MFB: Crazy vegan mushroom pizza

Here’s a quick dinner, made that much simpler by grabbing a package of whole wheat pizza dough at the market. We always try to keep a nice variety of mushrooms on hand ‘cause they’re really affordable from the Asian market and work great in soups, stir-fry, or on their own. Tonight we have Maitake (or Hen of the Woods), Oyster, and plain old button mushrooms.

Also in an attempt to create that ever elusive crispy crust we heated our pizza stone under the broiler for a good while, then slid our crust, with toppings, from the back of a sheet pan, very carefully onto the hot stone. This way the bottom cooks very quickly, and so does the top (under the broiler). It worked nicely!

Anyway . . . ingredients were:

Mixed mushrooms, sliced

Garlic, minced

Thyme

Red Pepper flakes

Whole wheat pizza dough

Tofu cream (from the Kind Life cookbook)—tofu, soy/rice milk, lemon juice, umeboshi plum paste.

Leftover Trader Joe's Marinara sauce

Heat up a sauté pan, add olive oil, and when blazing hot (but not yet giving off smoke) add the mushrooms in an even layer. Let the mushrooms brown well without tossing or stirring. When nicely colored, shake them around the pan, and, right before they’re done add some chopped garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook another minute or two and set aside on a plate.

Stretch the pizza dough as thin as you like. We did this on the back of a sheet pan so we could slide it into the oven more easily. Then spread a layer of tofu cream and a couple tablespoons marinara sauce, top with the mushrooms and get into the oven. Its done when the bottom is nicely browned and cooked through (only a few minutes under the broiler).

Eric dri-zizzled his with some truffle oil that’s been in the cabinet forever, I just used olive oil on mine, with more salt and pepper flakes. Other vegetable toppings would work though, like steamed broccoli, caramelized onions, or olives but we kept it simple tonight.