Veggie Pizza Pie

This pizza is vegan and does not use any alternative cheeses for flavor. Its just a delicious crust, two sauces, and veggies. Its not going to taste like a 'normal' pizza that is loaded with cheese, but it is delicious in its own right.  Think of it as a new dish, a veggie pie, and you won't miss the cheese.

Dough:

• 1 cup water, warm to the touch

• ½ Tablespoon sugar

• ½ Tablespoon salt

• ½ Tablespoon yeast (active dry or instant)

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil

• 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast

• 2 ¾ cups bread flour

Toppings:

• tomato sauce

• ½ of a red bell pepper

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil

• ½ teaspoon salt

• sliced green olives

• red onion

• artichoke hearts

pizza ingredients

pizza dough

pizza ready for the oven

1. Make the pizza dough. Mix water, salt, and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer (if you don't have a stand mixer, any mixing bowl will do).  Sprinkle yeast on top and wait on it too foam.  If you're using instant yeast, you can add it and skip waiting.  Add the remaining dough ingredients, mix to combine and then knead (by hand or with your stand mixer's dough hook) for about 7 minutes.  You want a smooth elastic dough.

2. Cover the dough and let it rise at least one hour, up to two hours.  If you want to wait longer before making your pizza, put the dough in the fridge after its 1 hour rise.

3. Make the red pepper sauce. Cut half of a bell pepper into large chunks. Place in a microwave safe dish with 1 Tablespoon of water. Cover and microwave for  3 minutes. Pepper should be soft. Puree the pepper with any water remaining in the dish, the olive oil, salt, and another teaspoon or two of water. Add more water if needed to get a smooth sauce. 

4. Dice red onion - I usually use about 1/3 of an onion. Cut artichoke hearts - I buy artichoke quarters, but still like to cut them up a bit smaller.

5. Place a pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven and preheat the oven to 450 °F. Put your pizza dough on a piece of parchment that is just a bit larger than your pizza stone. Roll out the dough so that its a consistent height and will fit on your pizza stone. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over the pizza leaving a small area around the edge uncovered. Next spread your red pepper sauce on top of the tomato sauce. Sprinkle a generous layer of red onions, olives, and artichoke hearts over the sauces. Bake, on the parchment paper, for 15 minutes. Crust should be golden brown around the edge and a medium-dark brown on the bottom.

6. Remove the pizza from the oven with a pizza peel and let it cool for a few minutes before cutting into slices. I also remove the (very hot!) pizza stone from the oven and set it on the stove top. After cutting the pizza, any slices that aren't being eaten right away go back on top of the stone (out of the oven) to keep warm and crispy until someone is ready for seconds.