Plant Powered Pizzas – “Taco”

How eye catching is that title, am I right? I knew you guys would love that creative name!

Well, truthfully, this pizza doesn’t need a creative name to be eye catching. It’s called TACO for goodness sake. If that didn’t hook you, what would?

Every Friday night, Matthew makes a late dinner for me when I get home. It’s become somewhat of a tradition. Most of the time he leaves it as a surprise. But when he asks me what I want, my answer is almost always “tacos”.

This is another recipe made vegan by myself, the non-vegan. For my carnivore friends, this recipe could be easily adjusted.

You might be wondering right now why I have a tendency towards eating vegan. My answer is simple: I eat intuitively, which means I trust my body and listen to it regarding what I need at that point in time. Lately, meat just hasn’t been on the agenda. And since I can’t tolerate dairy, which leads me towards alternatives in general.

But for those of you who don’t know, vegan doesn’t always = healthy. In fact, I would classify this recipe more so as vegan junk food. It’s okay though. I didn’t start sharing recipes to stuff fruits and veggies down your throat; we’re all about balance here.

Plus, at the end, I’m going to tell you all the reasons why this pizza is actually also good for you.

I used Yves Mexican Ground Round for the meat on this pizza. Carnivore friends, use whatever you want, but know this: my beef-eating boyfriend could hardly tell the difference. 

Dairy free, gluten free, and vegan.

Ingredients:

Crust

• 4 Cups Gluten Free All Purpose Flour*
• 4.5 tsp active yeast
• 1/3 cup of olive oil
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp coarse salt

Pizza Toppings

• 2 TBSP Organic medium salsa
• Yves Mexican Ground Round *or other protein source
• Daiya mozzarella cheese
• 2 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1 cup diced cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 diced avocado
• 1 jalapeno, finely diced
• A handful of chopped cilantro
• 1/2 lime

Directions:

* For this recipe I once again borrowed the recipe from Martha Stewart. It’s just so easy. However I substituted the all-purpose flour for a gluten free all-purpose. The one I used tasted great, however it didn’t rise as much as previous dough batches. It also needed more oil to bind it than Martha’s recipe asks for. This recipe made enough dough to split it in half and put one half in the freezer.

To make the dough, sprinkle the yeast into 1.5 cups of warm water. After about five minutes it should start to foam. Then you want to mix in the sugar, oil, and salt. Once that is all whisked up, add the flour. Cover the dough and leave in a room temperature area for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Once the dough is ready, knead and press out into a rectangular shape. Top the pizza with salsa, yves mexican ground round, and daiya cheese. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. A good way to tell when this is done is when crust begins to brown.

Take the pizza out of the oven and top with lettuce, tomato, avocado, cilantro, and jalapeno. As a finishing touch, I squeezed half a lime over top – just how I like on my tacos! 

This recipe is spicy, fresh, and can definitely satisfy a crowd… if you make enough of it!

Many of us who know and love avocado are aware of the many benefits of this high-fat food – it helps keep a hydrated complexion and it is also anti-inflammatory. The tomato is high in manganese, which helps to fight free radicals. The Yves Mexican Ground Round also has some great benefits as a meat alternative. One serving (1/3 cup) has 10g of protein, 20% of your daily zinc, and 40% of your daily vitamin b12 – just to name a few of the benefits. It is slightly high in sodium, and it is a processed food, but for what it offers I think this makes it a great meat alternative. 

This recipe is perfect for pleasing a crowd… If you make enough! 

Side note: I had so many ingredient leftovers from this recipe I was eating Mexican-inspired all week – needless to say it was pretty epic! 

Until next time!