Which do you prefer?

Well, tonight was the night. I made three different pizzas with different crust and different toppings. Two were cauliflower crust and the other a gluten free crust. My daughter and I have made the fig and arugula pizza before, so this was easy. It was trying my hand at the others I haven’t made before because of the plant based meats. Here we go!

Prep: sauce, plant based meatballs, chicken, smoked tempeh bacon, shred cashew based mozzarella, packaged plant base3d shredded mozzarella cheese (365 Whole Foods brand), cut half onion, strain can of mushrooms (normally I would use fresh mushrooms, but did have any on hand), prepare roasted red peppers, and sauté onions with garlic. I also precooked plant based chicken tenders (lime chipotle).

Sauce for chicken broccoli pizza: I did this at the last minute because I didn’t want the sauce to solidify: In a sauce pan, melt 1 tablespoon herbed oat butter, sauté garlic and mushrooms, add 1/4 cup almond milk, and 1/4 shredded plant based parmesan cheese.

For the tempeh and the onions: In a saucepan, I heated up 1 tablespoon of coconut oil until it was hot. I transferred the tempeh into the pan and cooked until firm – set it aside on a paper towel while I sautéed the onion with a little garlic (poured a little water in the pan to release the flavors from the tempeh.

For the plant based meatballs: Set a saucepan aside on the back burner with the plant based meatballs, covered and let cook until tender.

Tips: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. I have a convection oven, so 450 would have been too hot. For the gluten free crust, instead of cooking on a stone, I have a stainless steel pizza cooker with holes so the dough can breathe. For the cauliflower pizza’s I cooked them on bake in my Pampered Chef Air Fryer – they come out great!. You can use an oven stone if you have one. I have two, but they both wouldn’t have been able to fit with the other pizza in the oven, so I used the Air Fryer Oven.

Pizza #1 Plant based chicken, broccoli, roasted red peppers, mushrooms and caramelized onion.

For the base: Cauliflower crust (the crust is plain – it comes two in a box depending on where you buy it). I bought this brand (CauliPower) from Market Basket. Since they are frozen, they were unthawed by the time I used them. Spoon sauce around the crust, add 1/2 cup shredded plant based mozzarella (365 Whole Foods Brand) with 1/4 cup of Miyokos cashew based mozzarella cheese (I had to grate it). The miyokos mozzarella was very soft to the touch, so I made sure I grated it carefully.

For the topping: plant based chicken tenders (precooked) – cut diagonally. Cooked broccoli – this was left over from a dinner the night before, so already prepped. If you need to prep, steamed would be fine. Then I topped it off with the sauce explained above.

Pizza #2 – Plant based meatball with mushroom and onions

This was for the hubby, who is just starting to try gluten free and plant based items.

For the base: Gluten free – nut free- soy free- vegan from Ugly’s Bakery at Bar Louie’s. It’s a hand made sourdough pizza crust. The package says to thaw before using. Once thawed, I spread olive oil around the entire rim, then added the red sauce. I covered the pizza with the two types of cheeses, then cut up the meatball and spread them all around the pizza, with the mushroom and the remainder of the onions from Pizza #3.

Pizza #3 – This out favorite!!

For the base: A cauliflower base with fig jam spread over the entire pizza – very thin layer of jam. Added the plant based mozzarella, spread 3/4 of small pieces of the smoked tempeh bacon (I used 4 pieces and then cut them up). I cooked that at 400 degrees (on bake) in my air fryer toaster oven, until the crust was just browned.

For the topping: Arugula. Topped with 1/4 of the smoked tempeh bacon and some of the onion reserve, then dolloped a little cashew herbed plant based cheese on the top and then drizzled a fig balsamic over the top, heated just a little bit in the oven.