The first day of my vegan challenge was Saturday, if this is going to work and I’m going to manage to get through the week without my husband realising that he’s going vegan I’m going to have to be clever about it. Anything obvious like too much salad isn’t going to work so it’s going to have to be a case of trying to get things as close to what he’d normally eat as possible. Saturday I decided to start off fairly safely with a black olive, wild mushroom and vegan pesto pizza. To make the pesto vegan I simply excluded the cheese. I did have to check that yeast are vegan friendly, as it turns out that they’re technically a fungus I was in the clear.
Success! Dinner went down well and I was even congratulated on making a very good pizza. Lets see if we can keep this going for the rest of the week.
So here’s the recipe for you all…
Black Olive, Wild Mushroom and Vegan Pesto Pizza with Sweet Potato Chips
Ingredients
For the pizza base,
200g flour
50g semolina flour
200ml tepid water
Yeast
A pinch of salt
For the pesto
A handful of basil leaves
A handful of pine nuts
Extra virgin olive oil
For the topping
Tomato pureePitted black olives
Wild mushrooms
Method
Hydrate the yeast in the water as per the packet instructions.
Mix the flour, semolina and salt together in a bowl. Make a well in the centre.
Pour the yeast solution into the well and gradually mix in the flour to produce a stiff dough.
Knead the dough for around 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.
Place the dough in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise for an hour. If you’re making the dough beforehand, cover and store in the fridge after rising.
Roll the dough out onto a floured work surface to form the pizza base.
To make the pesto, lightly toast the pine nuts.
Place the basil into a mortar and pestle (you can use a food processor for this stage but I’ve found that the act of beating the basil in the mortar and pestle really helps to release the flavours more than a food processor) and add the pine nuts and beat.
Add enough of the olive oil to bind the sauce and produce the required consistency.
Spread the pizza base with tomato puree, scatter the olives and chopped mushrooms and finally finish off with the pesto.
Bake in a very hot oven (gas mark 9, 240C, 475F) until the base is crisp and golden.
I’ll let you know how day 2 of the challenge, yesterday went in my next post…
The Rose Kitchen 