Raw Cashew Cheese Pizza with Tomato -Coriander Sauce (Vegan from Scratch, baby!)

The art of Vegan Pizza making

Wassup Cats!

Because it's the weekend and I had one of my classic monthly migraines, I was stuck in the house all day. In the middle of peppermint -oil head massages and painkillers, I thought it'd be the perfect time to make pizza from scratch.


The vegan twist here is using raw cashew cheese. You can make a more melty-vegan cheese, but I prefer this, because really there is no vegan mozzarella that really tastes good.

You need a bit of patience for this, because we're making dough from scratch, but the crust will be chewy-tasty, yum! You also need to make the dough at least 2 hours (for it to rise) before you can make this. Pizza dough is fairly easy to make, you just need bakers yeast that's easily available in the market. This recipe is flexible, because you can use what toppings you like. You can also make the raw cashew cheese without nutritional yeast (which is impossible to get in India, you need to fork over major moolah to import it). My mom visits india every few months, so I have a constant supply.


Ok so let's go!

What you Need

for the dough

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4th cup olive oil or peanut oil (or regular)

1 teaspoon bakers yeast

3/4th cup warm water


for the coriander-tomato sauce 

3 tomatoes

1 handful of fresh coriander leaves

2-3 green chilies

2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon chili flake

1 teaspoon salt

1 black pepper

3 pods of garlic

a dash of olive oil (or regular)

Stuff in the sauce

for the raw cashew cheese

1 cup cashews (you can soak them for 20 minutes or not, never made a difference to me)

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons jaggery (or sugar)

Some pepper

Any other spice/seasoning you'd like to add


Toppings

It's up to you. I used:

chopped onions, mushrooms, broccoli and tomatoes

So it's a green pizza sauce, shoot me

How to Make

You have to make you dough in advance. In a bowl add you flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Now make a well in the middle and pour warm water (I zap it in the microwave for 45 seconds) slowly, along with the oil. Then mix with your fingers. You'll get an uneven, wet sticky mixture. Now on a flour-powdered surface start kneading the dough for about 8 minutes. The dough will come together, become smoother and bouncy. You know when you're done kneading when the dough becomes a bit like memory foam. Basically, when you tap the surface with your finger, it starts to come back to form.

Dough needs some love

Cut your dough into two sections. Set aside on a pan with a damp cloth over it for 2 hours or more.

For the sauce. In a blender add tomatoes, chilies, coriander, garlic, seasoning, and a bit of water. Blend into a paste and set aside.

Keep your topping chopped and ready to go.


When your dough has set for 2-3 hours, you are ready to make your pizza! The dough would have become a lot bigger (thanks, yeasty!). Now on a flat surface work with the dough to stretch it out slowly to make a rustic circle. It's ok if it tears, just knead again and slowly stretch out to a about a inch or inch and half thickness.

The imperfect circle

Preheat your oven to 190c

Now set your pizza base on a oven pan, add 2-3 tablespoons of sauce in the centre and spread leaving the edges of the circle empty for the crust. Go ahead and add the topping of choice all over the sauce area. Drizzle some olive oil (or regular) on top and put in the oven for 20 minutes.

All ready for the oven

After your pizza is cooked, take out of oven, and spoon some yummy lumps of raw-cashew cheese on top of hot pizza. Serve!

It's ready to pop in the mouth now!

Perfect for a Netflix binge, eh?

Till next time! Keep it kind. Keep it real.