Monday, June 02, 2008

Pizza night

After a long week of uni work, meetings, essay marking, and biking, I was really in the mood for something less than healthy. Really, I wanted some junk food. As I’ve been flipping through La Dolce Vegan in the past few weeks, I’ve noticed the recipe for “Cheeseburger Pizza” a few times. Unfortunately, Townsville shops carry neither veggie burger crumbles, nor vegan cheese. But was I going to let that stop me? I don’t think so.

To make ‘burger crumbles’, I made a ‘beefy’ stock with vegemite and soy sauce, and mixed in some onion flakes and chilli flakes. When it boiled, I poured it over some TVP crumbles and let it sit while I made the cheese sauce.

The cheese sauce is my favourite recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook, ‘All American Cheez Sauce’. It contains a carrot, which makes me feel a bit healthy and it makes the sauce that nice orange colour of overly-processed cheese.

Then, to assemble the pizza, I just rolled out a pizza dough that I had made earlier and frozen. Instead of pizza sauce, I spread the base with a mix of tomato sauce (ketchup) and BBQ sauce. I layered on a sliced dill pickle, sprinkled on the TVP, and then poured on some cheese sauce. After 20 minutes in the oven, I give you, Cheeseburger Pizza.

Cutting into it makes the house smell like McDonald’s—but without all the death and saturated fat. I think it’s the dill pickles that really make it seem like fast food. I really liked this as junk food, that is, not something to have often. I think Andy would be happy to never have it again. He didn’t hate it, but was reminded too much of Macca’s.

Luckily for him, while I was making that pizza, he was busy with a pizza of his own. He whipped together a Yeast-free Pizza Crust from La Dolce Vegan with the addition of a few dried herbs. Then he spread on some tomato paste, sliced an avocado and tomato, and sprinkled it all with salt and pepper.

Avocado pizza is one of our favourites, and if you’ve never tried it I highly recommend that you do. The pizza crust was okay, but I definitely prefer yeasty bases for my pizza. We both agreed that in a rush this pizza crust would definitely be called upon again.

12 comments:

K said...

Chisse Burger Pizza sounds good. I wonder if it work if I crumbled up frys burgers (which tastes just like burgers to me).

I'm glad your using La Dolce Vegan it inspires me to dig out my copy and try some more recipes.

I've also lending a friend Uncheese Cookbook at the moment so I can also give "All American Cheeze Sauce" a try too.

Anonymous said...

That sauce looks just like a big glob of real cheese. Eery!

I never thought of avocado on pizza but it sounds delicious. I mean, really, avocado is so wonderful on it's own I can imagine how it would boost the flavor of any dish.

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

cheese... burger... pizza ??!

eeeeeek!!

I don't care if it's reminiscent of anything, I'd die to try that!

Anonymous said...

Yeast free crust?? YUM!!

And as much as I wouldn't eat a cheeseburger... a cheeseburger pizza actually sounds delicious!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

There's nothing like coming home after a long work-week to homemade pizza - I LOOOOVE that the dough is yeast-free!! Perfect!!

Alicia said...

Why is it that we sometimes crave junk food? Whenever I'm tired, I crave fries!
The cheese looks SO real, it's amazing...

Bianca said...

That cheeseburger pizza looks to die for. I'm a junk food-a-holic and that would truly hit the spot. And it's really not bad for you or anything...you know TVP is great for you and there was a carrot in your cheese sauce, so...sounds healthy to me. :-)

Amy said...

YUM! Both pizzas look scrumptious! I love avocado. And I really need to try that uncheese. I haven't tried that one yet!

(I also left you a comment on my blog but to get round cookies you roll them and flatten them a little with the palm of your hand. As long as they're not cookies that spread they'll stay round like that, just get bigger).

Amy said...

I love me some pizza. What is it about pizza that makes it fun? The lack of cutlery needed? I haven't tried one with avocado but I will soon.

Erin said...

Those are both gorgeous pizzas, but the Cheeseburger Pizza? Wowzers. I love a good junky pizza every once in a while.

urban vegan said...

Looks like classic comfort food to me. I'll take a few slices, please.

Vegan_Noodle said...

Makes me want pizza real bad. Do you cook it with the avocados on? Or add later?