Pizza for Everyone is ready for Chicago pick up – have you ordered yours yet? A few months back, my friend Derrick, owner of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square and the Paulie Gee’s Slice Shop in Wicker Park, asked if I’d be interested in contributing a vegan pizza recipe to a book being put together to raise money for loads of great local causes. I said no. End of story.
Just kidding! I said yes, and ended up contributing not one, but three recipes! Since then, the book has received a super cool design treatment by Zach Sherwood and will be available for Chicago pick up starting this week.
Here’s how it works:
Fill out the form with your name, email, pick up location preference (there are lots of choices) and which Chicago org you’ll be donating your $35 to (again, lots of choices). John will follow up to confirm your donation and then you go get your copy. That’s it!
Here’s where I f’d up:
I sent over recipes for three pizzas and a vegan pizza crust recipe… but one of the pizzas (this one, in this post) is actually meant to be on a biscuit crust. I mean, it would still be totally good on the crust in the book – but yeah, biscuit crust. So, I decided to share that recipe here too for anyone standing there with the book in their hands like, “Excuse me, where is the biscuit crust recipe?” It’s right here, settle down.
Vegan Breakfast Pizza
Ingredients
Gravy
- 2 tbs vegan butter
- 2 tsp soy sauce or Bragg’s Amino Acids
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 cup plain,unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 Tbs nutritional yeast
- 1 Tbs chopped fresh sage or 1 tsp dried
- 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
Tofu Scramble
- 2 Tbs vegetable oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 block extra firm tofu drained & pressed
- 1 cup thinly sliced broccoli optional
- 1/2 cup grated carrot optional
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 – 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 Tbs water
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Biscuit Crust
- 1 cup plain,unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups all purpose flour plus more for dusting the board
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbs baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 6 Tbs vegetable shortening
Instructions
Make the Gravy
- In a large saucepan, melt vegan butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in soy sauce and flour, continue to whisk for 2 minutes – the mixture will form a paste. Add vegetable broth, milk, onion powder, garlic powder, nutritional yeast and sage and whisk for a few minutes to break up the lumps. Raise the heat to medium-high until bubbles form around the edges of the gravy, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until thickened (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in apple cider vinegar and salt and pepper. Set aside.
Make the Tofu Scramble
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook minced garlic for about one minute, stirring often. Break the tofu into bite-sized pieces and add it to the pan along with the broccoli and carrot. Cook for about 10 minutes, using a metal spatula to turn the mixture over and to scrape the bottom of the pan now and again. The garlic and carrots will turn into brown crispy stuff – don’t worry, that stuff is good!
- In a small bowl or mixing cup, stir together rosemary, onion powder, turmeric, salt and water. Add this mixture, and the nutritional yeast to the tofu and cook 5 more minutes. Set aside and prepare the crust.
Make the Biscuit Crust
- Preheat your oven to 450°. Add apple cider vinegar to milk and set aside to curdle.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, and use a pastry blender or two forks to cut shortening into the flour until it resembles coarse meal.
- Add the curdled milk and mix just until combined. The mixture should be wet, so add a splash more soy milk if it appears dry.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured countertop and gently pat it out until it’s about 1/2” thick. (No rolling pins! Use your hands for a tender crumb.)
- Fold the pressed dough into its center 4-5 times so you have a pile, and gently pat it out into a circle that’s about 1/2” thick.
- Place the dough onto a baking sheet – if you want to make it more pizza-like, press the center down slightly more so the edges are raised like a crust.
- Bake the biscuit crust for 5 minutes, then pull it out of the oven and top it with 1/2 the gravy and all of the tofu scramble.
- Place the pizza back into the oven and cook until the biscuit is cooked through – about 6-8 more minutes.
- Slice and serve with remaining warm gravy on top.
