Vegasaurus Rex: Vegan Veggie Pizza: All From Scratch!

I love pizza. It is my favorite food. I would say I eat at least some form of pizza on a weekly basis. Sometimes I get lazy like anyone else and order delivery, but more often than not I make my own. Once you see how easy it is to go from 0 to pizza, you will see why I choose to save my moolah and go homemade. The crust has no lengthy rise times either, so if you're hungry, don't worry: the whole process takes less than an hour if you are a good multi-tasker!

Ingredients:

For the Simple Pizza Sauce:

-2 tsp olive oil
-1 heaping tsp minced garlic (2 cloves)
-½ C veggie stock
-3+ Tbs tomato paste
-1 tsp agave syrup
-1 tsp oregano
-1 tsp basil
-½ tsp salt
-several dashes of ground black pepper, to taste
-any other herbs and spices you like for pizza sauce: fennel, rosemary, etc.

For the EZ Cheez Sauce:

-1 Tbs vegan butter
-¾ C almond milk (unsweetened and unflavored)
-1 Tbs all purpose flour
-6 Tbs nutritional yeast
-2 tsp dijon mustard
-½ tsp salt
-¼ tsp garlic powder
-¼ tsp onion powder
-several dashes ground black pepper, to taste

For the Pizza Crust:

-2¼ tsp (1 packet) yeast
-1 tsp sugar
-1 C warm water
-1½ C white flour
-1 C Whole Wheat (or White Whole Wheat) flour
-2 Tbs olive oil
-1 tsp salt
-several pinches of course cornmeal

You'll also need:
-pizza toppings! I recommend (as pictured): sliced mushrooms, sliced onion, sliced green peppers, chopped spinach, chopped scallions, and kalamata olives. But hey, it's your pizza. Go crazy.

To make the Simple Pizza Sauce:

1. Heat olive oil in a small saucepan on Med to Med-Low. Saute garlic for about 5 minutes, until fragrant.
2. Add broth, and bring to a low boil.
3. Mix in tomato paste and lower heat to a simmer. From here, you can add more mater paste until your sauce reaches desired consistency, but remember, the sauce will thicken as it cooks, too.
4. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cook for another minute. Remove from heat and set aside.
To make the EZ Cheez Sauce:

Flour and yeast added, about to whisk it.

1. Melt butter over Med to Med-Low heat. While butter is melting, whisk together flour and milk until no lumps remain.
2. Add this milk-flour mixture to the melted butter, along with the nutritional yeast. Whisk well until smooth.
3. Add remaining ingredients, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes or until you have reached desired consistency. (For pizza purposes, this means thicker than not)

Creamy, cheezy goodness.

To make the Pizza Crust:

1. Preheat oven to 450 F.
2. Dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Set aside and let stand for 10 min. It will become quite frothy.

3. Stir in flour, salt, and oil. Mix well, but do not knead per se. Let dough ball rest for about 5 minutes.

4. Lightly oil a large baking sheet with olive oil, and sprinkle with cornmeal. This will give your pizza a real pizzeria feel! Transfer dough ball to baking sheet and pat flat and round.