Vegan Barbeque Black Bean Pizza

It's been quite the adventure cooking nothing but vegetarian and vegan dishes this past month. I've learned a lot about how to cook and bake with ingredients that I'd never even heard of before now. In looking for good vegan cookbooks I had a really hard time finding recipes that 1) my family would like, and 2) would be easy and quick to make. So I've decided to start posting some of my favorite recipes (some I've found, some I've invented, and some I've altered) in hopes that I can inspire more people to experiment with meatless cooking.

Today's recipe:
Vegan Barbeque Black Bean Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough
3-1/2 cups flour
2 packets (1/2 oz.) active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 cup very warm water
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Pizza Toppings
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 small red onion, cut into thin strips
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup vegan shredded cheddar
1/2 tsp. nutritional yeast
1 tsp. dried cilantro (you can use fresh if you'd like a stronger flavor)

Directions:

Make the pizza dough (I usually do this a couple of hours before dinner to make sure it'll be cooled completely):
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In large bowl, combine flour, yeast, and salt. Add warm water and olive oil and knead about 5 minutes or until mixture is well combined and forms a ball. Place dough in a bowl and cover with a dish towel. Let dough sit for 10 minutes in a warm place.
- Roll out dough and fit to oiled cookie sheet or pizza pan. Place in oven and bake for approximately 10 minutes or until very slightly browned.
- Remove from oven and let cool.

Assemble and bake the pizza:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Put black beans in a medium bowl and stir in barbecue sauce. Spread black bean mixture over pizza dough with a spatula.
- Spread onions and shredded cheese over the top, and sprinkle with nutritional yeast and cilantro.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until cheese is melted. Serve immediately.

This pizza is super yummy and honestly I don't even miss the cheese and meat!


I'll be making more posts about the basics of vegetarian/vegan cooking, along with information about ingredients to use as substitutions as well as some of my other favorite recipes. Please let me know if you make any of these recipes. I'd love to hear what you think!