Pizza with Daiya Vegan Cheese

The biggest issue to becoming a vegan was "giving up" cheese. I used it a lot in my cooking. Too much, in fact. I had to rethink my cooking and quit making cheese "the star of the show." Now, I really don't miss it. However, I have to admit to using fake cheese from time to time. There is a Lisette Jalapeno Cheese made from almonds that I really like to have on crackers when I need a little snack. It's a tasty cheese imposter with a little bite. For my pizzas I've been using a ricotta-like basil mixture from tofu that is quite yummy. But I kept reading about this "Daiya Vegan Cheese." Google it and you will see there are a lot of fans. Here is a pizza I made with it. And you know, I'm just not wild about it. It's... okay. To be honest, I think I'd prefer to make a basil "ricotta" cheese and dress my pizza with that. Anyway, here's a QUICK & EASY pizza I made using my favorite techniques. I urge you to make one and you be the judge.

Ingredients
dough for 1 pizza
sauce of your choice
toppings of your choice
Daiya cheese, shredded

Directions
1) Preheat your oven (and pizza stone) to 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Use dough on hand from the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book (see my posts on this wonderful book). It's as simple as going to your fridge and hacking off a piece of dough.


2) Roll the pizza dough out on a pizza peel with a piece of parchment paper. That's my secret. That way my pizza NEVER gets stuck on the peel when I try to put it in the oven.


3) Add all your goodies to the dough. Try to be conservative and not overdo it. I also like to brush a bit of olive oil on the exposed dough.


4) Slide the pizza with the parchment paper on to the pizza stone and cook around 8 minutes if you are using the Daiya cheese. About half way through the baking cycle, slide the parchment paper out from underneath the pizza so it can crisp up on the bottom. The Daiya cheese needs to be shredded and added the last several minutes. Bon appetit!