This vegan pizza is BIG on flavor! The pizza features loads of roasted veggies, scratch made tomato sauce, savoury ackee cream and nutritional yeast. It’s baked atop a crisp thin crust and finished with more ackee cream, shaved brussels and hand torn basil
It’s not hard to put together, but it is a bit involved and it helps to have a clear plan of attack to get it done. Below I’ve outlined how to do just that, the recipes follow.
The Game plan:
- The day ahead:
- Prepare the dough, refrigerate overnight to develop flavour.
- Roast veggies (go with whatever you have available to you that looks the freshest): I roasted 1 bell pepper, 1 poblano, 6 small eggplants and 2 portobello mushroom caps – place all veggies on a sheet tray, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for 20 to 45 minutes till done (I removed the skins from the bell pepper, poblano and eggplants). Let cool then slice or chop the larger vegetables. Store in refrigerator till needed.
- Shred the brussel sprouts
- Make tomato sauce (you can use store bought or your favourite recipe): Bring some water to boil in a sauepan large enough to fit 4 tomatoes. Slit the bottom of the tomatoes and drop into the boiling water. Let simmer for about a minute. Remove and immediately put in ice water. Skin and seed the tomatoes, then blitz them in a food processor to make a smooth or chunky sauce (whichever consistency you prefer). Season the sauce with salt and pepper, add dried oregano, dried (or fresh) basil and oregano if desired
- Make the savoury ackee cream
- 90 minutes before:
- Remove the dough from the fridge; cut into desired portions; let sit covered on a floured surface till needed.
- 30 minutes before:
- Preheat your oven with your pizza stone on the rack in the top third of the oven. My oven goes up to 500F. (If you don’t have a pizza stone, you could try using an upside down sheet pan, I used to do this for pita before I got the stone, it doesn’t hold heat as well but works in a pinch)
- It’s game time:
- Stretch or roll out the dough (I like to do this on a sheet of parchment on the back of a cookie sheet, that way it can easily be slid onto the pizza stone in the oven – a word of caution here, the parchment is paper and will burn, so cut the piece as close to the edge of the keeza as you can).
- Spread the sauce and add your toppings (can you tell I’m a pastry cook? didn’t have squeeze bottle so I reached for a piping bag! 🤣)
- Shimmy the prepared keeza off the cookie sheet onto the hot pizza stone in the oven and bake for 5 to 8 minutes till nicely browned. (I use tongs to help pull the finished keeza off of the stone and onto a cooling rack or back onto the cookie sheet)
- Repeat the process if making more than one keeza. It’s ok if you haven’t finished putting together the second one before time is up, this will actually allow the oven to regain some of the heat that would have been lost when you opened the door.
That’s it! Quite a bit of prep but all done in less than 10 minutes.
My pizza stone isn’t very big so I can only do one at a time. If you want to make a few but serve them all warm, pop them back into the oven to warm up for a few minutes – at this point you no longer need to put it directly on the stone, that sexy crust should already be set.
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below. If you do try this or any of the recipes, snap a pic and be sure to #amazingackee across social media so I can see your post.
As always, thanks for stopping by. 😊
Keeza Dough
Ingredients
- 500 g All purpose flour (4 cups)
- 12 g Brown sugar (1 tbsp)
- 10 g Salt (2 1/2 tsp)
- 70 g Olive oil (1/4 cup)
- 8 g Instant yeast (2 tsps)
- 320 g Water, cool (1 1/4 cup)
Instructions
- In the bowl of a standmixer fixed with the paddle attachment combine all the ingredients except the water and yeast
- Mix together the water and yeast then add to the bowl
- Mix for 10 to 15 minutes on the recommended setting for your mixer until the dough is smooth and elastic (this is speed 2 on my KitchenAid Classic)
- Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic and place in the fridge overnight
- When ready to use remove from fridge and portion. For a thin crust 12inch 175g, thick crust 12inch 250g you can use more or less to suit your preferences
- Enjoy!
Notes
Savoury Ackee Cream
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Parboiled ackee
- 1/4 cup Water
- Salt to taste
Optional:
- Nutritional yeast to taste
- Lemon juice just a squeeze
Instructions
- Puree all ingredients till well combined.
- Enjoy!
Notes
