CHEESELESS TOFU PIZZA
This recipe for Cheeseless Tofu Pizza will shock SAD pizza lovers into
realizing that we don't eat only dry leaf lettuce (like all restaurants
think of vegetarians, because that's all they have for us) and carrot
sticks. Guaranteed to please even those SAD's who hate tofu.
Sourdough Crust:
We use Alaska Sam's Sour Dough starter to make our sourdough (Alaska Sam's,
P.O. Box 734, Girdwood, AL 99587) It comes as a powder so can easily be
mailed to you by Alaska Sam's. It's wonderful. They provide complete
directions. You can also use your own sourdough starter.
Prepare the sour dough starter as per instructions. Each is different, but
Alaska Sam's must be originated with several days of "sitting." After it is
done, you can leave it in the refrigerator and "feed it" occasionally with
some sugar. After it has had a chance to get ready, you can use some of it
for this Pizza crust. Be sure to replace the amount taken away for each
recipe and replenish it: Usually with equal parts fresh flour and water.
3/4 cup Alaska Sam's sourdough starter sourdough (already wet with its own
water)
1 3/4 cups flour (I've never used whole wheat, but if you do, remember that
whole wheat crusts take longer to rise, add at least an extra hour of rising
time)
1/4 cup cornmeal (with some extra to sprinkle on dough in pizza pan)
1 1/2 tsp. salt (optional)
1 cake or packet of dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water ( or instead 1/2 cup of beer for rich, yeasty flavor)
Topping:
3/4 Cup FF Tomato Pizza sauce ( Millina's is fairly low in sodium, and is
Vegan)
Tofu 1 full size cake of Soy Deli low fat Tofu (1.5 GMs/3 oz serving)
8 or 9 stalks of asparagus
3/4 TBS. fake fat (Sunsweet--Or your own pureed prunes)
1 can Creamed corn ( a misnomer, it has NO cream in it)
Italian spice mixtures, mixed Oregano, etc.
Paprika
Try NOT to use metal containers or spoons when you work with sourdough. It
can ruin it.
Prepare the pizza crust with either a bread machine set to dough-mode,
rising in about 2 hrs, 35 min. OR you can do it yourself. It is easier in
the bread machine. If you do it yourself, you should let the dough rise
twice, each time about an hour. (Self: Mix warm water, and fake fat. Take
1/4 cup of warm water and mix it thoroughly with the yeast--set aside for
about 5 minutes before mixing it in the water. Add flour TO the water
mixture slowly. Knead thorough. You might have to add more flour to the
mixture in order to get it quite sticky and gooey. Cover and let rise in a
warm place for an hour. Re-knead it with some more flour if necessary to
keep it from getting too sticky, and re-rise it for another hour)
Sparingly spray Pam into a Pizza pan. Flatten dough out, making a nice large
"spare-tire" on the outside perimeter. Sprinkle some extra cornmeal on the
dough. Paint the tomato sauce on to the pizza. Chop the asparagus on to the
pizza, throwing away the fibrous ends, or carefully peeling away the outside
fiber. Partially drain the creamed corn and spread it on the tomato sauce.
Cut up the tofu and spread it around. Dust with Italian spices and paprika.
Bake in 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes (ALWAYS preheat an oven that
you are baking a pizza in). Watch carefully, oven times vary extremely with
pizzas. You must get to know your oven before you dare leave it alone with a
pizza baking in it.
You cannot believe how good this pizza smells and tastes. Your family will
constantly ask for it. Most of the fat comes from the tofu. There would be
about 3-4 GMs if you ate
one half of the pizza, because corn also has a slight amount of fat in it.
But it adds an enormous flavor to it, and is a refreshing change from cheese
pizza, even if you use FF cheese. You can reduce the fat further by either
not using tofu (which is OK but you lose a lot of food value and taste), or
using a Teflon coated pizza pan, so you didn't have to spray it.
Mike Rosenblatt
podtrst@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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