Spice Box of Earth

I rarely venture into Manchester city centre on a Saturday night these days….. I’m far too old for all that, and the staggering men and tottering women that can be seen lurching around town as early as 9pm are not quite my cup of tea.

HOWEVER, yesterday was different. Yesterday was INTERNATIONAL VEGAN PIZZA DAY! So after I had delivered my calzones and pizza slice cookies to V Revolution (a tremendous vegan lifestyle & record store in Manchester’s Northern Quarter) and had spent a fun couple of hours lunching & shopping with the lovely Vicki, it was off home for a bit of a disco nap before our dinner reservation.

I chose Dough Pizza Kitchen, again in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, as they have a variety of vegan options for all courses - a rare treat in a mainstream restaurant!

I started with a big ol’ baked garlic mushroom topped with rocket, which was lovely and ‘meaty’ and tasty and by god, HOT.

Then it HAD to be pizza of course - I went for the veggie option with wonderful Cheezly atop……

And finally I finished with a ridiculously tasty chocolate brownie/peanut butter blondie combo with dairy free vanilla ice cream….

All in all a very satisfying first Vegan Pizza Day for me - what did you get up to??

Ahh my vegan chums, Vegan Pizza Day is over, but now it’s time for me to share this ridiclously good recipe with you all. This is heaven in a freshly baked dough parcel, and is so easy to make! I made the dough using my trusty bread machine, a standard pizza dough recipe. I also made the filling the day before and left both in the fridge overnight for easy Pizza Day Morning baking…..

Ingredients:

• 2 red onions, chopped
• 3 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 of your favourite vegan chorizo sausages, sliced
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup green olives, chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 packet your favourite vegan mozzarella, grated
• 1 serving pizza dough (from a 2lb bread machine)

To prepare the filling, fry the onion, garlic and sliced sausage in olive oil until the sausage is browned. Add the tomatoes, green olives, paste and paprika. Let the mixture cook over a low heat for 10 minutes or so. Add a little water if it starts to dry out.

Chop the pizza dough into 10 equal pieces. Roll each one into a neat ball. You will then need to roll out each circle and spoon a heaped tbsp of the filling on top. Put a good helping of the mozzarella on top of the mixture and fold over, using a little soy milk if needed to help seal the edges.

Bake at 180 degrees on greaseproof baking paper for 15 minutes. Be careful, as they will be hot as heck when you take the first chomp!

Enjoy!