Vegetarian Pizza Night

Ordering pizza is most likely every one's favorite when it comes to pizza night.  Not only are you getting away with not doing all the work, there are virtually no dishes and it's yummy!

However, it can be expensive when feeding your family and it is not as nutritious to eat process meats, let alone you are not sure of the kitchen cooking habits of the chef at a restaurant.  I would like to introduce a vegetarian version of pizza with cheese, that is super delicious and pretty healthy. 
You might even have it on the table faster than the pizza delivery guy, unless he already has a hot standing pizza ready for you every time you want your favorite.

I sometimes cheat to save time and energy by making tea biscuit dough pizza crust, so it can be a little crispier.  If you want any of  your own favorite pizza doughs, and are not bothered at investing a little more time,  perhaps you can go ahead and improvise your favorite one. 

Otherwise, it is just standard biscuit dough, that takes maybe 15 minutes to make with no rising time, such as standard pizza doughs require.  You just spread out onto a pizza pan covered with parchment paper.  Pre-bake this to be a light golden brown but not over done, so that the crust isn't too crispy and still can be baked again with your favorite toppings.  About 10-12 minutes should do it,  but I also eyeball to make sure it's just barely lightly cooked.  Just keep an eye on it and pull it out before it is crispy, as you will have to add the rest of the vegetable pizza ingredients and bake it for another approximate 10 minutes.

A couple of biscuit dough pizza crusts later and you be the judge of what you want to add.  On my first just add your best tomato pizza sauce and add your favorite vegetables such as tomatoes, grated carrots, sliced onions, roasted eggplant slices, chopped kale and some shredded garlic.  Then on the top layer add crumbled goat cheese, and sprinkle with pepper.  Bake it for 15- 18 minutes.  

Depending on  your oven, keep an eye on it and see if it bakes any sooner, because vegetables don't take long to cook and you don't want them to be mush, and the eggplant slices are pre-baked so they don't take long and only require a simmer together.  This one is a super delicious Lacto Ovo Vegetarian pizza!   Read on for the tea biscuit recipe and another tasty and more iron-packed Sante Fe Bean Chicken (vegan strips) version of pizza to bake!

 

For the next version you will need some marble cheddar and mozzarella cheese.  Add other types of your favorite cheese as well. Prepare the cheese by grating.

Wash, slightly scrub and slice mushrooms of your preference.  Here are white and brown button mushrooms I prepared.  I love quite a few on my pizza.

Saute Yves Veggie cuisine vegan chicken strips; made of soy protein or any of your favorite vegan "mock" or replacement meats. Go ahead and use real meats if you are not vegetarian, it's up to you but this is a really healthy meatless idea, as Yves even has mock shrimp meat.  I have yet to try that one but here is a link to the website to view the varieties of Yves Veggie.  I added chopped onions to the pan and season with some pizza seasoning and pepper.  This takes just long enough to saute the onions and warm up the vegan chicken according to the package, approximately 5- 8 minutes.

Add Mexican chili beans or add a medley of beans and add chili seasoning to taste.  Add the sliced mushrooms.  Simmer and saute until the flavors meddle together. 




Everything should be smelling wonderful so far. :)

Using a prepared pizza crust; here is a biscuit crust one that I have been prepared by baking it for about 10-12 minutes.  I forgot to line my pan with parchment liner paper this time.

Spread your favorite pizza sauce on top of the baked biscuit pizza crust.  Spread toward the edges.














 Add shredded kale leaves all over on top of the pizza sauce, and you guessed it keep assembling ingredients you would like on the pizza, the next is the Sante Fe chicken and bean mix.

I also added more roasted eggplant slices on this version, as I love eggplants baked on my vegetarian pizzas.  You could leave it off of this one if you want, but to make those slices just clean and slice an eggplant before hand.  Line a pan with parchment paper and layer the eggplant slices in the pan.  Drizzle with olive oil and spices such as Italian seasoning and pepper.  Bake for about 10-15 minutes at 350*F, or until they are looking cooked.  I pre-make these because I like them finished before I have to bake the biscuit pizza dough.  Then I end up eating some as well and they are ready later for pizza assembly.  I think the eggplant makes up a lot of delicious flavor.  Top with grated cheese!

Bake and about 10 minutes later............. pull the pizza pan or pizza stone out with oven  mitts on and get ready to enjoy!  Again, line your pan with parchment paper for easy clean up,  but if not it's "without papers". 

 Grind some fresh cracked pepper and garnish with fresh cilantro on top.  Add some avocado as well as a side or if fancy slices on top.  Pair with your favorite organic wine and some good television!  Bon appetite. :)

                                         TEA BISCUIT PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

2 cups all-purpose flour / 1 cup of whole wheat and 1 cup of all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 400*F (205*C).  Grease a baking sheet.  Combine flour, baking powder, salt.  Mix.
Cut in shortening into flour mixture, until it's a fine crumb texture.  Stir in milk with a fork.  Make a soft dough.  Knead about 8-10 times, then roll out into a 1/2" thick dough on a flour cutting board.
Instead of cutting into round biscuits with a cookie cutter, roll it out into a perfect size for a pizza!  Bake 10-12 minutes on a pan, otherwise if you were making biscuits you would bake for 12-15 minutes.  Again, keep an eye on the crust when pre-baking for pizza so it doesn't get brown. I hope it works for you and is super quick!