Sunshine Pizza: Meat Free Bank Holiday Monday!

My fingers and toes are crossed hoping that today is a sunny day for this post…but do you know what, if it’s not then this pizza will definitely bring a little sunshine into your life!

Maybe with the Queen’s Jubilee being celebrated in the UK I should have done a more quintessentially British recipe for today however I have wanted to make this pizza again for ages so I decided now was as good a time as any! The idea for this pizza started quite differently, as many of my recipes do, and it has been some what toned down from the original feisty Jerk Chicken inspired pizza that it started off as. I still plan to conquer that pizza but for now this is a perfectly acceptable substitute when you are wanting something sweet yet savoury and with a kick!

I have made a BBQ Sauce inspired pizza sauce, my usual BBQ sauce marinade would not have a can of tomatoes in it but I felt this worked well with the pizza, also I did actually use this for some Chicken for Scott as a marinade and he really liked it so keep any leftovers and slap it on some tofu or chicken and get grilling!

You can vary the type of chilli you want to use, if you love it spicy then add a Scotch Bonnet into the BBQ sauce and if you prefer things mild then you can omit the chillis all together (although personally I think this would be a shame!). If you don’t have any rum and don’t want to buy a bottle just for a pizza then you can also leave this out of the recipe.

For the BBQ Sauce you will need the following:

1 Can Chopped Tomatoes (roughly 400g)
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Red Chilli
1 tblspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 tblspoon Dark Rum
a Splash of Tobasco
1 tspoon Ketchup

Crush the Garlic and chop the chilli. Place all of the ingredients into a sauce pan on a medium-low heat and reduce down untill the sauce is thickened. Then blend. This will make more sauce than you need but you can freeze it, make more pizzas, use it as a marinade etc.

For the Pizza Dough you will need:

170g Strong White Bread Flour
1 Sachet Easy Blend Yeast (7g)
1 tblspoon Good Quality Apple Juice
Pinch Salt
85 ml Luke Warm Water – possibly a little extra if your dough looks too dry but only add any extra a table spoon at a time.

I got the idea to use apple juice instead of olive oil from the amazing Annie at An Unrefined Vegan. I asked her what would be a good substitute for oil in baking and she said fruit juices, I was very intrigued to see what difference it would make and it turned out perfectly. I don’t know if this was because of the change but I noticed that the base was much crisper which was fantastic.

To make the bread dough sift the bread flour into a large mixing bowl and add the yeast and a pinch of salt. Make a well in the flour and into that add the apple juice and luke warm water. Mix it with a wooden spoon combining all the flour untill it has come together as a dough (add a little more water if needed). Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes then shape it into a ball, and place in a bowl covered in cling film for an hour or so to let it rise to double its size.
Once risen knock the dough back and then roll it out into a thin pizza base, I can’t really remember the diameter but I liked mine quite thin so it gets pretty big!

The Toppings you’ll need to bring Sunshine to the pizza: Amounts will vary – just fill the pizza up.

Handful Cheese
1/2 Green Pepper
1/2 Yellow/ Orange or Red Pepper
Large Handful Mushrooms
1 small can Pineapple Chunks (or a fresh pineapple if your feeling ultra exotic)
4 or 5 slices of Red Jalapenos from a jar
Spring Onions
Pinch Dried Chilli Flakes

Spread some of the BBQ Pizza Sauce onto the pizza base, then grate some cheese on top (vegan cheese if you prefer) and finally top with all of your sliced, chopped and diced veggies and sprinkle with a pinch of chilli flakes. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180c for approx 15 minutes. Serve hot with a rum cocktail and some loud music.

I’ve used different types of chillis, ie Jalapenos from a Jar (sweet), Dried Chillis (hot), Tabasco Sauce (savoury) to try and bring a real balance of heat to the pizza which is complimented perfectly by the juicy pineapple.

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