Vegan Pizza: 50 Cheesy, Crispy, Healthy Recipes Paperback – Illustrated, September 3, 2013

Who doesn't love good pizza? Pizza is my husband's favorite food - seriously, I often consider the possibility that he is in fact a Ninja Turtle - and his love of pizza was the principal driving force inspiring me to buy this book. Now, I love a good vegan pizza as much as anyone but somehow this is not something I tend to make often. Many of the vegan cook books I own include 1 or 2 vegan pizza recipes, all of which I've made and enjoyed but still, pizza making has always seemed to me to be something of a pain in the ass. All the work involved in slicing toppings, making your own sauce, and cheese sauce, and the absolute worst part for me is making the dough. I absolutely hate working with dough, it is my least favorite culinary endeavor. I don't know why, but me and dough do not equal a good team. Dough always gives me trouble and I suppose this is partly why I rarely make home-made pizza.Of course, a Vegan cook book devoted entirely to vegan pizza was too good a novelty to pass up and since my husband loves it so, I thought I'd throw caution to the wind, and against my better judgement purchase this book. Honestly, the negative reviews had me worried, and I was more then a little concerned that I would not like this book. I thought I'd find it too processed, too difficult, too uninspired, or worse still utterly useless. I am so, so happy that I didn't listen to the bad reviews, because I quickly discovered that I absolutely love this book! Really, it's not often that a cook book steals my heart and blows me away, especially not a simple, niche book such as this one, but that's precisely what's happened. Since I got this wonderful new book from Julie Hasson I've been making 2 pizza's a night for 8 nights straight - totally unprecedented! But the recipes are just so good, and so easy that I simply can't stop making them! Honestly, we haven't had a bad pizza yet. Each pie has come out of the oven the model of perfection, so different then my previous pizza making experiences.There are so many things I love about this book. For one I love that there are several options for different kinds of pizza dough - although I would have liked even more options, such as options that include herbs or maybe even stuffed crusts - and I love that each dough is super easy. Really I have never had a quicker or easier time working with dough in all my life. You simply add the ingredients to a bowl in order, stir it together let it rise and voila, perfect pizza dough! It stretches, it doesn't crack or tear, or stick, it's absolutely perfect, and tastes delicious! Next I love that Hasson includes recipes for house-made meats. Buying vegan meat can be expensive and I prefer to eat as little processed food as possible so this is really great. I also love that her meat recipes use quinoa which is a great idea I never would have thought of. All of her meat recipes also use sweet white rice flour as a binder, and I could not find this so I subbed organic cornstarch instead and think it worked really well as far as making the meat clump together, so you may want to give this a try also if you can't find the flour. I also don't have access to soy curls where I live and so instead I used home-made seitan ham that I had in my freezer where these were called for and it worked out well. I also used home-made seitan sausage in the recipes that called for sausage. Her pizza recipes are flexible like that, and I appreciate that so much. My only complaint here is that all the meat recipes are relatively similar, one reviewer suggested that they should have been condensed as one recipe with variations freeing up more space in the book for other recipes and I would tend to agree with that.Hasson also includes recipes for tomato sauce, 2 kinds of pesto, and a few cheese sauce options. I appreciate all of these although I would have liked some more variation on tomato sauces, as well as cheese sauces. The cheddary Cashew Cheese is my favorite of the cheese sauces, the flavor of this is so good it would fool just about any omnivore I think. It has a texture, and a flavor like mild cheeze-whiz. I also like that she doesn't use too much nutritional yeast. I like Nooch but I find a lot of cheese recipes call for way to much, where Hasson uses a conservative quarter cup, the perfect amount.As for the pizzas themselves they are simple yet delicious, and many are quite creative. Some include ingredients that I never would have thought to put on pizza, truffle oil, peanut butter, bean sprouts, cilantro, corn, and many others. I've always appreciated creative pizza, even before I went vegan I was never a fan of straight up meat and cheese. I always liked a little extravagance with my pizzas. Hasson also includes a cool dessert pizza chapter. I have not yet made any of the dessert pizza's but I'm hoping to make one or two this week, they all sound so fantastic. Pizza for dessert, who would have thought?Aside from the actual recipes other big selling points for me on this book are the simple, clean layout. I love it, the book is easy to navigate, easy to read, the instructions are easy to follow, and it just looks good. Crisp and clean, free of clutter. I like Hasson's tips and suggestions as well. My only real complaints are that I would have liked some pictures. I typically hate cook books that do not include pictures and this book doesn't have a single one. However the recipes are so stellar that I find this doesn't bother me too much with this book. Still it would have been nice, but maybe next time. Vegan Pizza volume 2? Secondly I would have liked more recipes. I know it says right on the cover that there are only 50 recipes, but this could easily have been a book of 100 recipes. So many options and variations on meats, sauces, and pizza's, and I selfishly want more! Ha. Oh well, overall I think this is a great primer cook book for learning to make - and love - vegan pizza. I would highly recommend this to any new vegan, any novice pizza maker, and even a seasoned pizza maker.Though there are a few things you may wish to consider before buying this book. 1 there is no nutritional information given on any of the recipes. I do not care about this whatsoever because lets face it, we're talking pizza here, you know? But I realize that no nutritional info is a deal-breaker for some. Also the recipes do call for store-bought vegan cheese. To be fair Hasson lists the cheese as optional but some reviewers have heavily criticized her for including it in her recipes anyway. Personally I have nothing against store-bought vegan cheese, I like it though I rarely eat it. Of course if I'm making pizza I know ahead of time that I'm not making something particularly `healthy' and so I just go with it, I splurge, get the vegan cheese and don't worry too much about it. It really doesn't take much ½ cup most of the time or a little more, so it hardly seems worth complaining about but to each their own. My feelings on this are if you don't like store-bought vegan cheese then make your own. I own 3 vegan cheese cook books, I can easily make my own cheese at home and use it on Hasson's pizzas if I so choose. If you're a processed vegan cheese hater then you can do this too and it isn't a big deal. Certainly it isn't worth panning the book over when so much in the book is phenomenal. Of course, if that still doesn't do it for you there is at least one vegan pizza cook book on the market that's goal is to create heart healthy whole food pizzas. If that's your thing, then buy that book instead of this one. If like me you don't mind indulging now and then, you're going to love this book. Seriously, vegan pizza has never been easier, ever! I know that I'll be making lots and lots of pizza in the future, no longer will this be a twice a year occurrence in my house.So, in the past eight days I've made quite a few recipes, these are the ones I've tried and this is what I thought.Dough and CrustEasy-Peasy Pizza Dough - Loved it! (My new favorite go-to pizza dough)Pizza Dough for a Crowd - Loved it! (This is essentially the Easy-Peasy Dough doubled)White Whole Wheat Pizza Dough - Pretty good!Spelt Dough - Pretty good!Cornmeal Dough - Loved it! (My other new favorite go-to pizza dough)House-made MeatsBurger Crumbled - Loved it!Pepperoni Crumbles - Loved it! (My new favorite vegan pepperoni)The Cheese/SaucesCheddary Cashew Cheese - Loved it! (My new favorite cheese sauce)Smokey White Cashew Cheese - Pretty goodSun-dried Tomato, Basil, and Arugula Pesto - LOVED IT! (My new favorite pesto)Tomato-Garlic Sauce - Love itZesty Pesto - Love itThe Pizza'sGarlic, Sausage and Onion Pizza - Loved it! (Favorite)Plain Jane Pizza - Loved it!Spinach, Onion, Mushroom, and Pepperoni Pizza - Loved it! (Favorite)Meatball Pizza - Loved it!Valentine's Pizza - Loved it! (Favorite)Corn, Pesto, Zucchini and Tomato Pizza - Pretty good!Mushroom, Broccoli, and Sun-dried Tomato Pizza - Loved it! (Favorite)Pineapple and Jalapeno Pizza - Loved it! (Favorite)Smokey Wild Mushroom and Potato Pizza - Pretty good!Sweet Potato and Kale Pizza - Pretty good!Scalloped Potato Pizza - Loved it! (Favorite)Broccoli and Cheddar Pizza - Loved it! (Favorite)Cheeseburger Pizza - Loved it! (Favorite)Cowboy Pizza - Loved it! (Favorite)Peanut Barbeque Pizza - Pretty good!Pub Pizza - Loved it! (Favorite)Bibimbap Pizza - Loved it!Dessert PizzaBabka Pizza - Loved it!Coconut Caramel Pizza - Pretty good, but the Caramel got very hard.As you can see I've tried many of the recipes in this book, and each one has been a great success. My husband too loved each pizza I made, and the ones listed favorite were favorites for both of us. I really can't say enough good things about this book, and I can't wait to try the rest of the pizzas, especially the dessert pizzas. When I do I'll try and remember to update this review for you.

I love cookbooks like this that help take the guesswork out of what to throw together for dinner on busy weeknights! People who are not vegan often don't understand that, for a lot of vegans, just getting take-out or delivery is not an option on a night when you don't feel like cooking a complicated meal. Pizza is a great option for a quick meal that comes together quickly, but I was finding myself in the same veggie pizza rut. I initially bought this book as a wedding present for a friend (who is also vegan) as a cute accompaniment to a pizza stone. I searched the internet for a vegan pizza cookbook and was shocked to find that no one had thought of this yet! When it arrived, I flipped through it and liked it so much, I bought my own copy! The photos are lovely, and there are tons of flavor combinations I never would have imagined on top of a pizza (I love the bibimbap pizza!). Most of the time, I don't even put any vegan cheese shreds on top, and the recipes are still great. I loved Julie Hasson's Vegan Diner cookbook as well, so I was not at all surprised that she put together another winner. I have not yet tried the gluten-free dough recipe, but I have a lot of GF friends and family members, so this is great to have in my arsenal. Thanks, Julie!

It's fun to look through the recipes (and drool), but I will probably actually use only a few of them.

I am so happy to have added this book to my collection. I love pizza and am often disappointed by the pizzas that I order from around town because they often aren't all that flavorful and can cost a small fortune. This book is going to change all that for me and I couldn't be more thrilled. I started off by making the Easy-peasy Pizza Dough which couldn't have been any easier! I just mixed everything together and threw it in the fridge! My partner chose the Thai Peanut Pizza to start off with and it was delicious! The peanut sauce is so good! We added jalapeños which was a nice addition and I could see adding tiny cubes of baked tofu to it as well. For dessert we made the Raspberry Crumble pizza which was absolutely divine! I can't wait to try all the other recipes in this book. Making pizza never felt like an easy quick doable meal until now.

Before I ordered this book I thought to myself "Do I really need a cookbook telling me what kinds of pizza I can make?". We have movie and pizza Friday every week, so pizza is a staple in our house, so I decided the answer to my question was "Yes!" And I am glad I purchased it. It's a small book with tasty ideas. I was pleased to see several dough recipes, one of which is gluten-free (and delicious!). There are recipes for crumble toppings (pepperoni flavored, sausage flavored, taco flavored) as well as "cheesey" sauce recipes. Many of the ideas in this book I had not thought of myself, so this little book with big ideas has brought even more variety and fun to our weekly movie and pizza Friday nights!