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Sweet Potato Pizza with Barbecue Tempeh and Bean Béchamel

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With a soft and dense base, this isn’t like traditional pizza dough, but it’s filling, satisfying, full of flavour, and probably too nice to share. But if you insist on sharing, this will serve 2.

Ingredients

For the Base

700g sweet potato, peeled, cooked, and cooled until tender
100g rolled oats
100g coarse wholemeal flour (or flour of your choice)
2 tbsp ground flaxseeds
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt

For the Béchamel

1 cup white beans (I used butter beans)
11/2 cup soy milk
2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 tbsp yellow miso
1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder

For the Tempeh

150g tempeh, steamed for 15 minutes, and chopped small
2 tbsp barbecue sauce
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp soy sauce (or to taste)
1 tbsp maple syrup

To assemble

Steamed kale, as desired

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line a 9″ dish with silicone or parchment (I used a loose-bottomed flan tin for easy removal).
2. In a food processor, blend the sweet potato. Add the oats, flour, flaxseeds, garlic powder, and salt until potatoes are smooth and all ingredients are well combined.
3. Place the potato mixture into the prepared dish and smooth out. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the top starts to turn golden.
4. Meanwhile, make the béchamel by blending all the ingredients.
5. Mix the barbecue sauce, water, soy sauce, and maple syrup in a shallow dish. Add the tempeh and toss.
6. When the potato is ready, invert onto a baking tray and return to the oven for 5-10 minutes more until what is now the top is lightly golden.
7. Remove from the oven, spread with béchamel, add kale, top with tempeh, and bake for 10 minutes more. Cut and serve.

Can’t Cook Baked Beans Two Ways

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Baked beans are a British and Irish lunchtime and breakfast favourite, and this recipe will show you two ways to change the flavour profile to create more variety.

Many brands of canned Irish and British baked beans are suitable for vegans; always check with the manufacturer, and repeat regularly to ensure there have been no recipe changes. Other readers may have more difficulty obtaining suitable-for-vegan baked beans, but the import section in the local supermarket may stock some of the suitable-for-vegan European brands.

Pizza Baked Beans

Ingredients

400g can suitable-for-vegan baked beans
1/2 tsp garlic granules
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp yellow miso
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
1. Place the baked beans into a small saucepan over a the lowest heat.
2. Add all ingredients to the beans, and stir through to warm.

Curried Baked Beans

Ingredients

400g can suitable-for-vegan baked beans
1.5 tsp curry powder OR all of the spice mix below

Spice Mix

1/2 tsp onion granules
1/4 tsp ginger
Pinch cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp turmeric
Pinch chilli powder (or to taste)
1/2 tsp garam masala
Salt, to taste

Directions
1. Place the baked beans into a small saucepan over a the lowest heat.
2. Add all ingredients to the beans, and stir through to warm.

Serving suggestion: baked potato and steamed greens, or wholemeal toast.

Speedy Tortilla Pesto Pizzas

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These pizzas take 20 minutes, including the time needed to preheat the oven. The vegetables listed below are only a suggestion; feel free to use up the leftovers. If you don’t want to make the pesto, shop-bought suitable-for-vegan pesto or hummus will do just fine. Serves 2.

Ingredients

For the Pesto

1 large bunch basil (about 2 cups, tightly packed)
400g cannellini or other white beans
3 cloves garlic
50g kale leaves
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp miso paste
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3/4 cup water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the Pizza

4 mini or 2 large suitable-for-vegan corn or flour tortillas
Tomato purée or suitable-for-vegan pizza sauce
1 courgette (spiralized, sliced, or shredded)
1 each red and yellow bell pepper, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 220C.
2. Blend all of the pesto ingredients. Season to taste.
3. Place the corn tortillas on two baking trays or on pizza stones. Spread with the desired amount of tomato purée or sauce, top with pesto, and load up with vegetables.
4. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating or rearranging once to make sure they are evenly cooked.

Pizza Tots

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This is a fun way to serve potatoes and is a perfect recipe for serving vegetables and beans to children who may be reluctant to eat them otherwise. The recipe makes 20 tots

Ingredients

1 x 400g can cannellini beans
1 cup fresh basil
1 large clove garlic, minced
4 medium potatoes, baked and cooled
1/3 cup olives, finely chopped
1/4 cup slow-roasted or sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup nuts of choice, finely ground (if allergic to nuts, use ground oats instead)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220C, and line a baking tray with a silicon sheet or parchment paper.
2. In a food processor, pulse the cannellini beans and basil until smooth.
3. Halve the potatoes, and scoop the flesh from the skins. Mash the flesh with a fork and add to the basil and bean mixture with the rest of the ingredients.
4. Taking a heaped tablespoon of the mixture, press it firmly between your hands to bind it, and form it into tater tot shapes. Place on the silicon sheet or parchment paper. Repeat until all the mixture is used up.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, turn the tots, and bake for 10 minutes more.
6. Serve with some tomato sauce or suitable-for-vegan yellow mustard.

Deep dish white pizza with kale, sun-dried tomatoes and kalamata olives

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A thick-crust pizza with a white sauce made from red lentil, cabbage and artichoke white sauce accented with sesame, oregano, nutritional yeast and white miso.

Ingredients

For the dough
2 1/4 cups hard wheat flour
1/4t coarse salt
1T dried Italian herbs
1 cup warm water
1T yeast
4T olive oil, divided
1/2 coarse yellow corn meal

For the sauce
1/2 cup red lentils
1 1/2 cup water
1/4t coarse sea salt
1 cup cabbage
1 cup artichoke hearts
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
1T white miso
1T fresh garlic, minced
2T olive oil
2T sesame seed butter
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2T tapioca flour whiskey with 3T cold water
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

For the toppings
1t dried oregano, rubbed
1/4t coarse sea salt
2T sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted
2T kalamata olive, pitted and chopped
1 cup of kale, coarsely chopped
1/2T olive oil

Instructions

Start the dough, then make the sauce and then add the toppings.
Combine salt and flour in a bowl.
Combine the water and yeast according to your yeast’s instructions.
Once the yeast proofs, whisk in 2T of oil.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
Kneed for 10 minutes on a floured board.
Let rise at least 1 hour in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, covered with a damp clean kitchen towel.
Punch down from time to time.
While the dough is rising, make the sauce.
In a small saucepan with a lid, bring the water to a boil with 1/4t coarse sea salt.
Add the red lentils, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients except for the tapioca flour and water.
Simmer on medium low, uncovered for 15 minutes.
While the sauce simmers, roll out the dough on a lightly floured board.
Oil a 9″x9″ baking dish with the remaining 2T olive oil.
Sprinkle the corn meal evenly across the bottom.
Puree the sauce and return to a light simmer.
Whisk the tapioca with water until dissolved.
Stirring continuously, add the tapioca mixture to the sauce slowly until thickened.
Set aside and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
While the sauce cools, preheat the oven to 450F.
Add the dough to the pan, and pinch up the sides about 1″.
When the sauce has cooled a bit, add to the dough in an even layer.
Sprinkle the sauce evenly with the coarse sea salt, the oregano, the sun-dried tomatoes and olives, and the kale last.
Drizzle with the 1/2T olive oil.
When the oven is ready, bake on the middle rack for 25-30 minutes, until the crust is starting to brown lightly. Ovens vary; use the color of the crust as a guide.
Remove from the oven, let cool 10 minutes, slice and serve.

Thick crust potato, mushroom pizza with spinach, sauerkraut pesto

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Ingredients

For the dough
2 1/4 cups wheat bread flour
1 cup warm water (1)
1T yeast
1t sugar (2)
1/4t of coarse sea salt
1t garlic powder
2t corn meal

For the pesto sauce
1/2 cup loose unpasteurized sauerkraut
1T sauerkraut vinegar
1/2t dried oregano, rubbed
1T fresh garlic, minced
3T olive oil
2t white miso
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup packed spinach
2T fresh basil
1 scallion, minced
1T tapioca flour dissolved in 1T water
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

For the toppings
2 medium yellow potatoes, spiral cut or shredded (about 1 1/2 cups or about 250g)
2T cooking oil
1/2t coarse sea salt (or to taste)
4 medium cremini or white mushrooms (about 75g)
1T nutritional yeast
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

Make the dough, and once it has risen, the potatoes, the pesto and toppings. Mix the flour and garlic powder. Mix the water, yeast and sugar together according to the temperature directions provided by your yeast.

When the yeast proofs, add the olive oil and sea salt and whisk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix thoroughly until the dough forms. Knead for 5-10 minutes. Let the dough rise for at least an hour in a lightly oiled bowl cover with a warm, wet tea towel, punching the dough down periodically.

When the dough is ready, roll it out on a floured board into a large 12″ circle. Let the dough rise for a 5 minutes or so while you make the toppings and the pesto. Preheat the oven to 500F (or 450F if that’s as high as your oven will go). The heat is important to the rising of the dough, to cooking the potatoes, and to activating the tapioca.

To make the pesto, puree the sauerkraut, its vinegar, the oregano, garlic, nutritional yeast, miso, and oil until smooth. Mince the basil, scallion, and spinach. Combine the greens with the sauerkraut in a bowl. Whisk the tapioca flour and water, and then add to the greens, stirring to combine thoroughly. Season to taste.

Using a mandoline, spiralizer, or box grater, slice or shred the potatoes quite finely. Stem and slice the mushrooms very thinly (about 1/8″). The toppings should be very thinly sliced to ensure they’ll cook thoroughly and evenly. Toss the potatoes and mushrooms in the oil and salt.

When the sauce and toppings are is ready, sprinkle either a large pizza stone (preferred) or a lightly oiled round pizza pan about 12″ with the corn meal. Add the dough. Top with the pesto, leaving slightly less than an inch around the sides. Add the toppings evenly. Bake the pizza on the middle rack for 15 – 20 minutes. Broil for another 5 minutes, or until the dough is starting to brown lightly. Ovens vary; use the colour and texture as a guide.

Remove from the oven, add the nutritional yeast, and season to taste. Let stand 5 minutes to cool, slice, and serve.

  1. Follow the directions for your yeast.
  2. I use a cane sugar refined without the use of animal bone charcoal.