Vegan Fig, "Goat Cheese" & Red Dandelion Pizza

After the success of my Soyrizo, White Peach, and Caramelized Onion Pizza and my excitement of making the vegan "Goat Cheese", I was itching to make another delicious pizza. I already had purchased green and black figs and thought, what the hell - a goat cheese, fig, pancetta, and arugula pizza sounds amazing and pretty simple to veganize. 

(side note: went to grocery store and bought red dandelion on accident, oops)

Ingredients:

• 1 whole wheat pizza dough
• 1 bunch of red dandelion
• 6 slices of veggie deli salami
• 3 black figs
• 3 green figs
• 4 oz vegan goat cheese
• 1 t avocado honey
• 1 t olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. In a non-stick pan, quickly crisp up the veggie deli salami. This was my vegan replacement for pancetta and it does a pretty decent job.

2. Crumble up the veggie deli salami into large pieces.

3. Chop figs into quarter size pieces. They kinda remind me of pepperoni now that I look at them. Just make sure to cut the stems off the figs. 

Probably the most gorgeous fruit

4. In a bowl, toss the red dandelion in a little olive oil and honey until all of the leaves are evenly covered but not soaking. Use tongs to toss.

5. Bring pizza dough to room temperature. On a floured service, roll out until desired shape. I tried to fill my sheet pan as much as I can without ripping the dough.

6. Layer the pizza - First the red dandelion, then the figs and salami, then using a spoon, dollop large spoonfuls of the vegan goat cheese until evenly distributed.

7. In a 450° F oven, bake pizza for 12 minutes or until the crust is golden. The goat cheese does not melt but it get's nice and warm and creamy. The red dandelion should be warm and wilted.

8. Cut and serve and try not to eat the whole pizza in one sitting. It's hard... trust me.

The bitterness of the red dandelion is counteracted by the sweetness of the honey that gives it a great bite and a perfect base for the pizza without needing any sauce. A happy accident on grabbing this instead of arugula. The figs are warm and soft all the way through and their sweetness is great with the saltiness of the salami. The goat cheese is nutty and salty. The flavors on this pizza would make any non-vegan forget they were even missing meat and cheese.

Hmmm.. I wonder if Los Angeles needs a vegan pizza joint? 

Cheers,

Kate