Vegan "Calzone"

This weekend I was craving pizza so I chose a tart recipe I had made in January and adapted it to a calzone style dish.

The recipe I adapted is from www.cookstr.com and is their Italian Rustic Squash & Kale Tart.  It looks amazing and tastes so delicious too!  I doubled the recipe and made it for my brother-in-law's birthday and it came out quite well.  This calzone was a bit more of a challenge due to the sauciness of the tomatoes I added but was equally as delicious...maybe even more so.

I tried this last week with wheat flour and it just didn't roll out well.  If you are going to use wheat flour, find a wheat crust recipe that you love...do not simply substitute it with the white flour below.

Ingredients:

Crust:
2 cups White Flour (do not use pastry flour)
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1/3 cup Ice Cold Water

Filling:
1tbsp olive oil
Green Olives
1/2 Red Pepper chopped
1/2 Green Pepper chopped
2 cloves Garlic
1 Medium Yellow Onion
1 14.5 oz can Diced Tomatoes - no salt added
1 Bunch Spinach, Kale or other leafy green
1 block Italian Seasoned Seitan - I used Upton's Italian "Sausage"
Salt & Pepper to your liking
1 or 2 dashes of Italian Seasoning
1 or 2 dashes of hot chile flakes

Directions:

Crust:
1. Combine the flour and salt and whisk or mix with fork
2. Slowly add the olive oil and mix with hands or fork
3. Slowly drizzle the ice cold water
4. When it starts to stick, knead into a ball
5. Cover with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated for at least 30 minutes

Filling:
While the dough is chilling, start your filling.
1. Add olive oil to saute pan on medium heat
2. Add garlic and onion and let sautee until onions are tender
3. Add peppers and olives and saute until peppers are tender
4. Add tomatoes, seitan, seasoning, s&p and hot chile flakes
5. Let cook 5-10 minutes
6. Add Spinach at the very end.  Cook just until it settles into pan.  DO NOT let your greens turn to mush!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Lightly oil your pie dish or pizza pan with oil.  The dish works better for this recipe because the filling is looser.

After 30 minutes or more, take your dough out of the fridge.  Place a piece of parchment paper on your work surface and sprinkle with flour.

Roll out your dough to a thin 14" circle.  Your dough will be very thin.  Carefully transfer to your dish or pan.  Add your filling to the center of the dough.  Once your filling is there, start folding the ends of your dough over the filling, keeping the center of the tart exposed.

Brush a tiny bit of oil on top of the folded dough and place a bit of foil on top of the center so that the filling will not burn.  Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. (I cooked mine for around 40.  Next time I'll cook longer for a crunchier crust)

I served my "calzone" with a side of  "gravy" or tomato/pasta sauce (I used Cadia organic) that I mixed with a new local favorite - EIEIO Pesto!  It is a vegan pesto found in the deli at the Natural Grocer on Guadalupe.  You can also find her at the downtown farmer's market.  Soooo tasty!

Next time I'll have fresh basil to top and garnish with.  You could also mix the pesto in with the veggie saute. 

Serves 4.  Enjoy!

Super Bowl Sunday - Go Whichever Team Wins!

It's Superbowl Sunday and I don't know who's even playing!  But...I do know what I'm eating!

I always love this Sunday...hanging with friends, drinking beer, eating chips & dip as a meal!   Hello!?!  Awesome-town!

With my new-found food restrictions, I scoured the internet for something resembling a "regular" football-watching munchie and I found this:

Buffalo Cauliflower Wing Pizza with Tofu Blue Cheese Spread  

From Kristy at Keepin' It Kind

Vegan & Gluten Free! 

What you'll need: 

1. Cornmeal Crust (I used Vicolo - small 2pack) - in frozen section of your health food stores

2. Recipe for Tofu Blue Cheese Spread (found below)

3. Recipe for Buffalo Cauliflower Wing Topping (found below)

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 475.  Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

• Spread a layer of tofu blue cheese spread on the prepared crust, using as much or as little as you like.  You will most likely have leftovers.  Spread the buffalo cauliflower wings out on top of the blue cheese spread.  You will likely have a few of these leftover as well- they’re great appetizers for while you wait for the pizza.

Bake at 475 for 12-15 minutes, until heated thoroughly.  Remove from oven and serve hot.

 The Sriracha and BBQ sauce, mixed with the "blue cheese" really tastes like you're treating yourself to a wing!  yum!  Enjoy!

Tofu Blue Cheese: 

 Ingredients:

• ½ block of extra firm tofu, crumbled into small pieces
• 2 T nutritional yeast
• 1 T veganaise
• juice of 1 lemon
• 3 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp white miso
• ½ tsp tahini
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp dried oregano
• ¼ tsp dried marjoram
• ¼ tsp kelp granules
• a few dashes of salt

Instructions:

• Place the tofu crumbles into a medium bowl.  Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine.  Chill until ready to use.  Enjoy!

*You may need to adjust the seasonings to fit your preferences.  This was slightly on the mild side for me.

Buffalo Cauliflower Wing Topping:

Ingredients:

• 1 head cauliflower, broken into florets
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 cup chickpea flour
• several dashes of garlic powder
• several dashes of smoked paprika
• ¾ cup  barbecue sauce (we used Organicville)
• 1/4 cup Sriracha sauce (or other hot sauce)
• 1 tbsp arrowroot powder (or whatever starch you’ve got)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Lightly grease or spray a glass 9 x 13 casserole dish with olive oil spray.

• Whisk almond milk and chickpea flour together.  Dredge cauliflower pieces into flour mixture and place in the casserole dish.  Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.

• Meanwhile, mix together the BBQ sauce, Sriracha sauce, arrowroot, salt and pepper.

• Once cooked, toss cauliflower with BBQ mix and bake for an additional 5 to 8 minutes.  Remove from heat and serve hot (or use on pizza).  Enjoy!