Pizza Bowl

PIZZA BOWL

(C. Barnett, adapted from Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Isa Does It)

“Dr Veggie” says this dish is neither a pizza nor a bowl! It’s meant to be served in a bowl, but you can use plates. The “pizza” is in the flavor!

This recipe can be Jumpstart compliant if you use the variation given at the end.

Ingredients:

Assemble a tray of cooked or warmed items, including a grain, a “protein,” veggies, and good olives. Choose some or all of the following:

Steamed or boiled potato

Brown rice

Steamed kale

Steamed cauliflower or cabbage

Homemade seitan or store-bought vegan sausage (my Easy Seitan recipe is posted separately; see note about seitan at the end)

Oil-cured Italian olives (this kind of olive is special in this dish, but you could choose another)

PIZZA SAUCE

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cashew butter*

2 cloves garlic

1/2 to 1 roasted or sautéed red bell pepper (from a jar or cooked fresh)

1 tbsp lemon juice or white wine vinegar

1 tbsp ketchup

1/2 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp salt

Water as needed

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in food processor or blender.

*Editor’s Note: You can start with raw cashews if you want. First soak the cashews for 4 hours, drain and rinse, before you blend with the other ingredients.

To make this recipe Jumpstart compliant:

•Skip the olives.

•Use tempeh instead of seitan or any other plant-based “meat.” See recipe below for Tempeh Treatment (good prep for using tempeh in any dish)

•For the Pizza Sauce, substitute one-half can to one whole can of white beans for the cashews.

TEMPEH  TREATMENT for one 8-oz package tempeh:

Marinade:

3/4 cup water

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar OR 1 tbsp mirin (sweet Japanese cooking wine, found with Asian or macrobiotic ingredients OR tbsp Chinese cooking wine found with Asian ingredient  OR 1 tbsp white or cider vinegar mixed with 1 tsp maple syrup

Directions:

Put the liquids in a saucepan with the tempeh (cut in smaller blocks to fit the pan). Gently simmer the tempeh in the liquid till it’s absorbed. Watch carefully so tempeh does not burn. This treatment takes the bitterness out of the tempeh.

Regarding seitan:

Seitan is not strictly Jumpstart-compliant, but it is very low-fat and might be acceptable to some people post-Jumpstart who are still trying to keep down their consumption of high-fat plant foods.