One of my earliest vegan cookbooks in my collection was the Vegan for Everybody cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen. This is such a good cookbook, especially if you are looking for very satisfying vegan food (perhaps trying out vegan eating for the first time). The recipes are not oil-free, so if you are looking for salt-oil-sugar free recipes, this isn’t the best option. But for anyone just wanting to experiment with vegan cooking, this cookbook is one to try. There was a follow up book made by this same group- The Complete Plant-Based Cookbook, which is also really good. There are some overlapping recipes, but the plant-based cookbook has more recipes that use meat alternatives or can be ‘adapted for vegetarians’, per Google (throw an egg on it! Add some cheese!).

The recipes in these books have never disappointed us. One of my favorites is the vegan pesto pizza with cauliflower and fennel, which is in both books. I made it for myself for Mother’s Day, because I legitimately enjoy the process of making it- pizza like this becomes its own creative project. Isn’t cooking the best when the act of putting it all together is just as good as the end result? I love the flow of this recipe. The pizza dough that is suggested in the Vegan for Everybody cookbook sits in the fridge for at least 18 hours after you make it, and for me this creates a pleasant build-up and anticipation towards the final product.

And fennel? Well helloooo, Fancy. Fennel cozied up to my tastebuds in adulthood. I was never a big fan of licorice as a child and the parallel flavor of fennel was not very enticing. Nor was it a flavor I experienced much before I tried my hand at following recipes and cooking. There is a breaded fennel recipe in the Bad Manners Bad Manners: Fast as F*ck cookbook that also highlights this amazing vegetable. Now I run TOWARDS fennel, not away.

And to wrap up this pizza post- there are two things that we own that have taken our homemade pizza to a new level (or at least it’s made us feel serious about the process, which probably makes the pizza taste better just for that alone!). We have both a pizza peel, and also a pizza stone. These are GAME CHANGERS. 10/10 recommend both for your kitchen. I always roll out my dough onto parchment before putting onto the stone, because if the peel is not floured enough the pizza has a hard time sliding off and onto the stone. I have learned this the hard way. I prep our pizza on parchment, and then after it’s halfway through baking, I reach in and pull the parchment paper out from underneath the pizza- by then the crust has cooked enough that it no longer sticks, and then finishes baking right on the stone. Perfection.

Vegan Richa’s EveryDay Kitchen cookbook and blog have a very quick and simple pizza dough recipe, if you want an option that you don’t have to prep a day in advance. We’ve made many a pizza with this recipe. She has so many interesting pizza recipes that take you from start to finish as well.

*Of note- I halved the amount of olive oil in the pesto for this recipe, which it tolerates very well. I would say this is true for a number of the recipes in the America’s Test Kitchen books.

Seeing these pictures makes me want to select another fun meal to try next. Mmmmmmm…..

Pizza!

Loving Kindness