It’s-a Pizza-Pie: Part 2, La Galleria de Pizza

I’m so glad everyone enjoyed Pizza, Pizza: part 1. The tortilla pizza with humnut cheese is my new favorite go-to lunch or dinner. It’s so adaptable and the pizza cheese sauce is so versatile!

PLUS, it’s a great vegan alternative to pizza with cheese. I feel the pizza recap is appropriate on this Vegan Thursday! Right, Miss Katie? 😉

It’s time for a pizza making re-cap, for those of you who missed the first edition!

STEP 1: Choose your base

I like La Tortilla Factory whole wheat tortillas. They’re really tasty and they get crunchy when they cook. Other delicious options include:

-Sprouted tortillas (also get very crunchy!)

-Gluten-free tortillas

-Pita bread

-Whole wheat pizza dough*

STEP 2: Thick Pizza Sauce

When you use tomato paste, the tortilla doesn’t get soggy and stays quite crispy during cooking!

– 2-3 tbsp tomato paste (low sodium if possible)

– Italian herbs: oregano, basil, parsley

-Crushed garlic or garlic powder

-Hot pepper flakes, if desired

Step 3: Humnut Cheese

I go into detail below about why, but trust me on this one.

– 2-3 tbsp hummus

– 2 tbsp nutritional yeast

– A pinch of turmeric if you like your cheese yellow

-water to thin

Step 4: Other pizza toppings

You will see most of these below, but here are my favorites:

+Protein or Fiber

-white beans or black eyed peas

-shrimp

-salmon

-refried beans (explained below)

+Veggies and Vitamins

-cooked mushrooms

-roasted red peppers

-spinach

-tomatoes

-avocado

-spaghetti squash

Step 5: TAHINI

Don’t forget it!

Assembly:

1. Place tortilla in oven safe skillet over med/high heat
2. Mix up thick pizza sauce, spread on
3. In the same bowl (to reduce dishes) mix up humnut cheese
4. Add veggies to the pizza
5. Drizzle on humnut, sprinkle with herbs and paprika if desired.
6. Drizzle tahini
7. Broil a few inches under the broiler for 3 minutes (about)

       Watch it closely!!

8. Remove from oven, let rest a minute

9. Slice with sharp knife and enjoy!

*If using actual dough, assemble your pizza then transfer it to a pizza stone in a 500* oven. Bake for 5-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your crust.

Here’s why Humnut Cheese works:

• Hummus usually contains lemon juice or another sour flavor (many times citric acid) This mimics the sharpness of cheese
• Nutritional yeast has a nutty, cheesy flavor (See below)
• Tahini has a slightly bitter, complex flavor. The tahini both in the hummus and as a drizzle adds that perfect touch to the “cheese”

I have another post coming up dedicated just to the cheese, but this one is all about pizza.

The pizza that started it all. You can read about it here, but to sum it up this was a whole wheat tortilla, topped with the “thick pizza sauce”, black eyed peas, humnut cheese, herbs, tomatoes and tahini.

I loved the fresh basil on top… need to do that again!!

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When I had leftover Cranberry Walnut Salmon, I flaked it and topped a pizza with the salmon and fire roasted diced tomatoes along with the “thick pizza sauce” and humnut cheese.

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Leftover Honey Shrimp and Sundried Tomatoes made a lovely topping (sauce and humnut, too.) I also threw a little wild rice under the cheese because I’m wild. 😛

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Here’s the Humnut Tortilla pizza with white beans, thick pizza sauce, humnut, spinach and sriacha!

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I had leftover artichoke caper tomato sauce so I was craving that as the base for this pizza:

   

+ Sauce

+ Veggies

 

+ cheese

+ Tahini

Broil….

   

Fini! The only problem is the tortilla wasn’t as crispy due to the the runnier sauce.

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Leftovers make an appearance again! Artichoke caper red sauce, mushrooms, humnut, tahini and… Spaghetti squash! I felt like I was eating cheese that was actually shredded! 😉

But the crispy factor was still a problem. (Not to mention the lighting and awful photo quality, but that’s besides the point.)

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Then something happened…

 

Ohh! It’s an idea!

1/2 c. refried beans went down first, topped with the real sauce…

+veg (tomatoes, spinach, spaghetti squash), humnut, tahini and heat…

Crispy crust, flavorful sauce, chewy refried beans… perfection! This is my favorite so far!

 

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Around the blog world…

Heather, from Heather Eats Almond Butter shared this delicious creation:

“I followed Mae’s directions but switched up the toppings a bit. I used 2 TBSP tomato paste with a sprinkle of Italian seasonings, 1 piece of bacon cooked with some spinach, 1/2 avocado, 1 TBSP nutritional yeast mixed with 2 TBSP hummus + water to thin, and a drizzle of tahini thinned with water.”

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Salt and Humor used a whole wheat crust, sauce, humnut cheese, veggies and tahini.

I love mushrooms as a pizza topping! So good!

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Brittany used a whole wheat pita as her base. Looks delicious and crunchy! 🙂

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Serena from the Non-Dairy Queen tried it out on top of a chick pea flatbread that looks absolutely delicious!! (Serena, I will be trying the flat bread… gorgeous!)

“So, last night was a delicious flatbread pizza with red peppers, green peppers, onion and hummus! So good…I will definitely be doing this more often! This is really so easy and so good!”

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If you’ve created your own Humnut pizza combination, let me know and I’ll be glad to add yours to the list!! 😀 Thank you!

What’s your idea of ultimate pizza toppings?

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P.S. In the above picture I was trying to pull off the Alton Brown fish+smirk look:

I couldn’t do it, I broke out laughing before the picture was taken. 😛