Vegan Zucchini Pizza

This was a real test for me.  After the success of my vegan Mac & Cheese I was determined to go completely vegan, but of course, find an award-worthy substitute for my precious cheese.  And pizza was the perfect experiment to test out whether or not I could truly re-create the deliciousness of standard cheese- and it worked!  Cheeses of all kinds ricotta, mozzarella, cheddar are all easily made using simple ingredients like nutritional yeast, dry mustard or cornstarch, so this pizza was just as satisfying as the dairy-ridden version.

“CHEESE” SAUCE (make about 1 1/2 cups)

1 cup water (plus 2 tbsp for mixing)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

Dash of pepper

• Combine all ingredients in a blender, and pulse until thoroughly mixed
• Pour into small saucepan, and over medium heat, cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until it begins to thicken and bubble
• Remove from heat and quickly stir in 2 tbsp water, to loosen

ZUCCHINI PIZZA

1 bag refrigerated pizza dough (most at Whole Foods don’t have eggs in them)

1 1/2 cup “cheese” sauce

2 small zucchini, sliced thin

2 tomatoes, sliced

1 large onion, sliced

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil for cooking

1 cayenne pepper, minced

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees
• Roll out pizza dough onto baking sheet
• In a saucepan over medium/high heat, cook cayenne in 1 tbsp olive oil for one minute.  After one minute, add onions and saute for 6 to 7 minutes or until golden brown
• In a frying pan, cook the additional 2 tbsp olive oil, zucchini and tomatoes on medium heat for about 8 minutes or until zucchini begins to become translucent.  After they are cooked, drain excess juice from vegetables
• Layer the tomatoes, onions and zucchini on top of the dough, then cover with the sun-dried tomatoes
• Evenly pour the “cheese” over the vegetables
• Cook for 20-25 minutes at 450 degrees