the NY Times, has been a NY Times

contributor, and has been featured in Edible Phoenix,

and the Arizona Republic, and has had numerous local

television appearances. He has catered for companies

such as Google, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and

Farm Sanctuary, has been featured in the Scottsdale

Culinary Festival’s premier catering event, and has been

a guest instructor and the first vegan instructor in the Le

Cordon Bleu program at Scottsdale Culinary Institute.

Recently, Chef Jason wrote a national best‐selling book

with Dr. Neal Barnard entitled 21‐Day Weight Loss

Kickstart. You can find out more about Chef Jason

Wyrick at www.veganculinaryexperience.com.


RReecciippee IInnddeexx

Click on any of the recipes in the index to take you to the relevant recipe. Some recipes will

have large white sections after the instructional portion of them. This is so you need only print

out the ingredient and instructional sections for ease of kitchen use.

* Theses crusts and sauces are found within other recipes.

Recipe Page Recipe Page

Pizzas

Black Garlic Porcini Pizza

Blue Cheese Sausage Pizza

Breakfast Pizza

Cheeseburger Pizza

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

Salted Fig & Agave Pizza

Fruit & Berry Cream Pizza

Ladenia (Greek Pizza)

Hot Wing Blue Cheese Pizza

Italian Sausage Pizza

Tarragon Olive Flatbread Pizza

Onion Flower & Lion’s Mane Pizza

Pita Pizza

Pizza Bianca

Pizza Margherita

Pizza Marinara

Porcini Sundried Tomato Pizza

Potato, Chard, & Artichoke Pizza

Raw Puttanesca Pizza

Roasted Trinity Pizza

Sausage & Sage Pizza

The Seven Pounder

Three Sisters Pizza

Heirloom Tomato Olive Pizza

Tuscan White Bean & Spinach Pizza

White Bean, Tomato, & Garlic Pizza

White Sicilian Pizza

Muffaletta Pizza

Bahn Mi Pizza

Friendly Frankfurters & Kale Pizza

Toppings

Sundried Tomato Pepperoni

Sharp Aged Cashew Cheese

Pine Nut Parmesan

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Crusts

Napoli Pizza Crust

Roman Pizza Crust

Sfinciuini

NYC Pizza Crust

Chicago Pizza Crust

California Pizza Crust

Roasted Garlic Chile Crust

Biscuit Crust*

Flatbread Crust*

Crispy Cornmeal Crust*

Sprouted Buckwheat Crust*

Mark’s Basic Pizza Dough

Gluten‐free Oat Flour Crust

Robin’s Basic Pizza Dough*

Madelyn’s Tangy Pizza Dough

Sauces

Classic San Marzano Sauce

Tuscan White Bean Sauce

Chicago Fire Roasted Sauce

Chimichurri Sauce

Amber’s Sundried Tomato Sauce

Bryanna’s White Bean Spread*

Raw Puttanesca Sauce*

Hummus*

Oil‐free Pesto

Arugula Pesto

Roasted Red Pepper & White Bean

Spread

Sundried Tomato Pesto

Sweet Potato, Oats, Carrot, &

Green Chile Sauce

Great Northern Beans, Millet, &

Cashew Sauce

29

30

30

31

31

32

166

83

107

142

131

25

26

19

83

169

172

175

178

181

142

131

107

16

16

16

17

26

27

The Vegan Culinary Experience – Education, Inspiration, Quality * www.veganculinaryexperience.com Recipe by Chef Jason Wyrick

Black Garlic Porcini Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: 14” pizza Time to Prepare: 30 minutes (includes time to soak the porcinis) + time for the crust Ingredients 1 Napoli Crust (see page 29) 1 cup of Classic San Marzano Pizza Sauce (see page 169)¼ cup of dried porcini, rehydrated 1 bulb of black garlic 4 slices of Teese mozarella Instructions Make the pizza dough. While it is rising, make the sauce. Rehydrate the porcini in hot water, letting them sit for 20 minutes, then remove from the water. Remove the individual cloves of black garlic from the paper and set them aside. Slice the Teese. Roll out the dough until it is about 1/8” thick. Spread the sauce on top. Place the 4 slices of Teese on top, then the porcini, and then the black garlic. Bake this on a pizza stone at 500 F for 3 minutes or in a pizza oven for 1 ½ minutes.



Kitchen Equipment Knife Cutting Board Small Bowl Small Pot 2 Mixing Bowls Measuring Cups Measuring Spoon Oven Pizza Stone Pizza Peel

Presentation I do the cheese in a pinwheel pattern and place it on the pizza before I add any of the other toppings. That way, they show up against the whiteness of the cheese.

Time Management While the dough rises, make the sauce and get the porcini rehydrated. Towards the end of the rise, start preheating your oven and get your pizza stone ready. That way, as soon as you roll the dough out, you can get the sauce and toppings on the pizza and it’s ready to go in the oven.

Complementary Food and Drinks This pizza calls for a nice glass of red wine and a salad with a fruity, vinegar note, like mixed greens with chopped cherries and balsamic vinegar.

Where to Shop Black garlic is not that easy to find. I usually have to get it at Whole Foods. If you can’t find it, try soaking some roasted garlic in balsamic vinegar for a day or so to get an approximate flavor for it. The same is true for Teese, though it seems to be getting more popular. You can also order that online, as well. Approximate cost for the pizza is $6.00.

How It Works The base is a classic Napoli pizza base. Thin dough with a San Marzano tomato sauce. The black garlic adds a sweet nuttiness and tanginess to the pizza while the porcini lend an earthy depth, contrasting



nicely with every single component in the pizza, from the crust to the sauce to the Teese to the black garlic. Like other Napoli style pizzas, good quality ingredients go a long way to making a good quality pizza.

Chef’s Notes This ended up being one of my favorite pizzas from this issue. It’s complex with flavors that I particularly enjoy, from the nuttiness and tanginess of the garlic and the porcini mushrooms. I love porcini! Ironically, the pizza was an impromptu creation. I had black garlic, but had no idea what to do with it, some dried porcini sitting around, and leftover dough and sauce from another pizza.

Nutrition Facts (per serving) Calories 1022 Calories from Fat 162 Fat 18 g Total Carbohydrates 185 g Dietary Fiber 35 g Sugars 9 g Protein 30 g Salt 1964 mg

Interesting Facts Black garlic is made by fermenting garlic at very high temperatures.



Blue Cheese Sausage Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: 14” Pizza Time to Prepare: 30 minutes + time to let the dough rise Ingredients 1 Roman Crust (see page 30) 1 cup of Chicago Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce (see page 174) 1 Tofurky Italian sausage, sliced ¼ cup of vegan bleu cheese, crumbled (I used Sheese brand) Instructions Make the pizza dough. While it is rising, make the sauce. Slice the Tofurky Italian sausage into ¼” thick rounds. Crumble the vegan bleu cheese. Roll the dough out ¼” thick. Spread the sauce on the pizza, then the Tofurky sausage, and then the vegan bleu cheese. Bake the pizza on a pizza stone at 500 F for 4 minutes.



Kitchen Equipment Knife Cutting Board Pot 2 Mixing Bowls Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons Pizza Stone Pizza Peel Oven

Presentation Make sure everything is evenly spread around the pizza so you get a shot of bleu cheese and sausage in each bite.

Time Management There isn’t a lot of time management for this pizza. Just start making the sauce about 30 minutes before the dough is done rising and you’ll be good to go.

Complementary Food and Drinks This pizza should be served with a side of lime ranch dip (silken tofu, pepper, salt, lime juice, dill, and a bit of vegan mayo). That way, you can use the rim of the pizza as a bread stick and have a dipping sauce.

Where to Shop The brand I used for the bleu cheese was Sheese, which I have only found at Food Fight and Whole Foods. Sunergia also makes a vegan bleu cheese that would work well on this pizza and I have seen that at Whole Foods and other health food/veg friendly stores. I usually get the Tofurky Italian sausages at Trader Joe’s, since they have the best price on them. Approximate cost per pizza is $4.00.

How It Works I much prefer using Tofurky Italian sausage instead of the other packaged vegan pepperoni. It simply tastes better and has a better texture. The bleu cheese gives a sort of sour tang to the pizza and I used the Chicago Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce instead of a classic pizza sauce because the heaviness of the sausage and bleu cheese needs a sauce with a deep flavor instead of a bright flavor to carry them.



Chef’s Notes This pizza was a huge hit when I served it to my non‐vegan friends and everyone thought it would be perfect for sports night.


Interesting Facts The oldest mention of bleu cheese is Roquefort cheese, which was first seen in texts dating to 79 A.D.


The Vegan Culinary Experience – Education, Inspiration, Quality * www.veganculinaryexperience.com Recipe by Chef Madelyn Pryor

Breakfast Pizza Type: Pizza/Breakfast Serves: 8 generous breakfast portions Time to Prepare: About 45 minutes total Ingredients Biscuit Crust

3 cups all purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt ¼ cup vegan butter (I used Earth Balance) 1 cup of unsweetened vegan milk

Toppings Tofu Scramble

16 oz. package of extra firm tofu ¼ teaspoon black salt ½ teaspoon turmeric 1 teaspoon oil (optional)

15 oz can of crushed tomatoes 12 oz package of vegan chorizo Two 4 oz. cans of mild green chilies 1 to 1 ½ cups Daiya or other vegan cheese

Instructions Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Make the Tofu Scramble Prepare the tofu scramble. Heat a skillet or wok over medium heat. Drain the tofu, and crumble. Add the black salt, turmeric, and oil if using. Cook for 10 minutes, until thoroughly warm, stirring occasionally. Set to the side to allow cooling. Make the Biscuit Crust In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until combined. Use a pastry cutter or fork to cut in the vegan butter. Then, add the vegan milk. Once the dough is in loose crumbles, press into a 13X9 baking dish, lined with parchment paper. Pizza Construction Add the crushed tomatoes, then the vegan chorizo, the cooled tofu scramble, top it with the vegan cheese and then the chilies. Bake at 450 degrees for 25‐30 minutes. Let cool slightly before slicing.



Kitchen Equipment Parchment Paper 13X9 inch Baking Dish Bowl, Whisk or Fork Skillet Stirring Spoon Can Opener Knife Cutting Board Measuring Cup Measuring Spoons

Presentation Wet the knife before cutting into the pizza so the “cheese” doesn’t stick to the knife and drag the ingredients along.

Time Management You can use leftover tofu scramble, or make it the night before.

Complementary Food and Drinks This is awesome with coffee in the morning, or better yet, a few Bloody Mary’s as part of a vegan brunch!

Where to Shop The Daiya can be purchased at several places now. But, if you can’t find it in your hometown, go to http://veganessentials.com/ and have some delivered! It freezes well, too.

How It Works The spice already in the vegan chorizo along with the small amount of heat from the green chilies gives this just a bit of heat that everyone can enjoy! There is nothing harsh about this, just comfort and goodness.

Chef’s Notes This is adapted from a dish my mom used to make for truck drivers that had to come through my step‐father’s job on Christmas Eve. My mom and I would make food and bake for weeks, then deliver a feast so that these truckers and the men who loaded the trucks would have warm, delicious, home



spun food. It created a great tradition, and now that tradition can be recreated without cruelty, making it all the more special.


Interesting Facts Eggs on pizza is common in Europe, particularly in Germany.



Cheeseburger Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: 8‐10 servings Time to Prepare: 1 hour Ingredients Crust

2 ½ cups of all purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt ¼ cup of vegan butter (I use Earth Balance) 1 cup of vegan milk 1 tablespoon of apple cider

Toppings 1 ½ cups of tomato pizza sauce OR ketchup ½ of a red onion, sliced One 12 oz. package of soy crumbles 1 to 1 ½ cups of vegan ‘cheddar’ cheese, shredded

Optional Toppings Pickles Lettuce Fresh tomato slices Mustard

Instructions Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. In a cup, mix together the apple cider and vegan milk. Allow this to rest at least 5 minutes. In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in the vegan butter using a fork, whisk, or electric mixer. Add in the vegan milk mixture, and mix until the crust starts to come together, but no longer. Line a 13 X 9 baking dish with parchment paper for easier removal, then lightly and evenly press the crust into the dish. Top with either the tomato sauce or the ketchup, the onions, soy crumbles, and cheese. Bake for 25‐30 minutes. Remove and allow to it cool slightly before slicing.



Kitchen Equipment Parchment Paper Knife Cutting Board Bowl Cup Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons 13”x19” Baking Dish

Presentation Serve this with a side of tomatoes, pickles, and lettuce or spinach for a fun presentation.

Time Management Once the crust is made, it needs to quickly go in the oven right away to make it as fluffy as possible.

Complementary Food and Drinks This is delicious with a vegan milkshake, or a nice fresh green salad.

Where to Shop You can get these ingredients as most grocery stores. If you don’t see soy crumbles in the refrigerated section, check out the freezer section by the veggie patties. If worse comes to worse, you can even chop up a veggie patty.

How It Works The baking powder and the cider react to make the crust light and fluffy.

Chef’s Notes My mom developed the original recipe when she was living on a ranch. She had very limited ingredients and had to feed over a dozen people. This pizza and cheeseburgers were different enough for people that they counted it as two different dishes, so she made options where she had few. It is one of my favorite dishes still. Recently, I fed the vegan version to a bunch of meat eating friends and they loved it! Make one of these for your next picnic as a novel, easy take on a classic.




Interesting Facts Cheese was rarely added to burgers before the 1920s, but quickly became very fashionable, with several restaurants and individuals across the U.S. claiming to be the inventor of the cheeseburger during the 1930s.



Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: Makes 12” deep dish pizza Time to Prepare: 35 minutes + 30 minutes to cook the pizza + 1 1/2 hours to rise Ingredients Pizza Dough

½ package of yeast ¾ cups of warm water ½ tsp. of sugar ¼ cup of olive oil 1 ¾ cups of all purpose flour ½ cup of semolina flour ½ tsp. of salt

The Sauce 2 cloves of garlic, minced 4 basil leaves, minced 1 tsp. of minced fresh oregano 1 tsp. of olive oil 2 ½ cups of crushed fire roasted tomatoes ¼ tsp. of fennel seeds ¼ tsp. of crushed red pepper ¼ tsp. of freshly ground black pepper ½ tsp. of salt 1 tsp. of sugar

The Toppings ½ of a yellow onion, sliced thinly 4 cremini mushrooms, sliced 1 green bell pepper, diced

½ cup of sliced black olives Option: 1 Tofurky Italian sausage, sliced thinly 1 tsp. of olive oil 3 tbsp. of Pine Nut Parmesan (see page XX) Instructions Combine the yeast, warm water, and sugar and allow it to sit for about 10 minutes. Add the oil to the water. Combine the flours and salt and add them to the wet mix. Lightly flour a working surface. Knead the dough until it just stops sticking to your hands. Place it in an oiled bowl, cover it, and let it rise for 1 ½ hours. While it is rising, make the sauce. Mince the garlic, basil, and oregano. Over a medium heat, sauté the garlic in 1 tsp. of olive oil for about 30 seconds. Add all the sauce ingredients to the pot and simmer over a medium‐low heat for about 10 minutes.



Slice the onion and mushrooms (and optional sausage) and dice the bell pepper. Over a medium heat, sauté the onion, mushrooms, bell pepper, and Tofurky sausage for about 5 minutes in 1 tsp. of olive oil. Now that the dough has risen, punch it down and knead it just two or three times. Lightly oil a deep 12” diameter pan (I prefer an iron skillet). Spread the dough out into the pan and push it out just a bit from the center to create a rim around the dough. Let it rest for about 5 minutes. Add the veggie toppings (and optional sausage) and then spread the sauce on top. Bake this on 475 degrees for 30 minutes. Sprinkle the Pine Nut Parmesan on top.



Kitchen Equipment 2 Mixing Bowls Pot Mortar and Pestle or Small Food Processor Knife Cutting Board Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons Stirring Spoon Iron Skillet or Deep Dish Pizza Pan

Presentation I slice and serve this directly out of the iron skillet. Not only does it hold the pizza well, but it makes for a nice, rustic presentation.

Time Management Make the sauce while the dough is rising. It saves time and also gives it time to cool down so the dough doesn’t start instantly cooking when the sauce goes on it.

Complementary Food and Drinks I like serving this with a spinach salad with walnuts and some sort of dried berry or fruit.

Where to Shop All of these ingredients are relatively easy to find. However, I prefer to use Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes. Not only are they organic, but they have the perfect flavor to go along with this pizza. Approximate cost per pizza is $5.00.

How It Works The crust has a high oil to flour ratio so that it stays soft and supple as it bakes. The sauce is a mix of sweet tomato flavors and aromatic ingredients like fennel seed that bring it to life. The spices used in the sauce are also spices used in sausage making, which is why it has that type of kick. As the pizza bakes, the sauce and ingredients should way down the center while the unfettered sides rise up the pan, creating that pie look indicative of Chicago deep dish.



Chef’s Notes This was a fun pizza to make. Because the sides rise up so high, you can load the center of the pizza with sauce and ingredients and create a monster of flavor!


Interesting Facts The Chicago deep dish pizza was created in 1943 at Pizzeria Uno, which is now a chain going strong all across the U.S.



Salted Fig & Agave Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: 12” pizza Time to Prepare: 20 minutes + time for the dough to rise Ingredients 1 Napoli Pizza Crust 4 figs, sliced 3 tbsp. of agave (the darker, the better) ½ tsp. of coarse, large grain, flaky sea salt (the flakiness matters in this recipe, do not substitute regular table salt) ½ tsp. of cracked black pepper Instructions Make the pizza dough and roll it out. Slice the figs into ¼” slices. Drizzle agave over the pizza. Lay the figs on the pizza. Garnish with sea salt and pepper. Bake this on 450 degrees for 6 minutes or place it in your wood‐fire pizza oven for 1 minute.



Kitchen Equipment Knife Cutting Board Measuring Spoon Pizza Stone or Pizza Oven

Presentation If you want a bit more color, you can sprinkle some fresh cut mint on top of the pizza, but I like to eat it just as it is.

Time Management Once you’ve got the dough underway, this pizza is relatively quick to assemble. Just make sure the crust stays a bit soft, or else it starts to override the figs.

Complementary Food and Drinks Serve this with a spicy salad of baby arugula, chiles, and a red wine dressing.

Where to Shop Some conventional markets carry fresh figs and nice salts, but many do not. You may need to go to Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or a higher end market to get the best ingredients for this pizza. Approximate cost per pizza is $3.00.

How It Works I use a Napoli style crust with this pizza because the thinness of the crust lets the fig and agave come to the foreground. Otherwise, the pizza starts to taste more like flavored bread. The salt gives a salty/sweet contrast and the flakiness of it creates mini shots of salt throughout the pizza. It also provides a more interesting texture than just plain table salt. Black pepper gives a spicy aromatic quality that accents the pureness of the fig and the sweetness of the agave.

Chef’s Notes This is based on an ancient Roman flatbread that was covered with honey and figs and I added that touch of flaky salt and black pepper to create a simple pizza belied by its complex flavor.




Interesting Facts Figs use wasps instead of bees to pollinate.


The Vegan Culinary Experience – Education, Inspiration, Quality * www.veganculinaryexperience.com Recipe by Sharon Valencik * www.sweetutopia.com

Fruit & Berry Cream Pizza Type: Dessert Serves: 6 Time to Prepare: 1 hour (includes time to bake and cool) Ingredients

1 Puff Pastry sheet, defrosted overnight in refrigerator (1 sheet of a 2‐sheet package that is 1.1 lbs/17.3 oz/490 g) Several tablespoons (about 6‐7) raspberry or other jam

Berry Cream ¾ cup silken tofu

½ cup powdered sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1/3 cup fresh or frozen raspberries or other berries Sliced fruit, berries, grapes, etc for topping the pizza

Instructions Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Oil the pan. Roll out the puff pastry. Press evenly into bottom and sides of the pan. Spread a 1/3 inch layer of jam on the bottom portion of the pastry. Bake for 20‐25 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned. Let cool. While the pizza is cooking, make the cream. Blend all the cream ingredients in a blender or food processor. Spoon or pipe the cream onto the cooled pizza. Top with the fruit. Serve immediately. Store leftover cream in a sealed container in the refrigerator.


The Vegan Culinary Experience – Education, Inspiration, Quality * www.veganculinaryexperience.com Recipe by Sharon Valencik * www.sweetutopia.com

Kitchen Equipment Rolling Pin Blender or Food Processor Pan (pie or tart pan, 8 or 9 inches, or approximately 16x4 inch rectangle tart pan, or mini tart pans) Pastry Bag with Tip (optional) Mixing Bowl Whisk or Spoon Measuring Cup Measuring Spoon

Presentation Serve with a sprig of mint on the side and a few extra slices of fruit and sprinkling of berries.

Time Management If you don’t wait for the pastry to cool, it will melt the cream and make the pizza soggy.

Complementary Food and Drinks Serve with an almond flavored coffee or a light spritzer of lemon and agave.


Interesting Facts Puff pastry is created by folding dough repeatedly with tiny pockets of fat that leave lots of empty spaces in the dough as it bakes and the fat melts. As water releases, it steams and puffs up the empty spaces left by the fat.



Ladenia (Greek Pizza) Type: Pizza Serves: Makes a 15” x 12” pizza (about 10 servings) Time to Prepare: 1 hour 20 minutes + 1 ½ hours to rise Ingredients Greek Pizza Crust

1 cup of warm water 1 ½ tsp. of active yeast ½ cup of olive oil 4 cups of all purpose or whole wheat pastry flour (1 lb. of flour) ¾ tsp. of salt 2 tbsp. of olive oil for the pan

Toppings 3 Vineripe or large heirloom tomatoes, seeded and diced ½ of a red onion, sliced thinly 10 pitted kalamata olives, sliced in half 2 peperoncini, sliced 1 tsp. of dried oregano ¾ tsp. of cracked pepper 3 tbsp. of olive oil Option: ¼ cup of vegan feta or marinated tofu* (see below) ¼ cup of crumbled firm tofu Juice of 1 big lemon (about 2 tbsp.) 1/3 tsp. of salt 1 clove of minced garlic

Instructions Combine the water, yeast, and oil. Combine the flour and salt. Add the flour to the water and mix until everything is thoroughly combined. Knead the bread on a lightly floured surface until it just stops sticking (the dough should be soft and supple and a little stick is better than a stiff dough). Oil a pan with the remaining olive oil, making sure to get the sides, too (I used a 15” x 12” x 2” pan). Press the dough into the pan, spreading it to all sides, until the dough is about ½” high. Cover this and allow it to rise for about 1 ½ hours. Gently press the dough down until it is again about ½” high. Slice and deseed the tomatoes, then dice them and set them aside. Slice the onion and thinly as possible, cut the olives in half, and slice the peperoncini. Evenly spread the toppings along the pizza, leaving a ½” clean edge, then drizzle it with the 3 tbsp. of olive oil (do not add the vegan feta until the pizza comes out of the oven). Bake the pizza at 390 degrees F for 60 minutes. As soon as the pizza comes out of the oven, add the tomatoes to it. * To make the marinated tofu “feta,” crumble the tofu by hand and combine all the ingredients, allowing it to sit for 2 hours.



Kitchen Equipment 2 Mixing Bowls Measuring Cup Measuring Spoon A 15” x 12” x 2” Pan (any pan with the same approximate area will do, as long as it is a deep pan) Knife Cutting Board Oven

Presentation I prefer to use heirloom tomatoes. The taste is usually great and the color variations make for a spectacular looking pizza. You can also serve it with a sprig of dried oregano for a nice gourmet touch.

Time Management While the dough is rising, prepare the veggies and preheat the oven. That way the pizza is ready to go as soon as you press down the dough.

Complementary Food and Drinks Serve this with a side of cumin‐laced chickpeas and spinach.

Where to Shop All of these ingredients are fairly easy to find. Approximate cost per pizza is $5.00.

How It Works This pizza should have a lightly fried taste to it, with a crispy oily outside and a soft, fluffy inside. That’s why so much olive oil is used in the recipe. Without it, the pizza doesn’t develop the right texture. The tomatoes are deseeded simply to keep them nice and tight on the pizza when it bakes. The crisper the tomato, the better, for the same reason. The real key to this pizza is getting the crust right and getting good quality tomatoes.

Chef’s Notes This is a great pizza. I love the texture of the crust and the flavor of good quality tomatoes, but because of the high oil content, I save making this pizza as a treat more than a staple meal.




Interesting Facts Although the pizza is spelled ladenia, it should be pronounced luh‐THEN‐ee‐ah and basically means oil bread. Ladenia is a traditional recipe from the island of Kimolos.



Hot Wing Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: 14” pizza Time to Prepare: About 4 ½ hours Ingredients Two 10‐12 oz. package of ‘chicken’ flavored seitan (I like the breaded ‘nugget’ kind of this 4 tablespoons vinegar 2 tablespoon vegan butter 1 cup of Louisiana style hot sauce 1 package of vegan blue cheese (I used Sunergia brand) 2 teaspoons of garlic infused olive oil 4‐5 cloves of garlic 1 NYC Pizza Crust (see recipe on page XX) About 2 teaspoons extra hot sauce Instructions In a saucepan over low heat, combine the vinegar, ‘butter’ and hot sauce. Simmer for about 5 minutes, until the butter melts and everything is combined. Add your seitan and transfer to an oven proof dish. I like to coat mine with parchment paper for easier clean up. Place in the refrigerator for 3‐4 hours to marinade. Bake on 350 for about 30 minutes. There should be a little sauce left. Remove from heat. Use your crust of choice, and coat with the garlic infused oil. Mince the garlic and sprinkle on the crust. Prebake for 5‐10 minutes. Add the hot wings, any remaining sauce, and sprinkle with blue ‘cheese’. Sprinkle with additional hot sauce. Bake for another 10 minutes on 450 degrees. Remove from heat, cool, and cut.



Low‐fat Version Omit the butter from the sauce, and reduce the oil on the pizza to 1 teaspoon.

Kitchen Equipment Saucepan Pizza Pan or Stone Baking Dish Knife Cutting Board Measuring Cups and Spoons

Presentation This pizza is going to be messy no matter how you slice it!

Time Management Because of the long marinade time, you can start a homemade crust at the same time you marinade with plenty of time for rising and kneading.

Complementary Food and Drinks This pizza is great with beer and celery. Serve this pizza with those items to your vegan friends and prepare to be very popular. I actually served mine with cold watermelon slices, so the cool sweetness would balance out the fire in the pizza.

Where to Shop Whole Foods and Vegan Essentials are the best places to purchase the vegan blue cheese (both Sheese and Sunergia are good brands), and I get my seitan and garlic infused oil from Trader Joes. The rest should be easily found at the supermarket.

How It Works The fat in the vegan butter and oil mellow out some of the capsaicin of the hot sauce, creating a smoother taste and texture.

Chef’s Notes This recipe is amazing. I made this for our game night and two of our omnivore friends called this my



best creation to date. I only made one, but if I had made two it all would have been devoured. This is one I will be making again and again.

Nutrition Facts (per pizza) Calories 1139 Calories from Fat 351 Fat 39 g Total Carbohydrates 168 g Dietary Fiber 43 g Sugars 5 g Protein 229 g Salt 6135 mg

Interesting Facts Frank’s RedHot sauce is supposedly the sauce originally used to make Buffalo wing sauce.


The Vegan Culinary Experience – Education, Inspiration, Quality * www.veganculinaryexperience.com Recipe by Amber Shea Crawley from Practically Raw: Flexible Raw Recipes Anyone Can Make

www.almostveganchef.com

Italian Sausage Pizza Type: Pizza, Raw Serves: 8 personal pizzas Time to Prepare: 10 minutes + 6 hours to dehydrate the crust Ingredients The Crust

1 very large or 2 medium zucchini, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups) 1 small clove garlic, peeled 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast 2 tablespoons almond butter 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon ground oregano 1 teaspoon sea salt 1 cup oat flour 1 cup buckwheat flour ¾ cup ground flaxseed

The Sauce ½ cup sundried tomatoes, soaked for 30 minutes and drained 1 small ripe tomato, cored, seeded, and chopped 1 small pitted date 1 small clove garlic, peeled 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast 2 teaspoons olive oil 1 teaspoon ground oregano ½ teaspoon fennel seeds ½ teaspoon sea salt ½ to ¾ cup filtered water, as needed to thin

The Sausage 1 cup dry walnuts 1 small clove garlic, peeled 2 tablespoons tamari 2 teaspoons fennel seeds 1 teaspoon dried basil ½ teaspoon dried oregano ½ teaspoon lemon juice ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

To Serve 1 cup nondairy cheese of choice, such as crumbled raw macadamia cheese or store‐bought vegan shredded mozzarella cheese Freshly cracked black pepper




Instructions

Making the Crust Combine the zucchini, garlic, nutritional yeast, almond butter, oil, lemon juice, basil, oregano, and salt in a food processor or high speed blender and process until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add the flours and blend again until smooth. Add the flax and blend until well‐incorporated. The batter will be very thick and sticky.

Make it Raw: In 8 portions, scoop the batter onto two Teflex‐lined dehydrator trays (4 scoops per tray). Using a spoon or small offset spatula (moistened with water), spread each portion into a round crust shape about ¼ inch thick. Dehydrate for 2 hours, until dry on top, then flip over onto a mesh‐lined tray and peel off the Teflex sheet. Dehydrate for 4 to 6 more hours, until firm (though not crisp). Make it Cooked: Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a baking sheet with coconut oil. In 8 portions, scoop the batter onto the baking sheet. Using a spoon or small offset spatula (moistened with water), spread each portion into a round crust shape about 1/4 inch thick. Bake for 8 minutes, then flip the crusts over with a spatula. Bake for 7 to 8 more minutes, until dry and lightly browned. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before handling.

Making the Sauce Combine combine all sauce ingredients, including 1/2 cup water, in a high‐speed blender and blend to combine. Add more water, 2 tablespoons at a time, as needed to help it blend smoothly.

Making the Sausage Combine the walnuts and garlic in a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground. Add all remaining sausage ingredients and pulse until well‐combined.

Serving the Pizza Top each pizza crust with 3 tablespoons of the pizza sauce. Scatter the “sausage” bits evenly across the pizzas. Crumble or scatter 2 tablespoons of the cheese onto each pizza. Top with freshly cracked black pepper, and serve.

Substitutions Zucchini: yellow squash Almond butter: cashew butter or coconut butter Tomato: 1/2 small red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped Date: 1 teaspoon agave nectar, coconut nectar, or any other liquid sweetener Tamari: soy sauce, nama shoyu, or liquid aminos Replace the “sausage” with your favorite pizza toppings. Try bell pepper strips, chopped olives, sliced mushrooms, diced red onion, fresh basil, or anything else you please.




Kitchen Equipment Food Processor Blender Spatula Dehydrator with Teflex Sheets or Oven and Baking Sheet 2 Mixing Bowls Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons

Presentation Be gentle when you remove the pizza from the Teflex sheets so you maintain the integrity of the crust!

Chef’s Notes This is my favorite way to eat raw pizza: with impeccably seasoned tomato sauce and flavorful nutmeat “sausage,” dotted with rich, creamy nut cheese. This pie also happens to be packed with heart‐healthy lycopene (from the sundried tomatoes) and omega‐3 fats (thanks to the walnuts), along with a whole host of other nutrients—it’s not your average pizza, to say the least!




Tarragon Olive Flatbread Pizza Type: Main Serves: 16” long x 8” wide pizza Time to Prepare: 60 minutes Ingredients The Crust

¾ cup of warm water 1 tsp. of agave 1 tsp. of active yeast 1 tbsp. of olive oil 1 ½ cups of all purpose or whole wheat pastry flour ¾ tsp. of salt

The Bean Spread 1 ½ cups of cooked chickpeas, rinsed ¼ cup of water ¼ cup of tahini ¼ tsp. of salt 1/8 tsp. of cayenne pepper 1 tbsp. of lemon juice

The Toppings 16‐20 pitted Kalamata olives 1 tbsp. of fresh tarragon leaves

Instructions Combine the water, agave, yeast, and oil. Combine the flour and salt. Add this to the wet mix and thoroughly combine. Lightly oil your hands and knead the dough for about 5 minutes (it should still be soft). Place the dough in a bowl and cover it, allowing it to rise for about 1 ½ hours. Punch down the dough. Roll the dough into an oblong shape ¼” thick. Puree the garbanzo beans, water, tahini, olive oil, salt, and lemon juice until it is smooth (not all blenders work the same, so you may have to adjust the water content to get this smooth). Spread the blend over the rolled dough, leaving about ½” of the crust exposed along the edges. Sprinkle the cayenne pepper over the spread. Place the olives evenly on top of the spread. Bake the pizza on 500 degrees F for 5 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven. Sprinkle the fresh tarragon leaves over the pizza as soon as it comes out of the oven (do not use dried tarragon).



Kitchen Equipment Measuring Cup Measuring Spoon Blender or Food Processor Pizza Stone Oven Spatula for spreading the “sauce” on the flatbread

Presentation This looks very nice on a long, dark, wooden plank (sometimes called a pizza piel). Also, do not bake the tarragon on the pizza as it will lose both its flavor and its beautiful, bright green color. Make sure to put it on after the baking is done.

Time Management I like to preheat the oven and make the bean spread just before the dough is finished rising. That way, it’s ready to go as soon as I roll out the dough.

Complimentary Food and Drinks Pair this with a cinnamon tea or Turkish coffee and a mezze platter of olives, dolmades, and chilled eggplant.

Where to Shop All of these ingredients are fairly common, though you will want to get a good quality, thick tahini to get the best flavor.

How It Works The bean spread is smooth enough and thick enough that it acts as a hearty, flavorful base for the pizza, which allows the olives and tarragon to accent the pizza instead of overwhelm it. Adding in the olive oil and water is what creates the smoothness to the spread and the olive oil keeps it from drying out during baking.

Chef’s Notes The base of this is a modified hummus. It omits the garlic and paprika and goes light on the lemon juice so that the spread does not take over the pizza.



Nutritional Facts (per pizza) Calories 1817 Calories from Fat 657 Fat 73 g Total Carbohydrates 217 g Dietary Fiber 42 g Sugars 19 g Protein 63 g Salt 3451 mg

Interesting Facts Kalamata is a city in southern Greece. Some olive groves are rumored to be over 3,000 years old. Olive trees often displace other vegetation in the wild.



Onion Flower & Lion’s Mane Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: 14” pizza Time to Prepare: 20 minutes + time for the dough to rise Ingredients 1 Napoli Crust (see page 29) 1 cup of Classic San Marzano Pizza Sauce (see page 169)½ cup of shredded Follow Your Heart or Teese mozzarella 4 lion’s mane mushrooms, sliced thickly 2 tsp. of garlic oil Pinch of salt 1 onion flower Instructions Make the pizza dough. While the dough is rising, make the sauce. Shred the cheese and set it aside. Slice the mushrooms into ½” pieces. Over a medium high heat, sauté them in garlic‐infused olive oil, along with a pinch of salt, until they are moderately browned. Tear the tiny onion flower buds off the stem. Roll out the dough and cover it with sauce. Add the cheese. Spread the lion’s mane mushrooms around the pizza and then sprinkle with the onion flower buds. Bake this on a pizza stone at 500 degrees F for 3 minutes or in a pizza oven for 1 1/2 minutes.



Low‐fat Version Do not sauté the mushrooms. Simply slice them and place them on the pizza.

Kitchen Equipment Sauté Pan Grater Knife Cutting Board 2 Mixing Bowls Oven Pizza Stone Pizza Peel

Presentation I cut this at the table. The pizza looks so nice as is, I like people to see it intact before it gets sliced.

Time Management Keep an eye on this pizza. The onion flowers cook quickly and if you leave the pizza in a few too many minutes, the onion flowers will burn.

Complementary Food and Drinks Serve this with a side of sweet, spiced nuts. They will balance out the unique flavor of the lion’s mane mushrooms.

Where to Shop This pizza is admittedly a very specialized pizza due to the ingredients. I found onion flowers at a local farmers’ market and I purchased the lion’s mane mushrooms at Whole Foods in Portland. I’ve also seen them at Far West Fungi in San Francisco, but not many other places. If you can’t find them, don’t worry. You can substitute a mix of oyster mushrooms (which you should also brown) and a few sliced green olives. The flavor is not the same, but you will get the browning and texture from the mushrooms and a sort of salty tang from the olives. Approximate cost per pizza is $6.00.

How It Works This is a classic thin crust pizza, which I chose because it lets the toppings really shine. Same with the tomato sauce. The sauce is light, so it allows the lion’s mane and onion flower to be the stars. The onion flower buds have both an onion and floral taste which also takes on a nutty quality during the



brief time the pizza cooks. The best way to describe the lion’s mane mushrooms is tangy with a note of sour. When you take a bite, the flavor explodes after a second or two. They need to be browned in order to develop that flavor, however. Otherwise, they just taste raw and sour.

Chef’s Notes This was another one of those pizzas that was born out of having random ingredients lying around. I had no idea what to do with the mushrooms, but I purchased them to experiment with them and figured this was a great way to test them out. Same with the onion flower. Fortunately, it turned out to be a great pizza!

Nutrition Facts (per serving) Calories 986 Calories from Fat 306 Fat 34 g Total Carbohydrates 142 g Dietary Fiber 39 g Sugars 9 g Protein 28 g Salt 1694 g

Interesting Facts Preliminary lab tests show that lion’s mane helps lower blood lipids.



Pita Pizza Type: Quick Pizza Serves: 1 Time to Prepare: 10 minutes Ingredients 1 pita 6 tbsp. of hummus 4 kalamata olives, pitted and split Sprinkle of red chile flakes Instructions Spread the hummus across the pita. Cut the olives in half and scatter them across the hummus. Sprinkle red chile flakes onto the pizza. Bake on 350 degrees for 5 minutes.



Low‐fat Version Use a low‐fat or no‐tahini hummus.

Kitchen Equipment Knife Cutting Board Measuring Spoon Pizza Stone Oven

Presentation Make sure the olives and chile flakes aren’t clumped together. You can also sprinkle some fresh minced parsley onto the finished pizza if you want a splash of green.

Time Management The key to this is to make sure the pita gets crisp without burning. I usually check it after 3 minutes, then at 4, and finally at 5 minutes.

Complementary Food and Drinks Serve this with a salad with mixed spring greens, roasted red peppers, and pine nuts.

Where to Shop All of these ingredients are fairly common, though I usually get them all at Trader Joe’s. They’ve got everything for the pizza, including whole wheat pita. Approximate cost per serving is $1.50.

How It Works It’s hard to go wrong with hummus, olives, and dried chiles. All of those flavors complement each other and it’s not a far leap to put them on pita bread and bake it all together. Tanginess, heat, and saltiness, all on crispy bread.

Chef’s Notes This recipe was born entirely out of laziness! I simply did not feel like cooking one day, but I wanted a pizza, so I got together some of my Mediterranean ingredients and threw this together.




Interesting Facts The pocket in pita bread is not created by yeast, but solely by steam.



Pizza Bianca with Garlic Type: Pizza (Roman style) Serves: Makes a 12” pizza Time to Prepare: 10 minutes + time to knead the dough and let it rise Ingredients 1 Roman pizza crust (see page 30)8 cloves of garlic, minced 2 tbsp. of olive oil ¼ tsp. of coarse, flaky sea salt 1 tsp. of fresh thyme Instructions Make the pizza dough, but don’t roll it out just yet. Mince the garlic (you can cheat and put it in a food processor and pulse it a few times). Now roll out the pizza, about ¼” thick. Brush the olive oil on it, leaving a small edge. Sprinkle the garlic, salt, and thyme on the pizza. Bake it at 500 degrees F for 5 minutes or for 2 minutes in a pizza oven.



Low‐fat Version Omit the olive oil and liberally spritz the pizza with water after you have added the garlic, salt, and thyme. This will help protect the garlic and keep the top of the pizza hydrated.

Kitchen Equipment Mixing Bowls for the dough Measuring Cup Measuring Spoon Knife and Cutting Board or a Food Processor Pizza Stone and Oven

Presentation You can slice this to make it easier to eat, but I prefer to leave it as is and simply tear pieces off to eat.

Time Management This pizza cooks fast, so keep the oven light on so you can make sure the garlic does not burn. If it starts to turn a deep brown color, get the pizza out of the oven right away (unless you like the flavor of bitter garlic and there is something to be said for that).

Complementary Food and Drinks A dish of high quality, peppery olive oil for a dipping sauce, along with a side of steamed artichokes.

Where to Shop All of these ingredients are fairly common. Approximate cost per pizza is $1.25.

How It Works This is basically a flatbread recipe with garlic and salt on top. Easy enough. I chose flakey sea salt so that there is a light crunch and shots of saltiness when you bite into the pizza.

Chef’s Notes This is something I make when I have leftover pizza dough and I am out of toppings and sauce. It’s



quick, easy, and you can cut it up into breadsticks, too! You can also fold it over and make a great sandwich out of it.


Interesting Facts Pizza Bianca is widely available in Rome, but make sure you get a slice that just came out of the oven. The difference between that and one that has sat for five minutes is noticeable.



Pizza Margherita Type: Pizza Serves: 14” pizza Time to Prepare: 25 minutes + 1 ½ hours for the dough to rise Ingredients 1 Napoli Crust (see recipe on page 29) 1 cup of Classic San Marzano Sauce (see recipe on page 169) 4 slices of Teese mozzarella 4‐5 large basil leaves, sliced into ribbons Instructions Combine the yeast with the warm water and wait about 10 minutes. Add the oil and stir. Add the flour and salt and thoroughly combine. Lightly flour a working surface and knead the dough until it no longer sticks to your hands. Place it in a lightly oiled bowl and cover it. Allow it to rise for 1 ½ hours. While it is rising, make the sauce. Combine the tomatoes, oregano, pepper, and salt in a pot and simmer it for about 10 minutes. Set the sauce aside (if it is watery, you can mash it with a potato masher to leave some texture to it or simply puree it). Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Punch the dough down and divide it into two balls. Roll each ball out into a 12” disc about 1/8” thick (this works best if you use your fingers to press the crust out). Spread the sauce over it, leaving a 1” unsauced rim. Slice the Teese. Stack the leaves and roll them closed. Slice thinly along the width of the roll to create ribbons. Add cheese and then the basil to the pizza. Bake the pizza for about 8 minutes.



Kitchen Equipment 2 Mixing Bowls Towel Measuring Cup Measuring Spoons Whisk Rolling Pin Oven Pot Knife Cutting Board Pizza Stone

Presentation The key is to keep the pizza looking simple, but delicious. Long strips of Teese look much better than shreds.

Time Management Make sure the sauce is not hot before it goes on the pizza. Otherwise, it will start to cook the dough before it goes in the oven!

Complementary Food and Drinks Serve with a glass of red wine and a side of gigantes beans tossed in olive oil, salt, and dried herbs.

Where to Shop I usually have to get Teese at Whole Foods and I prefer to get the organic basil from Trader Joe’s. San Marzano tomatoes are typically available at specialty Italian markets or gourmet stores. Approximate cost per serving is $2.00.

How It Works The pizza is an exercise in simplicity, which means that the ingredients must be extraordinary. San Marzano tomatoes are complex and sweet, making a delectable sauce on which rides the cheese and basil. Fresh basil is a must to get the full fragrance from it. The high heat in the oven mimics the heat from a traditional brick pizza oven, so the crust does not need to cook very long.



Chef’s Notes This pizza is a classic for a reason. The crust is a classic Neapolitan crust and because it is not overly thick, it allows the other ingredients to be featured in exquisite balance.


Interesting Facts The pizza margherita was created by Raffaele Esposito for Queen Margherita of Savoy’s visit in 1889. The colors of the pizza match the colors of the Italian flag.



Pizza Marinara Type: Pizza Serves: 14” pizza Time to Prepare: 20 minutes + time for the dough to rise Ingredients Napoli Pizza Crust (see page 29) Classic San Marzano Sauce (see page 169)2 cloves of garlic, minced Instructions Make the dough for the pizza crust. While it is rising, mince the garlic and make the sauce. Use the Classic Sauce recipe, but add the minced garlic to the sauce when you add the tomatoes. Lightly flour a surface. Press or roll out the dough. Spread the sauce on top, leaving a small rim. Bake the pizza at 500 F on a pizza stone for 3 minutes or bake it in a pizza oven for 1 ½ minutes.



Kitchen Equipment 2 Mixing Bowls Pot Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons Pizza Stone Pizza Peel Oven

Presentation I don’t even slice this pizza. I just serve it as is and tear off parts of it to eat!

Time Management This pizza cooks fast and timing is important when you only have crust and sauce. They each have to be excellent to make an excellent pizza. Turn the oven light on and when you see the crust bubble and just start to brown, you know you are done. Get it out of the oven and off the pizza stone straight away.

Complementary Food and Drinks When I do pizza night, I make several different types of pizza. I use this one as the starter pizza.

Where to Shop San Marzano tomatoes are typically available at higher end markets and Italian specialty markets, though I have seen them start to crop up in more conventional stores as people get more interested in better food. The other ingredients are easy to find. Approximate cost per pizza is $1.50.

How It Works This pizza heavily relies on good quality ingredients. When you’ve got nothing else but crust and tomato sauce, they each have to be good. The pizza bakes at a high heat to mimic the heat of a pizza oven and the stone absorbs the tiny amount of moisture released by the bottom of the pizza, keeping the crust nice and crisp.



Chef’s Notes When I first was offered a pizza with just tomato sauce on it in Italy, I was skeptical, but I quickly changed my mind after the first bite and I have great respect for such a simple item.


Interesting Facts Pizza marinara is named so because it was sold from carts to fishermen returning from a day at sea.



Porcini Sundried Tomato Pizza Type: Main Serves: 4 Time to Prepare: 20 minutes + time to make the dough Ingredients Roman Pizza Crust (see page 30) 1 cup of Classic San Marzano Sauce (see page 169)¼ cup of dried porcinis, rehydrated 5 sundried tomatoes, sliced ¾ cup of grated Follow Your Heart or Teese mozzarella cheese ¼ tsp. of freshly ground pepper Instructions Warm the water on a medium heat in a small pot. Add the porcinis. While the porcinis rehydrate, spread the sauce on the crust. Grate the cheese onto the pizza. Slice the sundried tomatoes and sprinkle those around the pizza. Take the rehydrated porcinis and spread those around the pizzas. Bake the pizza at 500 F on a pizza stone for 5 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven and add the freshly ground black pepper.



Kitchen Equipment Grater 2 Mixing Bowls 1 Small Mixing Bowl 2 Pots Pizza Stone Pizza Peel Oven

Presentation When you spread the grated cheese on, leave some of the red sauce showing around the edges as it makes a very nice contrast against the Follow Your Heart cheese and the crust. When you place the porcinis on it, allows some of the sundried tomatoes to show through that, as well.

Time Management Make sure to get the porcinis in the warm water first, so you can grate the cheese and get the sauce and sundried tomatoes ready while they rehydrate.

Complimentary Food and Drinks This is a classy pizza, so consider serving it with a glass of red wine, like a pinot noir. That will complement the flavors of the tomato sauce and porcinis and will also look very nice.

Where to Shop Dried porcinis can be found in most grocery stores, but if you have a problem finding it, look up your local gourmet store. They’re bound to have them. Also, I get the sundried tomatoes that are packaged, rather than packed in oil. The flavor is brighter, and, of course, the calorie count is less. Approximate cost per pizza is $6.00.

How It Works The porcini have a robust, earthy flavor that permeates the entire pizza, with an aroma that beckons one to start eating. I particularly like how they so easily suffuse the entire pizza with their flavor without overwhelming it. The sharpness of the sundried tomatoes provides shots of tart sweetness that overlay the porcini.



Chef’s Notes If you want to add some extra flavor to this pizza, consider sautéing the rehydrated porcinis in a tbsp. of red wine, 1 tsp. of olive oil, and 1/8 tsp. of salt. Although it takes a bit of extra time, the flavors will become even more intense.


Interesting Facts Fully mature porcinis can way up to two pounds.



Potato, Chard, & Artichoke Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: Makes a 12” pizza Time to Prepare: 25 minutes + time to let the dough rise Ingredients 1 Napoli Pizza Crust (see page 29) 1 Yukon gold potato, sliced as thinly as possible Water Pinch of salt 1 small bunch of chard 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 tbsp. of olive oil 1/8 tsp. of salt 5‐6 artichoke hearts, split in half 1 tbsp. of olive oil Instructions Prepare the pizza dough, but do not roll it out yet. Slice the potato as thinly as possible. Using a thin layer of water and a sprinkling of salt, simmer the potatoes until they are soft (this can take 3‐5 minutes depending on how thin you sliced them). Remove them from the pan and discard the water. Slice the chard and mince the garlic. Over a medium heat, sauté the chard and garlic in 1 tbsp. of olive oil with the salt until the chard is wilted. Split the artichoke hearts in half. Roll out the crust. Brush 1 tbsp. of olive oil onto the crust. Place a layer of potatoes on the crust, remembering to keep an edge clear. Add the chard next, followed by the artichokes. Bake the pizza at 500 F for 5 minutes or in your pizza oven for 2 minutes.



Low‐fat Version Omit the olive oil from the recipe. You can wilt the chard using a very thin layer of water.

Kitchen Equipment Sauté Pan Spatula Knife Cutting Board Stirring Spoon Measuring Cup Measuring Spoon Mixing Bowls for the pizza dough Pizza Stone and Oven

Presentation I always make sure to put the potatoes, then chard, and then artichokes on the pizza. It keeps the pizza from being buried under starchy whiteness or dark green.

Time Management This pizza takes an extra moment to cook in the oven simply because it is loaded with ingredients. Make sure you serve it as soon as it comes out of the oven, or the moisture from the chard and potatoes will start to make the crust damp.

Complementary Food and Drinks Serve this with a chickpea and tomato salad with a touch of olive oil, chile flakes, and lemon juice.

Where to Shop All of these ingredients should be easily found. However, chard is one of those veggies that are particularly important to buy organic. Also, I prefer to use jarred or frozen artichoke hearts rather than canned ones. The canned ones taste off. Approximate cost per pizza is $4.50.

How It Works The potatoes are simmered in a thin layer of water to just get them barely soft. You don’t want to get them to the point where they turn into mashed potatoes or will break apart when you lift them out of



the pan. This will create a lush base for the pizza, will soften more when they cook, and almost act as the sauce. The chard needs to be cooked before it goes onto the pizza because the pizza won’t be in the oven long enough to properly cook it and if you’re going to sauté it, you may as well add some garlic!

Chef’s Notes Potato and greens pizza was a regional pizza from Cilento park in Campana, which is where I first had it.


Interesting Facts Chard is very high in available iron as well as vitamins A, K, and C, making it an excellent source of nutrients without being high calorically.


The Vegan Culinary Experience – Education, Inspiration, Quality * www.veganculinaryexperience.com Recipe by Angela Elliot

Raw Pizza Puttanesca Type: Raw, Pizza Serves: 4 Time to Prepare: 2 days to sprout the buckwheat, 15 minutes to prepare the pizza, and 12 hours to dehydrate the crust Ingredients The Crust

5 ½ cups sprouted buckwheat (soak 3 cups dry buckwheat for 24 hours, sprout 24 hours) 1 date ½ cup basil 1 cup cherry tomatoes or chopped Roma tomatoes ¼ cup diced onion ½ orange, juiced 2 cups ground flax seeds (about 1 ½ cups whole seeds) 1 teaspoon sea salt 1 celery stick 1 carrot 2 garlic cloves 1 tsp. of Italian seasoning

The Puttanesca Sauce 6 Roma tomatoes ½ cup sun‐dried tomatoes, soaked until soft 2 dates, soaked until soft Himalayan salt to taste ¼ cup fresh basil leaves ¼ cup fresh oregano Pinch of cayenne 1 clove garlic 1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin cold‐pressed olive oil 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast

Instructions Making the Crust

Mix all veggies in a food processor first, then add buckwheat 1 to 2 cups at a time. Last slowly add ground flax ½ cup at a time. Blend well. With olive oil on your hands or put on latex (latex‐free) gloves and oil and press dough into a dehydrator with the solid sheet (Teflex sheets), score into desired shape. I like to divide them into 7x7 squares. Dehydrate until dry on top flip over, peel off Teflex sheets and dry until hard around 12 to 24 hours.


The Vegan Culinary Experience – Education, Inspiration, Quality * www.veganculinaryexperience.com Recipe by Angela Elliot

Making the Sauce Place all the above ingredients in a food processor and pulse chop until all the ingredients are chunky and well mixed.

Making the Pizza

Top pizza with mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, olives, tomatoes, and artichokes. To make more "sautéed cooked style" toppings, place sliced veggies in a bowl, add lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper and allow them to marinate. Place marinated veggies on a Teflex sheet until soft and "cooked" looking, remove, and top pizza!

Kitchen Equipment 2 Glass Bowls Dehydrator Teflex Sheets Knife Cutting Board Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons Food Processor

Chef’s Notes This wonderful pizza is not only rich in flavor, it's simple to prepare, so you can whip up a delectable festive pizza pretty quickly with a little advance preparation and impress family and friends too. I've been selling this amazing pizza to my clients for over 12 years and they always call for more.


Interesting Facts Puttanesca means “in the style of the whore.” How it got this sordid name is up for debate, but the sauce did originate in Naples.



Roasted Trinity Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: makes a 14” pizza Time to Prepare: 1 hour 30 minutes + time for the dough Ingredients ½ a medium‐sized eggplant, roasted (roast the entire eggplant, and then use half in another dish) 1 ½ tsp. of olive oil 1 bulb of garlic, roasted ½ tsp. of olive oil 1 red pepper, roasted 1 cup of Classic San Marzano Sauce (see page 169)¾ cup of grated Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack cheese 1 Chicago Deep Dish Crust (see page 31) 1 tsp. of olive oil Instructions Make the dough for the crust. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Rub 1 ½ tsp. of olive oil on the eggplant and cover it with tinfoil. Cut the top of the garlic off, exposing the cloves, and drizzle ½ tsp. of olive oil over the top. Cover it with tinfoil. Spread a sheet of tinfoil on the middle rack of the oven. Place the whole pepper on the top rack and the garlic and eggplant on the middle rack. Roast the garlic for 30 minutes. Roast the pepper until the skin blackens and blisters. Roast the eggplant for 35 minutes. Remove the garlic and eggplant from the oven and let them cool. Remove the pepper from the oven and remove the skin, stem, and seeds. Slice the pepper into 1” long strips. Gently grab hold of the eggplant and slice it in 1” strips along the width. Cut those strips into 1” chunks (you will have to hold the roasted eggplant gently) Squeeze the garlic bulb gently from the bottom to pop out the garlic clove (pull back the skin on individual cloves if necessary). Oil and appropriately sized iron skillet with 1 tsp. of olive oil. Place the crust in the iron skillet. Spread the sauce on the crust, leaving about ½” of space from the sauce to the edge of the crust. Grate the Follow Your Heart cheese onto the pizza and spread it around on the sauce evenly. Spread the eggplant, pepper slices, and garlic cloves evenly around the pizza. Bake this in the iron skillet on 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until the crust is golden.



Kitchen Equipment Iron Skillet Oven Measuring Cup Tinfoil Cutting Board Chef’s Knife Grater Pizza Cutter

Presentation This looks very nice when it is served directly in the iron skillet. Take the pizza cutter and separate it into 4 slices and then place the iron skillet on a hot pad on the table. Make sure to let the skillet cool first so no one burns themselves.

Time Management While this pizza does not have a lot of labor involved, it does require a couple hours to make, so plan accordingly. You can also store the roasted veggies for a day in the refrigerator and then place them on the pizza. Don’t store them for longer, though, as they will lose their flavor. To save some time, get the crust, sauce, and cheese ready while the roasted veggies cool down.

Complementary Food and Drinks This pizza goes well with an India pale ale. You can also save some tomato sauce, add some crushed red pepper to it, and use it for a dip for the edges of the crust.

Where to Shop All of these ingredients are fairly common, so you should be able to find them at your local grocery store. If you don’t want to roast your own pepper, look for a jar of roasted red peppers.

How It Works Roasting the vegetables develops the natural sugars in them, creating a small caramelization. This adds a nice, deep flavor to the toppings. Oiling the iron skillet helps keep the crust from sticking to it and adds some nice flavor. It also works with the metal to crisp the crust.



Chef’s Notes You’ll have about half an eggplant left over. Save it and make an eggplant dip out of it for another meal!

Nutritional Facts (individual servings in parentheses, does not include any options) Calories 2072 Calories from Fat 792 Fat 88 g Total Carbohydrates 260 g Dietary Fiber 40 g Sugars 9 g Protein 60 g Salt 2367 mg

Interesting Facts Eggplant is called such because some of the cultivars of eggplant, when it was first introduced to Europe, resembled goose eggs.



Soy Sausage and Sage Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: 14” pizza Time to Prepare: 20 minutes + time for the dough to rise Ingredients 8 oz. of Gimme Lean soy sausage (½ the package) 1/ 8 tsp. of salt 2 tsp. of olive oil 10 large sage leaves ¾ cup of Daiya white cheese 1 cup of Fire Roasted Chicago Tomato Sauce (see page 174)1 NYC Crust (see page 31) Instructions Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Sauté the soy sausage on a medium heat with the salt and olive oil until it has browned. Break the soy sausage apart with a wooden spoon as it sautés until you have large crumbles. Spread the sauce on the crust, leaving about a 1” space between the sauce and the edge of the crust. Grate the cheese evenly onto the sauce. Mince the sage leaves. Spread the sage leaves on top of the cheese. Add the soy sausage crumbles onto the pizza. Bake it at 500 degrees on a pizza stone for 8 minutes.



Kitchen Equipment Sauté Pan Measuring Spoon Measuring Cup Wooden Spoon Pizza Stone Pizza Cutter

Presentation This pizza has very few ingredients, but each one has its own distinct color, which makes this a nice looking pizza. Place this on the table before cutting it for the best effect. A dark surrounding red color, either on the plate, placemat, or tablecloth, nicely highlights the colors of the pizza.

Time Management Make sure to preheat the oven before you start on the soy sausage to save about five to ten minutes. This pizza should be eaten fresh as the tomato sauce will make the thin crust damp after a day and soggy after two days.

Complimentary Food and Drinks This goes well with a sparkling cider as the lighter, dry taste of the cider goes nicely with the sage.

Where to Shop If your local grocery market has a section for vegetarian products in the produce area, chances are that they sell the GimmeLean soy sausage. If not, try the old standby of Whole Foods. You’ll pay more, but you’ll also know they have it. The same goes for the Follow Your Heart cheese.

How It Works When they soy sausage is not sautéed, it can be too mushy. However, browning it makes all the difference and will turn it into something that can be eaten on its own. The salt adds a bit of extra flavor to it. The green of the sage goes well with the browned aroma of the soy sausage and this pizza uses very few ingredients in order to highlight all of the very distinct flavors in this pizza.

Chef’s Notes I like dishes that are easy to make and this one certainly qualifies. It doesn’t have a lot of ingredients and requires very little prep work. Plus, all of the ingredients are good enough that they can stand on their own, so they don’t need a lot of other ingredients there to compete with them.




Interesting Facts Most types of sage are inedible and was used as a healing herb far longer than it was used in the kitchen. Because of this, sage was widely cultivated in the ancient Mediterranean, where it grows easily.



The Seven Pounder Type: Pizza Serves: 16” pizza Time to Prepare: About 3 hours Ingredients Pizza Crust

3 cups of all purpose flour 1 cup of tepid water 1 tablespoon or one packet of yeast 1 teaspoon sugar ¼ cup of olive oil ½ teaspoon salt

Toppings 2 cups of tomato pizza sauce (pick your favorite from the magazine!) 16 oz of crimini mushrooms, sliced ½ heaping cup of sliced green olives ½ heaping cup of sliced black olives ½ a red onion, sliced 2 cups of shredded white vegan cheese

IMPORTANT: You need a 16” pizza pan for this recipe Instructions Make the Dough

Proof the yeast by adding the yeast and sugar to the tepid water. Wait 5 minutes and the yeast should have foamed slightly. If it did, add it to the flour, salt, and oil. Mix and knead until smooth, plus at least 5 minutes. Aim for ten minutes. Cover and allow to rest at least an hour. Once it has risen, punch it down, knead for another few minutes, then start rolling it out. You do not need to roll it out until it is 16 inches round, but starting it helps.

Creating the Pizza Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the veggies. Stretch the crust onto the 16 inch pizza pan, until it is uniform. Place on the sauce, toppings, and cover with the vegan cheese. Bake for 30‐40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Remove, cool, and slice.



Kitchen Equipment Knife, Grater Cutting Board Mixing Bowl Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons Rolling Pin 16” Pizza Pan Oven

Presentation This pizza is thick. Make sure you have a pizza roller or large knife before slicing into it.

Time Management To save extra time, you can use pre‐sliced mushrooms and olives. Also, this lasts in the refrigerator for at least a week, but it never lasts for me that long before I eat it.

Complementary Food and Drinks I love this with some nice honeybush Rooibos iced tea, or even on days when I feel like I can spend a few extra empty calories, a ginger beer (extra ginger, please).

Where to Shop These items can be purchased at most grocery stores.

Chef’s Notes I love using a blend of Follow Your Heart and Daiya for the ‘cheese’ on this. And yes, it is named the Seven Pounder because I once made one that weighed seven pounds!

Nutrition Facts (per pizza) Calories 1956 Calories from Fat 1044 Fat 116 g Total Carbohydrates 381 g Dietary Fiber 61 g Sugars 16 g



Protein 72 g Salt 4730 mg

Interesting Facts Yeast converts sugar into carbon dioxide and ethanol, which makes the dough rise.


The Vegan Culinary Experience – Education, Inspiration, Quality * www.veganculinaryexperience.com Recipe by Chef Bryanna Clark Grogan * www.bryannclarkgrogan.com

BRYANNA'S "THREE SISTERS" BUTTERNUT SQUASH PIZZA

Serves: Makes two 14” pizzas This is quite a departure for me because I am generally very traditional in my tastes when it comes to pizza. But, for some reason, I wanted to try a pizza made with butternut squash for a long time. I finally hit on the idea of the Native American "Three Sisters": corn, beans and squash. (Not only were they staple crops, but they grew together—thus the name.) I opted to use my simple white bean spread instead of the usual tomato sauce, with a crispy cornmeal‐enriched crust, and a topping of orange squash roasted with onion, bell peppers, mushrooms and rosemary. The combination turned out to be quite luscious! NOTE: If you have a large (14‐inch) cast iron skillet, it works as well as a pizza stone and takes half the time to preheat. Ingredients: CRISPY CORNMEAL CRUST 1 ¼ cups warm water 1 tsp. dry active baking yeast 2 ½ cups unbleached white flour 1 cup yellow cornmeal 2 tsp. salt TOPPINGS 1 recipe White Bean Spread (see recipe below) 1 ½ cups vegan mozzarella‐style cheese (or use ½ recipe Vegan "Gruyere" from my book “World Vegan Feast”) ½ cup soy parmesan (I like Galaxy Vegan) (or use Walnut Parmesan from my book “World Vegan Feast”) 4 cloves garlic, crushed 2 Tbs. extra‐virgin olive oil

Roasted Vegetable Mixture: 1 ½ lb. butternut squash or other "meaty" winter squash, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced 1 large onion, thinly sliced 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced 4 large mushrooms, sliced (any kind‐‐ chanterelles would be nice!) 1 Tbs. fresh rosemary, chopped 4 Tbs. Italian vinaigrette (no‐fat is fine) Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

BRYANNA’S WHITE BEAN SPREAD 1 large onion, minced ½ cup vegan broth



2 cloves garlic, minced 1 can (15 oz.) or 1 ½ cooked white beans (white kidney, cannellini, or Great Northern), drained 3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice 2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley ½ tsp. salt ¼ tsp. EACH dried thyme and savory, or other favorite herbs White pepper to taste In a medium mixing bowl, or the bowl of a heavy‐duty mixer, combine the water and yeast. Let it stand until the yeast dissolves when stirred. Mix the flour, cornmeal and salt together in smaller bowl. Add this to the yeast mixture and knead for 10 minutes, by hand or by machine. Add a little more unbleached flour if absolutely necessary, but add as little as possible. (A moist dough makes better pizza.) Place the dough in a bowl oiled with olive oil, turn it over to coat, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature for an hour and a half, or until doubled in size. (A slow rise increases the flavor.) TO RISE THE DOUGH IN THE REFRIGERATOR: make it the morning before you are going to use it. Oil the kneaded dough all over with olive oil and place it in a plastic bag or a bowl with room to double. A zipper‐lock bag works well‐‐ flatten the dough out first. Make sure that the dough rising in a bowl is well‐oiled and well‐covered, or it will dry out. If you are around while it is rising, flatten the air out of the dough two or three times during the day. Refrigerated dough needs 2‐3 hours to come to room temperature before baking. TO MAKE THE DOUGH IN A BREAD MACHINE: This is a great convenience and makes wonderful pizza dough. Use cold water. Place the ingredients in the bread container in the order that is instructed for your machine. Select the dough cycle and let it go to work. You can remove it from the machine after it has kneaded and rise it in a bowl, or, if the your container is big enough for the dough to double, let it rise through the entire dough cycle, then remove for the final rising and proceed with the recipe as instructed below. TO MAKE THE ROASTED VEGETABLE MIXTURE: preheat the oven to 400°F. Mix the prepared vegetables, rosemary, salad dressing and some salt and pepper to taste in a large shallow roasting pan. Bake for 15‐20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the squash is tender. Remove from the oven and set aside. TO SHAPE AND BAKE THE PIZZA: 30‐60 minutes before baking, heat your oven to 500 or up to 550 degrees F. If you are using a pizza stone or large cast iron skillet, place it on the on the bottom rack to preheat. DO NOT START SHAPING THE PIZZAS AND TOPPING THEM UNTIL YOU HAVE PREHEATED THE OVEN. The pizza dough should not rise again after you have added the toppings! Your goal is for the dough to cook quickly, but not dry out, and you want the topping to be juicy. (If you use a pizza stone, be aware that toppings, sauce, and oil that may drip on the clay may be difficult to remove and may smell up the oven next time you bake.) Punch down the dough. Divide the dough into two equal balls. You can use a rolling pin if you prefer, but this makes a flatter and less chewy, less rustic‐looking crust. I use cooking parchment for rolling‐out and bake the pizza on the same parchment.



TO SHAPE WITHOUT A ROLLING PIN: on a lightly‐floured surface or piece of cooking parchment, holding your fingers flat, press the one ball of dough out into a circle. Drape the circle over your closed fists. Keeping your thumbs out of the way, move your fists up and down, gently and evenly stretching the dough to make a 14" circle (more or less). For the final stretching, hold the edge of the pizza and keep moving the edge of the dough around through your fingers, letting the weight of the dough stretch it a little more, to 14" maximum, across. ALTERNATIVELY, you can drape the partially rolled‐out dough over the bottom of an over‐turned large round‐bottomed mixing bowl and gently stretch it downwards until it is the right size, using the weight of the dough stretch it. Work slowly so that you don't tear the dough. If it does tear, you can patch it and seal it again. Place on a lightly‐floured piece of baking parchment and cut around the pizza dough leaving only about 1/2‐inch all around. Tip: The pizza does not have to be absolutely round! IF USING A BAKING STONE OR 14‐INCH CAST IRON SKILLET, place each pizza (still on baking parchment) over a 12‐inch baking peel, or a rimless baking sheet, or a square of stiff cardboard, or an upside‐down pizza pan. Quickly add the Toppings and get it into the oven, use any of these options to slide the pizza off onto the hot baking stone or cast iron skillet. Tip: I roll out and top the 2nd pizza while the first one is baking. Otherwise, place each dough round (still on baking parchment) on a 14‐inch round pizza pan, add toppings and bake. TO MAKE THE BEAN SPREAD: In a nonstick skillet, sauté the onion and garlic, using the broth a little at a time to keep the vegetables from sticking, until they are soft and as browned as you like them (browned onions will give the dish a rich flavor). Add the remaining ingredients to the skillet and mash them with a potato masher. If you're serving the spread warm, stir it around until it is quite hot, then mound into a serving bowl and serve immediately. TOPPING THE PIZZAS: quickly spread each pizza with half of the White Bean Spread (one at a time, unless you have 2 stones or cast iron skillets). Top this evenly with the Roasted Vegetable Mixture, a little salt and some freshly‐ground black pepper. Distribute the crushed garlic evenly over the two pizzas. Distribute the vegan cheese over the vegetables, and then the soy or walnut "parmesan". Drizzle each pizza with 1 Tbs. of the extra‐virgin olive oil (DO NOT OMIT THIS! Eat fat‐free all day if you have to, but the oil really makes the pizza wonderfully “juicy”! You are saving plenty of fat by not using fatty meat, and the fat in olive oil is much more healthful than dairy fat.) TO BAKE: place the pizza pans on racks in the preheated oven, OR, if using stones or cast iron skillet, slide the pizza off the pan (still on the baking parchment), board or peel by lining up the edge of it with the back edge of the stone or skillet, tilt it up and jerk it gently to get the back edge of the pizza onto the stone or skillet. Then carefully pull back until the pizza in on the stone or skillet. Bake one pizza at a time, unless you have two stones or skillets. At 550 degrees F, a pizza will cook in about 8 minutes. The bottom of the crust should be crispy and golden, with a few scorched spots, and the top should be bubbly and slightly browned, with a nice puffy edge. The crust should be chewy. Serve immediately, cutting each pizza into 6 wedges with a sharp knife, a pizza cutter, or a pair of kitchen shears (my favorite).



Nutrition Facts (per slice) Calories 62 Calories from Fat 3 Fat .3 g Total Carbohydrates 13.3 g Dietary Fiber 2.4 g Sugars .5 g Protein 3.4 g Salt 149.3 mg

Time Management Components can be made a head and assembled at your convenience.

Complementary Food and Drinks Your favorite wine or sparkling water. Where to Shop Most large supermarkets have the primary ingredients. You may have to go to a health food store for vegan parmesan, vegan mozzarella and vegan broth cubes or powder or paste, or buy them online.



Heirloom Tomato Olive Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: makes one 14 inch pizza Time to Prepare: about 20 minutes + time to make the crust Ingredients 3‐4 heirloom tomatoes in various sizes ¼ to 1/3 cup of prepared olive tapenade* 6‐8 large fresh basil leaves 8‐10 kalamata olives, pitted 8‐10 green olives stuffed with garlic ½ of the Roasted Garlic Chile Crust recipe (half the recipe will produce one crust on page 166) Instructions After prebaking the crust (see Roasted Garlic Chili Crust recipe) keep the oven on 450 degrees. Spread with the tapenade. Slice the tomatoes about ¼ of an inch thin. Arrange so there are different colors on each slice. Slice the olives and sprinkle around. Chiffonade the basil and sprinkle on top. Return to the oven and bake for ten minutes. Remove from heat and allow the pizza to cool before slicing. * Many purchased tapenades contain anchovies, so ALWAYS check the label. I like the green olive tapenade from Trader Joes.



Raw Version Use a flax seed cracker for the crust and minced raw olives with garlic and lemon juice for the tapenade. Do not bake, but dehydrate for 2 hours.

Kitchen Equipment A Pizza Stone or Pizza Pan Knife Cutting Board Oven

Presentation Serve this directly on the pizza stone or pan. If you serve it on the pan, make sure to slice it on a cutting board first and then transfer it back to the pan so you don’t damage your pan.

Time Management If you are making the crust from scratch, start slicing the tomatoes and basil while you are waiting for the crust to rise for the second time.

Complementary Food and Drinks Of course, a smooth red wine is always great with pizza, especially one like this that celebrates simple flavors. A bit of fresh and spicy olive oil to drizzle on would be amazing.

Where to Shop These ingredients can be found in most supermarkets, but the most amazing heirloom tomatoes come from your backyard or the local farmer’s market. Approximate cost per serving is $0.75.

How It Works The quality of the ingredients in a pizza this simple make or break it. Take the time to seek out the best, freshest ingredients and you will be rewarded with great flavor.

Chef’s Notes This is a simple little pizza, but it is amazing. The crust is very light because it functions like thin bread, and the soft bite of the tomato with the tang of the olives is wonderful. I love this pizza.




Interesting Facts Pita and pizza are etymologically related. That’s because the idea of the pizza, bread with herbs and cheese, was Greek in origin.



Tuscan White Bean Spinach Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: 14” pizza Time to Prepare: 15 minutes + time for the dough Ingredients The Crust

1 Roman Crust (see page 30) The Sauce 1 cup of Tuscan White Bean Sauce (see page 172) The Toppings

½ cup of oyster mushrooms 2 tsp. of olive oil Pinch of salt 1 cup of spinach leaves 10‐12 sundried tomatoes

Instructions Make the pizza dough. Puree all the ingredients for the sauce. Chop the oyster mushrooms. Heat 2 tsp. of olive oil up to a medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt and sear them until they are heavily browned. Lightly flour a working surface and roll out the pizza dough. Spread the bean sauce over the pizza, leaving a rim around the edge. Spread the spinach onto the pizza, then the seared mushrooms. Bake the pizza on 500 F for 5 minutes. Remove it from the oven and immediately top it with the sundried tomatoes.



Low‐fat Version Omit the olive oil and use 3 tbsp. of water instead.

Kitchen Equipment Blender Colander Knife Cutting Board Sauté Pan Stirring Spoon 2 Mixing Bowls Measuring Cup Measuring Spoons Pizza Stone Pizza Peel Oven

Presentation When I make pizzas with lots of components, I choose the layering first on what is best for the ingredients (some ingredients need to be covered with sauce to protect them), and then on presentation. With this one, the white bean spread goes on first, then the spinach to create a green platform on which the mushrooms and sundried tomatoes can lay.

Time Management Sear the mushrooms while the dough is rising and make sure you don’t put the sundried tomatoes on the pizza until after it comes out of the oven. They will burn at the high temperature at which this pizza cooks.

Complementary Food and Drinks Serve this with a side of grilled leeks and grilled mushrooms with garlic.

Where to Shop All of these ingredients are fairly common, though you will probably get a better price on better mushrooms at an Asian market. Approximate cost per pizza is $4.00



How It Works Tuscan pizzas often have a white bean spread as the sauce instead of the classic tomato sauce. This pizza in particular has quite a few components of fagioli, another classic Tuscan dish, but the components are presented in an entirely different fashion. The beans are pureed for the sauce, the spinach is laid on the pizza instead of being stewed with the beans, the tomatoes are sundried tomatoes instead of tomato sauce, and seared and salted oyster mushrooms are used instead of bacon.

Chef’s Notes I used to make this pizza with just a white bean spread and mushrooms, but the addition of the sundried tomatoes, spinach, and searing the mushrooms made this much better and with little extra effort.


Interesting Facts Cannellini bean spreads are common all throughout Tuscany as a crostini or bruschetta topper.



White Bean, Tomato, & Garlic Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: 14” pizza Time to Prepare: 15 minutes + time for the dough Ingredients 1 Napoli Pizza Crust (see page 29) ½ of a crisp tomato, diced 3 cloves of garlic, minced ¾ tsp. of chopped fresh rosemary ½ cup of cooked, rinsed cannellini beans Juice of 1 lemon 2 tbsp. of olive oil ¼ tsp. of flakey sea salt ¼ tsp. of red chile flakes Instructions Make the pizza dough. As soon as you are done making it, start working on the salad. Dice the tomato, mince the garlic, and chop the rosemary. Add the tomato, garlic, rosemary, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and chile flakes to a mixing bowl, cover it, and let it sit while the dough rises (it is best if it can sit for at least an hour). Press or roll out the dough. Spread the bean and tomato salad onto the pizza, leaving a 1” rim around the pizza. Bake it at 500 F on a pizza stone for 3 minutes or in a pizza oven for 1 ½ minutes.



Low‐fat Version Omit the olive oil, but make sure to spritz the pizza with water before it goes in the oven to keep it hydrated.

Kitchen Equipment Knife Cutting Board 3 Mixing Bowls Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons Stirring Spoon Pizza Stone Pizza Peel Oven

Presentation Cut this pizza slowly or the toppings will fly everywhere!

Time Management The longer the tomato and bean salad sits, the better it gets as the lemon juice breaks down the ingredients and causes the flavors to meld.

Complementary Food and Drinks Serve this with a side of wilted greens and roasted potatoes.

Where to Shop All of these ingredients are fairly common. Approximate cost per pizza is $2.75.

How It Works It’s a fairly simple recipe. Beans and tomatoes marinated in a garlic lemon olive oil sauce. All those flavors naturally go together, with the beans providing creamy substance, the tomatoes their fresh sweetness, the lemon juice its zing, and the olive oil smoothes everything out.



Chef’s Notes This is another one of those impromptu pizzas. We were getting ready for pizza night during our tour of Southern Italy and I thought about putting together a bean and tomato salad to go alongside the pizzas. Then I realized it would make a perfect topping!


Interesting Facts Rich volcanic soil in Italy is one of the main reasons Italian tomatoes have such an intense flavor.



White Sicilian Garlic Pizza Type: Pizza Serves: 6 Time to Prepare: 20 minutes of work + 35 minutes to bake + 2 hours to rise Ingredients The Crust (Sfinciuni)

3 cups of all purpose flour ¾ tsp. of salt 1 tsp. of sugar 2 tsp. of yeast 1 cup + 3 tbsp. of water 3 tbsp. of olive oil

The Toppings 8 large garlic cloves, minced 3 tbsp. of olive oil ¼ cup of salted capers, thoroughly rinsed 2 tbsp. of crushed nori 1 tbsp. of dried oregano 1 ½ cups of shredded white Daiya cheese

Instructions Prepping the Dough

Combine the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast together. Add the water and oil and combine thoroughly. Knead the dough until it no longer sticks to your hands. Lightly oil it, place it in a bowl, and cover it. Allow the dough to rise for 1 ½ hours. Punch it down and allow it to rise 30 more minutes. Lightly oil a rectangular baking dish, about 12”x8”. Spread the dough into the dish.

Prepping the Toppings While the dough is rising, soak the capers for 45 minutes to an hour, then rinse them. Mince the garlic. Take a few tears of nori and crush it into small flakes until you have about 2 tsp. worth. Spread the olive oil over the top of the dough with you fingers. Sprinkle garlic, capers, oregano, and crushed nori onto the dough. Add the Daiya cheese.

Finishing the Pizza Bake the pizza on 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Cut the pizza into 6 rectangles.



Low‐fat Version You can omit the olive oil from the crust, but you need to replace it with a like amount of water. Instead of using the cheese, use sliced tomatoes and make sure they cover the garlic. If they don’t, the exposed garlic will burn.

Kitchen Equipment Baking Dish 2 Mixing Bowls (1 for the dough and 1 to soak the cheese) Bowl for the dough to rise Towel or Plastic Wrap to cover the dough Oven Knife Cutting Board

Presentation Cut this into square pieces and serve immediately.

Time Management The recipe itself doesn’t take much time to put together, but it does require some patience to get the best taste and texture out of it. Because the dough has to rise and the capers have to soak, plan ahead for this one.

Complementary Food and Drinks The crust dominates this pizza, so it needs to be paired with something light. Try a salad of fresh bitter greens with olives and a dressing of fresh orange juice.

Where to Shop All the ingredients can be commonly found except for Daiya. I usually have to go to Whole Foods, Sprouts, or other specialty market to get that. Approximate cost per serving is $1.50.

How It Works Many authentic Sicilian pizzas use anchovies. In order to get a similar taste, we use capers for saltiness and crushed nori for a touch of the sea. The cheese is laid on top of the other ingredients to keep them from burning during baking.



Chef’s Notes I love this style of Sicilian pizza. The crust, the sfinciuni, reminds me of focaccia and the shots of saltiness goes incredibly well with the Daiya and the bread.


Interesting Facts Sicilian pizzas look very different than pizzas in other parts of Italy. They can have thick crusts, may be topped with bread crumbs, have two crusts with the ingredients between them, or even may be rolled closed.



Sundried Tomato Pepperoni Type: Topping, Mock Meat Serves: enough for 2 large pizzas Time to Prepare: 90 minutes + 1 day to rest Ingredients Pepperoni

1 tablespoon pepper 2 teaspoons caraway seeds 1 tablespoon fennel seeds 1 ½ teaspoons crushed red pepper 1 teaspoon salt ¼ cup of smoked paprika ¼ cup of sundried tomatoes 1/3 cup of black olives chopped 1 cup of vital gluten flour ¼ cup of garbanzo bean flour 5 tablespoons olive oil (garlic infused preferred) ¼ cup of good quality balsamic vinegar ¼ cup of tomato paste (about ½ a 6 oz can)

Simmering liquid About 8 cups of vegetable broth

Instructions Using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, roughly grind the pepper, caraway seeds, and fennel. In a bowl, add the vital gluten flour and garbanzo bean flour with the spices. Whisk together. Dice the black olives if needed and dice the sundried tomatoes as well. You want a very, very fine dice on these. Add those to the flour mixture and toss, along with the paprika, salt, and crushed red pepper. Add the tomato paste, olive oil and balsamic. Mix, then knead for 5 minutes. Allow to rest 5 minutes then knead another 5 minutes. Allow to rest 25 minutes and knead one final 5 minute allotment. Heat your vegetable broth to a simmer. Divide your dough in half. Shape each one as you want it (round for links or more blockish for dicing) using foil. Tuck in the ends of the foil, then submerge in the simmering liquid (be careful not to get splashed!). Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, then remove from the liquid and cool. You will notice that a lot of the oil has simmered out of the pepperoni. Allow to cool in the refrigerator overnight, then peel and slice the next day.



Kitchen Equipment Large pot, foil, knife, cutting board, measuring cups and spoons, bowl, tongs, mortar and pestle OR spice grinder

Presentation Not applicable.

Time Management Plan on making this at least one day ahead, because it really does need the time to rest.

Complementary Food and Drinks How can you not make a pepperoni pizza or calzone with this? It is also great on crackers with a nice red wine when you have friends over, and is a great add‐in to spaghetti sauce.

Where to Shop You can get these ingredients at most markets, but the least expensive places to get the smoked paprika are Penzey’s www.penzeys.com or Trader Joes. Trader Joes also carries garlic infused olive oil.

How It Works Kneading the mixture in one direction elongates the vital wheat gluten strands which gives it a more ‘meaty’ texture. Also, a combination of textures from the olives and sundried tomatoes makes it similar to meat pepperoni.

Chef’s Notes This is a delicious pepperoni that works well in many dishes. Finally, a vegan pepperoni that can be made at home and tastes great!




Interesting Facts The pepperoni most of us recognize is American in origin, rather than Italian and was first created in the early 20th century.



Sharp Aged Cashew Cheese Type: Cheese Serves: Makes a fist‐sized round of cheese Time to Prepare: 10 minutes + 2 hours to soak the cashews + 3‐6 months to age Ingredients 2 cups of raw cashews Water for soaking 1 tbsp. of chickpea miso ¾ tsp. of flaky sea salt Powder from 1 capsule of probiotics Instructions Cover the cashews with water and soak them for 2 hours. Drain the water and rinse the cashews. Puree all the ingredients together. Form the puree into a hemisphere and loosely wrap it in plastic wrap. Let it sit out for two days, then refrigerate it. Keep the cheese in the refrigerator for 3‐6 months (the longer it sits, the sharper it will get).



Kitchen Equipment Blender Bowl for soaking the cashews Measuring Cup Measuring Spoons Plastic Wrap

Time Management Making aged cheese requires patience. Once you get started, however, you can have a rotating batch of cheeses in your refrigerator. If you make one once a month, you’ll have a new one ready every month. Keep in mind that the longer you age it, the harder it will get and the sharper it will get.

How It Works The probiotics, particularly the acidophilus, turns the natural sugar in the cashews into lactic acid, which gives the cheese its sour note. It also makes the cheese just a bit crumbly.

Chef’s Notes I first saw this type of cheese when I had Dr. Cow cheese at a raw foods restaurant and I had to learn how to make it!


Interesting Facts Cashews trees are evergreens.



Pine Nut Parmigiano-Reggiano Type: Cheese Serves: Makes ¼ cup Time to Prepare: 5 minutes Ingredients 6 tbsp. of pine nuts ½ tsp. of coarse, flaky sea salt Option: ¼ tsp. of finely ground white pepper Instructions Smash the pine nuts in a mortar and pestle until they are coarsely ground, but don’t mash the pine nuts, just bash them. Add the salt, stir, and give the pine nuts a few more smashes. Stir one more time. Option: Add the white pepper with the salt.



Kitchen Equipment Mortar and Pestle Measuring Cup Measuring Spoon Small Stirring Spoon


Time Management You can store this in a sealed container for up to a week.

Complementary Food and Drinks You can dress burgers with this, though you’ll need about a tbsp. per burger. My favorite way to use it is to toss fresh fries in it and serve right away.

Where to Shop Pine nuts can be expensive, so you may need to hunt around locally to find the best price, but the current average is about $20 per pound.

How It Works Pine nuts crumble very well when you hit them and have a rich, slightly dry taste. The flaky sea salt crumbles in the mouth and gives the pine nuts the salty taste a good parmesan needs. Don’t use hard salt crystals. It really does need to be flaky to get the right texture. Also, make sure to bash the pine nuts, but don’t mash them. Bashing them makes them crumble while mashing them turns them into pine nut paste. Tasty, but not crumbly like parmesan.

Chef’s Notes I created this recipe when I was making a raw lasagna and I wanted to top it with a nice cheese. I had some pine nuts sitting around, so I decided to give them a quick smash to see what happened and they crumbled just right. With the salt, this instantly became my favorite parmesan!




Interesting Facts The recipe for Parmagiano‐Reggiano was created during the early Middle Ages in the Emilia region of Italy.



Roasted Garlic Chili Crust Type: Crust Serves: makes two 14 inch crusts Time to Prepare: About 3 hours (includes time to rise and bake) Ingredients 1 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar 1 package of yeast, or about 2 teaspoons of loose About 1 cup of warm water 3 cups of flour 1 large teaspoon of chili flakes (or more) ½ teaspoon salt 6‐8 cloves of garlic ¼ cup good quality olive oil Instructions Roast your garlic. The best way to do this is keep your garlic in the paper, and heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Place your garlic inside and allow this to sit for about 10 minutes on each side, until the garlic paper is slightly blackened and you can smell the aroma. Then turn to a new side until all the sides are done. Allow to cool and remove from the paper. Mince. Set to the side. Place the yeast, water, and sugar in a glass bowl. Lightly mix with your fingers and allow to rest about 5‐10 minutes. The yeast mixture should start to bubble. If it doesn’t, you might have old yeast, so you might want to try again. Once you know your yeast is viable, set to the side. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, chili flakes, and salt. Add the olive oil and slowly add the yeast water, mixing as you go. If you have a large stand mixer with a dough paddle, this is the time to use it. If not, you are going to get a work out. You want the dough to stick to itself and not you. Add a few drops more of water, or a little bit more flour until you have this consistency. Once you have it, knead the dough for at least ten minutes. Cover and allow the dough to rest in a warm place for about an hour. It will get big. Very big. Punch it down after the hour and knead again for another 5‐10 minutes. Then, the magic happens. Roll out into your desired shape. For breadsticks, I like an oblong shape that you can cut into breadsticks. For the pizza crust, roll out into a circle, place on your pizza stone or baking sheet, and trim or stretch to match the pan. Then, cover and wait another hour. Finally, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Remove your cover from your crust, and bake it for about 5 minutes. Cover with your topping and bake about 10 more minutes, or according to directions.



Kitchen Equipment Measuring Cups Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons Rolling Pin Large Bowl Pizza Stone or Pan Oven


Time Management Get your toppings ready during the second hour of rising. That way, after you bake it for the five minutes, you and your toppings will be ready.

Complementary Food and Drinks When this is in breadstick form, it is a must to have a great dripping sauce. I am addicted to arrabiata sauce with this.

Where to Shop These ingredients should be at any supermarket.

How It Works Yeast eats the sugar in the warm liquid environment, reproduces, and gives off gas. The gas is trapped by a web of gluten, which is developed through kneading. This causes the dough to rise. Punching it down relaxes the gluten, making a softer dough.

Chef’s Notes Warn your roommate if you are making this! When I made this for the first time after my roommate moved in, I caught her ready to attack the rising bread with a broom. She had never seen the process before and was terrified that it was something out of a horror movie. When I explained it was dinner, she remained skeptical, but she was less afraid. She loved the results, however.



Nutrition Facts (per crust) Calories 875 Calories from Fat 207 Fat 27 g Total Carbohydrates 142 g Dietary Fiber 24 g Sugars 11 g Protein 25 g Salt 595 mg

Interesting Facts When you see pizza al taglio, it means pizza being sold by the slice.



Classic San Marzano Tomato Sauce Type: Sauce Serves: Makes 2 cups (usually enough for two 14” pizzas) Time to Prepare: 12‐15 minutes Ingredients 2 cups of crushed San Marzano tomatoes (or other tomatoes if you can’t find San Marzano) 2 tsp. of fresh oregano leaves ¼ tsp. of freshly ground black pepper ½ tsp. of salt Instructions Combine the tomatoes, oregano, pepper, and salt in a pot and simmer it for about 10 minutes. If you can only find whole San Marzano tomatoes, smash them with a potato masher so you retain a crushed texture.



Raw Version Smash fresh San Marzano tomatoes and smash the herbs before adding them to the tomato sauce. Let it sit for about 1 hour so the flavors can meld.

Kitchen Equipment Pot Measuring Spoons Measuring Cup Stirring Spoon


Time Management Don’t overcook the sauce. Otherwise, you will lose some of the pop from the herbs and tomatoes.

Where to Shop I usually have to go to a higher end market to get San Marzano tomatoes, but they are not nearly as expensive as I expected. Cento brand San Marzanos are a sure bet for quality. Approximate cost for the sauce is $2.00.

How It Works San Marzano tomatoes are famous for a reason. They are sweet, but no overly so, and they have a very complex and bold flavor profile. Oregano is added for some depth, but the tomatoes are the real start of the show.

Chef’s Notes San Marzano tomatoes turned me into a pizza sauce snob. I can definitely taste a difference when they are not present in the sauce.

Nutrition Facts (per serving) Calories 80 Calories from Fat 0 Fat 0 g Total Carbohydrates 17 g Dietary Fiber 4 g Sugars 3 g



Protein 3 g Salt 290 mg

Interesting Facts San Marzano tomatoes, while heavily identified with Italian cuisine and pizza, originated in Peru and were brought to Italy in the late 18th century.



Tuscan White Bean Sauce Type: Sauce Serves: Makes 1 cup of sauce Time to Prepare: 5 minutes Ingredients 2 cloves of garlic 1 cup of cooked, rinsed cannelini beans ¼ cup of olive oil ¼ tsp. of salt Juice of ½ of a lemon (about 1 tbsp.) 1 tsp. of fresh thyme Instructions Puree all the ingredients.



Low‐fat Version Omit the olive oil.

Raw Version Use ½ cup of soaked cashews instead of beans.

Kitchen Equipment Blender Colander Measuring Cup Measuring Spoons Spatula


Time Management This will keep in the refrigerator for about three days.

Where to Shop I generally use the cannellini beans and Sicilian olive oil from Trader Joe’s to make this sauce. Approximate cost is $1.75.

How It Works Pureed beans make for a creamy pizza topping, with pungency from the garlic and lots of life from the lemon juice.

Chef’s Notes I had created this white bean sauce years ago for use on my pizzas before I knew it was a traditional Tuscan sauce. It just seemed a natural pairing for pizza and mushrooms.

Nutrition Facts (per serving) Calories 622 Calories from Fat 342 Fat 38 g Total Carbohydrates 50 g



Dietary Fiber 12 g Sugars 2 g Protein 20 g Salt 600 mg

Interesting Facts This sauce is one of the traditional crostini sauces used throughout Tuscany.



Chicago Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce Type: Sauce Serves: Makes 2 ½ cups Time to Prepare: 15 minutes Ingredients 2 cloves of garlic, minced 4 basil leaves, minced 1 tsp. of minced fresh oregano 1 tsp. of olive oil 2 ½ cups of crushed fire roasted tomatoes ¼ tsp. of fennel seeds ¼ tsp. of crushed red pepper ¼ tsp. of freshly ground black pepper ½ tsp. of salt 1 tsp. of sugar Instructions Mince the garlic, basil, and oregano. Over a medium heat, sauté the garlic in 1 tsp. of olive oil for about 30 seconds. Add all the sauce ingredients to the pot and simmer over a medium‐low heat for about 10 minutes.



Low‐fat Version Omit the olive oil.

Raw Version Use six Roma tomatoes and puree all the ingredients. Let this sit for about 30 minutes before using, unless you are going to dehydrate it on something, in which case, you can use it as is.

Kitchen Equipment Knife Cutting Board Measuring Cup Measuring Spoon Pot Stirring Spoon


Time Management You can simmer this sauce up to about 30 minutes and the flavors will keep melding, but it won’t improve that much. After 30 minutes, the sauce will start to caramelize, even over a low heat.

Where to Shop I typically use Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes for this sauce. Organic and tasty! For the spices, I typically purchase those from bulk jars since I don’t have to pay for the bottle and I can get exactly how much I need. Approximate cost is $2.75.

How It Works Chicago tomato sauces tend to be on the sweet side, which is why sugar is added to this recipe. The fennel and black pepper give it a heavy aromatic quality and the chile flakes give it some heat. This combination is very similar to what goes into a lot of sausage mixtures.

Chef’s Notes This is a great sauce to use not only on pizza, but on any sort of pasta or even with a meatball sub.




Interesting Facts Sweet tomatoes are ideal for fire roasting since the roasting will caramelize the natural sugar in the tomatoes.



Chimichurri Sauce Type: Sauce Serves: makes 1 cup Time to Prepare: 5 minutes + 30 minutes to sit Ingredients 3 cloves of garlic 1 cup of flat leaf parsley ¼ cup of cilantro 1 tbsp. of fresh oregano 1 serrano chile ¼ tsp. of salt ½ tsp. of black pepper ¼ cup of olive oil 3 tbsp. of red wine vinegar Instructions Puree all the ingredients and let it sit for at least 30 minutes before serving.



Low‐fat Version Omit the olive oil, though this will be a bit harsh.

Raw Version Use raw apple cider vinegar.

Kitchen Equipment Blender Measuring Cup Measuring Spoon


Time Management This sauce will keep for several weeks if you cover it properly. Place the chimichurri in a container and then cover it with plastic wrap by pressing it onto the top of the sauce, not by stretching the wrap taught across the container. This minimizes air contact and oxidization.

Where to Shop All of these ingredients are commonly available. However, the quality of the vinegar plays a large role in the quality of the sauce. Make sure to purchase a high quality vinegar.

How It Works Traditionally, chimichurri just uses parsley and oregano. However, I like adding the cilantro to create a more complex flavor in the sauce. It also gives it more of a South American flavor. The oregano creates an herbal bass note for the sauce and everything else is there to add heat and tanginess.

Chef’s Notes A great chimichurri sauce can go a long way! A bad one often goes the wrong way.

Nutrition Facts (per serving) Calories 380 Calories from Fat 312 Fat 36 g Total Carbohydrates 12 g



Dietary Fiber 5 g Sugars 2 g Protein 5 g Salt 585 mg

Interesting Facts Chimichurri may be Argentinian in origin, but it is heavily influenced by British and Spanish cuisine.


The Vegan Culinary Experience – Education, Inspiration, Quality * www.veganculinaryexperience.com Recipe by Amber Shea * www.almostveganchef.com

Amber’s Sundried Tomato Pizza Sauce Type: Sauce Serves: Makes 1 ½ cups of sauce Time to Prepare: 35 minutes (includes time for the sundried tomatoes to rehydrate) Ingredients ½ cup sundried tomatoes, soaked for 30 minutes and drained 1 small ripe tomato, cored, seeded, and chopped 1 small pitted date 1 small clove garlic, peeled 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast 2 teaspoons olive oil 1 teaspoon ground oregano ½ teaspoon fennel seeds ½ teaspoon sea salt ½ to ¾ cup filtered water, as needed to thin Instructions Combine all sauce ingredients, including ½ cup water, in a high‐speed blender and puree. Add more water, 2 tablespoons at a time, as needed to help it blend smoothly.


The Vegan Culinary Experience – Education, Inspiration, Quality * www.veganculinaryexperience.com Recipe by Amber Shea * www.almostveganchef.com

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Interesting Facts Lycopene is heavily prevalent in tomatoes and other red veggies and boosts the immune system by contributing to production of natural killer cells.


http://www.veganculinaryexperience.com

vegan culinary experience (pizza edition)

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