09.29.12_Vegan Buffalo Pizza

Photo credit: nofaceplate.blogspot.com

Let me start by apologizing for going almost an entire month without posting! I cannot believe that it is already October. Time has been flying by. I started a new job this month which has been keeping me super busy and Phillip also got to travel for his job so needless to say, we've been all over the place. With that being said, I also cannot believe that this is our 100th post! We are still having a great time cooking vegetarian meals and blogging whenever we get the chance. Thanks to everyone who has read any of the posts of the past year or so and continues to read the blog. Now, onto the post!

While Phillip was out of town I went over to have a relaxing night in with Caitlin. She told me she had found a recipe for a Vegan Buffalo Pizza that sounded like it was right up my alley. Caitlin told me that she had to "make the cheese" so I was intrigued to see how this all worked out. The "cheese" itself was a cashew cream with garlic and nutritional yeast which apparently is what gives it the smell and taste of cheese. Caitlin took the lead on this but it seemed simple enough.

Once I got to her place, we roasted slices of tomatoes and mushrooms in a 400° oven for 20 minutes. We tossed the mushrooms in hot sauce before roasting. The recipe calls for Franks Red Hot (mine and Phillip's favorite) but Whole Foods does not carry that so Caitlin bought a different hot sauce. And boy was it hot. It was super delicious but had a serious kick! While the vegetables were roasting, we rolled out store bought dough and chopped up some celery sticks and carrots. We brushed the dough with olive oil then spread a good heaping of the "cheese" out to act as the glue. We topped the pizza with the mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots and celery, before dropping globs of the "cheese" around the pizza.

The pizza baked for about 12-15 minutes in a 450° oven. While the pizza was baking we made the jalapeno parsley puree that got drizzled on top. After I pulsed all the ingredients together it seemed a bit runny, so I added a few TBSP of flour to thicken it up. The pizza was surprisingly delicious though incredibly spicy. I think a large portion of that can be attributed to the hot sauce we used because we even took out the seeds and ribs from the jalapeno. Caitlin made some Fall Sangria to go with it, making for a fun and relaxing night with my best friend! For some reason my pictures turned out terrible (blurry and super dark) so I had to steal one from the original recipe. Thanks nofaceplate!