Pesto Cashew Ricotta Pizza Vegan

By á-4939

Ingredients

• for the pizza:
• 1 ball of pizza dough (whole wheat + 1 tsp hemp seeds + 1 tsp ground flax seeds)
• 1 cup lemon garlic cashew ricotta
• 1 cup thick vegan pesto
• 1 large beefsteak or heirloom tomato, thinly sliced
• 2-3 shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1-3 thin lemon slices, seeds removed
• 1-2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil rubbed on the stretched dough + a dash of garlic powder
• spritz of lemon juice over top the assembled pie
• red pepper flakes as desired
• Lemon Garlic Ricotta
• 1 1/2 cups soaked and drained raw cashews (soak in salted water overnight)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 cloves of raw garlic
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup water + more as needed
• 1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
• dash of pepper
• dash of cayenne
• 1 tsp mixed dried Italian herbs (optional)
• a few dashes of ground flax seeds (optional)
• small scoop of nutritional yeast (optional)
• Pesto
• (use your favorite pesto recipe or the one below)
• 1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup spinach (or another leafy green)
• 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped with stems
• 1 cup raw walnuts (or a mix of raw seeds/nuts you may have on hand - pumpkin seeds and pine nuts work well too)
• 2-3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• a few dashes black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• water as needed to thin out pesto during blend
• optional: 1 small jalapeno, stem removed (for heat)
• Pizza Dough
• (double recipe for XL pizza - 1 packet makes about M-L sized pizza)
• 1 yeast packet
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp agave syrup
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or another variety)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp hemp seeds
• 1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
• 1/3 cup vital wheat gluten - helps with the chewiness of the crust

Preparation

Step 1

Prep: soak cashews the night before in salted water - or at least for 4 hours.

1. Start your dough. Swirl the yeast and agave with the warm water. Let yeast sit for about 5 minutes. In a small bowl, combine the flour, vital wheat gluten, salt and oil - add to yeasted water. Gently knead dough into a ball. Place in a floured mixing bowl and let it sit for a while. It will puff up and become "happier" as it sits. If you need to knead a bit more to really mix the dough go for it. Place ball in mixing bowl and let sit for about 45 minutes to 2 hours.

2. While the dough is "growing" you can get started on your pesto and cashew ricotta. I do my ricotta first. Place all ingredients in a high speed blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. You may need to add a bit of water to get the blend moving - depends how "soaked" your cashews are. Salt and spice to taste. You want a light lemony garlic flavor with a hint of spiciness from the raw garlic and cayenne. Transfer ricotta to a bowl and place in fridge.

3. You really don't even need to clean your blender - the bits of ricotta actually blend well in the pesto. Add add the pesto ingredients to the blender and puree until smooth - yet not too watery. If you end up with water pesto, add in more nuts and/or nutritonal yeast. Dried spices will also thicken things up a bit. Transfer pesto to a bowl and place in fridge.

4. Prep your veggies by slicing shiitakes and tomatoes.

*you can actually do all this prep work the day or night before if you'd like! Then the pizza part will be super easy. You can even place your fresh dough in a plastic baggy and seal it in the fridge for up to one day to use.

Preheat oven to 415-425 degrees

5. Knead dough on a floured surface - you can also use the hemp and flax seeds on the surface so that you get a nice seedy dough - with seeds along the crust and bottom. I like to drag the shaped dough in a pile of hemp seeds and a splash of olive oil. Shape dough into a pizza round and place on a lightly EVOO greased pizza pan.

6. Add a drizzle of EVOO and a light sprinkle of herbs and/or garlic powder.

7. Add the tomato slices.

8. Grab your ricotta and pesto and add dollops of each all over the pizza - alternating so that the pizza looks like a pretty white and green polka dot feast. Make sure you thin out each dollop with the back of a spoon.