dial 410-VEGAN ....

I thought I would post yet another nummy vegan dinner idea for anyone to give a try.  Actually, its not unlike something most of use eat all the time.  In fact, I looked up to see how much of this product do Americans eat in one day.
The answer:   If you laid pizza down on the ground, Americans eat more than 9 acres of pizza each day!
- and I'm convinced that this answer is WAY too low.  9 acres is not that much... maybe in One city.
And don't you high and mighty, better then the Americans,  Northern snow biting, Mountie lovers, think you are any different, except the answer would be :  4 Hectare !!

Thats alotta pizza pie !! ( in my best Dean Martin Italian voice ).
And what is worse, is there are numerous pizza chain restaurants that are ready to bring the fatty greasy, cheesy goodness to your door in 15 minutes... this is so guilt doesn't have time to creep in and ask you "what the hell are you doing?" .
I had my first pizza craving today, so unlike most people, instead of calling up my favorite pizza man, Papa Leos, I hit the grocery store and made my own!! 

Now, I could have gone the easy route and purchased some form of already pre-made, processed pizza crust, or pita bread or wrap thing of some sort... but I decided I was going to make my own pizza crust, Vegan style.
Despite the weird sort of gray color, it actually came out very tasty.
The nice thing about anything being a weird gray color is it helps to make you think twice about eating it, which in turn cuts down on your calorie consumption.   I think where I went wrong, is the recipe calls for raw buckwheat flour, where I just used the buckwheat flour that I had. It still works

Keeping to the Vegan way of life,  I of course topped my pizza with fresh veggies.  The boys of course went with dead unidentifiable animal meat product in a stick form,  they call pepperoni , topped with even more animal produced, calcium depleting , heart clogging cheese. (but I'm not bitter)

Some suggestions are , fresh spinach or basil , green, yellow, orange or red pepper, onions, garlic, mushrooms, brocolli.   - to make sure these are cooked through, you can roast them in the broiler once your pizza crust is done or cook ahead of time.   If you must, you can saute, but this just adds added fats and grease that you dont need.
A taster version of adding fat if you must, is to marinade the peppers in some balsamic vinaigrette the night before, the grill them on the bbq or broiler... mmmm... thanks to my friend Barbara , this is very tasty tip.

Here is the recipe:   This is also gluten & yeast free as well.

Buckwheat Pizza Crust :   Preheat Oven to 375 F

In a large mixing bowl, mix together these following dry ingredents :

2 1/4c  Raw Buckwheat flour
1/2 c    tapioca flour   - kind of seems like corn starch, look in the baking soda/pwd , sugar isle
1/2 tsp sea salt  ( get over it, I just used table salt for pete sake ! )
1/2 tsp baking SODA .. not powder :)
1/4 tsp garlic powder

In a separate bowl mix the following wet ingredient :  ( i just used a 2 cup measure cup for easy pouring )

1c warm water   - you can find this in your local sink
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil    - since i was low fat, I cut this down, since you have to use it to grease the pan
1 TBS  honey or agave nectar  - I went with honey since it was already in my cupboards
1 TBS  Apple cider vinegar

Pour the wet into the dry and whisk together well, until you see long dough strings formed. The dough will be thinner like cake batter. If it is too thick to whisk, add a tad more water.

Oil a pizza stone generously with olive oil ... ( I have my stone pampered chef bar pan... because yes, I'm pampered , so I cant comment on the use of a regular cookie sheet. ..but let me know will ya.)
You might want to oil your hands a bit as well, but scoop the dough onto the cookie sheet and spread it evenly to each corner.  (I'm sure spray PAM would work as well too.)

Once you have shaped out your dough, stick in the oven for 20 minutes or until top of crust is golden brown.

Then, you should know what to do... slap on that SAUCE of your choice, even organic bbq sauce, throw on your favorite veggies... I went with mushrooms, green and yellow peppers, lightly sauted onion w/ garlic and fresh spinach .

Topped with shredded soy cheese ... ( I use the daiya cheese from Save On foods , thanks to my good friend Chris )

Wa La !!!  when the moon hits your eye, like a big Vegan pie, thats amore!!

-Thats mine on the far left.
-Give any one brownie points if you can guess which one is Matts  :)











this is a pre-cooked photo... silly me was so hungry and this was so delicious, that I ate it before I thought to take an up dated photo... duh!