Farmer's Market Vegetarian Summer Pizzas

Mexican Pizza, a new favorite

Wednesday night was K.'s favorite night, pizza night! Pizzas are a nice way to highlight seasonal vegetables as the baking really brings out the sweetness in summer vegetables and we had a ton fresh from the morning's farmer's market. Usually I used canned tomatoes as the base for the pizza sauce but since we are at the height of tomato season, I used freshly sliced early girl tomatoes and even heirloom tomatoes (a little sacrilegious not to eat them fresh on their own). Since we had an abundance of wonderful vegetables, I kept the pizzas almost completely vegan with the exception of a little avocado sour cream topping. The first pizza was a new experiment for us; a Mexican inspired pizza based off of this recipe from the kitchn with chipotle black bean spread, fresh summer corn, early girl sliced tomatoes, yellow peppers, red onions, green onions, chorizo seitan, Daiya vegan cheddar cheese and some spinach and arugula, topped with a cool smooth dollop of avocado, cilantro, lime sour cream. It was one of my favorite pizzas ever, like a big taco pizza with lots of big flavors from all the vegetables and spices and heartiness from the black beans and chorizo seitan. The second pizza was a summer squash, eggplant, red onion, garlic and heirloom tomato pizza topped with Daiya vegan cheddar cheese and spinach and arugula. It was also very good, definitely tasted like summer with all the sweet juicy vegetables.

Mexican Pizza Recipe (inspired by thekitchn recipe, but vegan style and with a lot more fresh vegetables):

• Stretch out the pizza dough, made a day ahead of time, preheat oven to 525 degrees with a pizza stone
• To prep: mince 1 chipotle pepper, shave corn off of two cobs, cut 1 yellow pepper into strips, thinly slice 1/2 a red onion, chop a handful of cilantro, slice 3-4 small tomatoes, chop 3 green onions
• Microwave a 16 oz can of black beans in a bowl for 30 seconds. Add the minced chipotle, 1/2 tsp of chili powder, 1/4 tsp of cumin, 1/4 tsp of salt and 1 TB of olive oil and smash everything together with the back of a fork
• Spread a spoonful of adobo sauce from the chipotle pepper over the dough, spoon on the black bean paste
• Layer the tomatoes, corn, red onions, yellow peppers, on top of the black bean paste and then crumble 1/2 package of Upton Chorizo Seitan and shredded Daiya cheddar cheese all over the pizza
• Bake for about 16 minutes, add the green onions and handful of arugula and spinach and bake for another minute
• While the pizza is baking, mash 1/2 avocado with juice from 1/2 a lime, minced cilantro and 2 TB of sour cream together to form a smooth creamy topping
• Serve with the avocado cream on the side or on top

Just a few of the vegetables that went into the pizza. Happy to say that almost all colors of vegetables were represented for a healthy meal with all sorts of good vitamins

Can't say enough about the heirloom tomatoes in season now

Mexican pizza before the oven

Mexican pizza after (but before the last layer of arugula and spinach for more greens). Still vegan at this point.

Summer squash, eggplant, peppers, red onions (all first roasted) and heirloom tomato pizza (before the cheese). Tried to fit as many in season summer vegetables on the pizza as possible

Summer vegetable pizza. A bit of a juicy mess from all the vegetables, but the freshness of the produce really shone. Totally vegan pizza.

Curran 2009 Grenache rose: a light, but crisp rose that paired well with the pizzas