Whether it's for a health concern or an ethical choice, a vegan diet is not always easy to follow, especially for foods like pizza, which usually calls for lots of cheese. Thankfully, there's Virtuous Pie, which offers plant-based pizza and ice cream in Vancouver. But, even if you don't live close to Vancouver, you can make this earthy and aromatic pizza with their recipe.
There are a few components to this pizza but the steps are easy to follow and if you follow a vegan diet, you probably already have ingredients like nutritional yeast and acidophilus at home.
Pizza dough
Place the water into a bowl and add yeast. Allow to bloom and whisk occasionally.
Put remaining ingredients into a stand mixer bowl, add water and yeast mixture. Mix with the dough hook on the lowest speed until all ingredients are fully incorporated.
Increase speed slightly and mix until the dough forms into a smooth ball, approximately 5 minutes.
Coat a pizza tray with bake spray.
Transfer dough into the container and cover. Refrigerate and allow dough to sit for 24 hours.
Remove dough from container and place onto a clean, dry surface. Cut dough into 170g portions, covering the cut pieces to keep them from drying out.
Shape each piece into a ball by smoothing out the top surface, pulling back the edges, and rolling the bottom of the dough on a flat surface to tuck in the edges tightly. Final shape of the dough should be a 3.5” wide x 2” high ball.
Roll each dough ball in flour to ensure it doesn’t stick and place onto a tray.
Refrigerate for 24 hours before use. This step allows the dough to further develop in flavour and gluten structure, which will make for easier stretching.
Herbed potato cream
Steam potatoes over high heat until tender and soft, about 14 minutes.
While still hot, place potatoes in food processor along with all other ingredients.
Puree until smooth, adjusting seasoning to taste.
Spread mixture onto parchment lined baking sheets and allow to cool.
Refrigerate until needed.
Mushrooms duxelle
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and toss until mushrooms are evenly coated.
Place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes or until moisture has evaporated, stirring once midway.
Remove from oven and refrigerate until fully cooled.
Truffle almond ricotta
Place almonds, water and acidophilus into a blender and blend on high speed until smooth.
Place into a container and leave at room temperature with the lid cracked for 24 hours.
Add remaining ingredients to cultured almonds and blend.
Assembly
Preheat oven and pizza stone to 500 F.
Stretch out one portion of pizza dough into a 10" to 12” circle.
Spread out one scoop of herbed potato cream to within ¼” of crust.
Add mushrooms evenly around the perimeter of the pizza avoiding the center 2.5”.
Cook pizza for 10 to 13 minutes or until golden brown.
Drizzle entire cooked pizza with olive oil, including the rim.
Garnish with truffle almond ricotta and arugula.
Enjoy!
