Eat Plants Get Wood

So the other evening I got together with some good friends and we whipped up some polenta crust pizzas — the way I do it. Its all pretty straight forward, and today I’m going to just break the process down in pictures.
So, let’s go!

First, preheat your oven to about 425 degrees.

First thing you need to do is mash your polenta down so there aren’t any clumps. I was using polenta from a precooked tube and that stuff tends to be really stiff, so you really have to break it down before you do anything else. If you’re cooking your own its probably easier.

OK, so I’m not vegan or pure WFPB . . . yet. We have hens and we use their eggs. Look how rich and beautiful they are! Anyway, I have a background in baking and I realized that the crust would cook better with the help of some eggs — turns out, I was right. Mix the eggs in with the mashed polenta. If you want to add rosemary or something like that, this the point at which you would do it. This crust has precooked quinoa mixed in.

Roll the polenta into a dough ball, place it on your greased/ungreased pan (up to you, we use a little bit of olive oil) and then push it out to form a crust like this. Once you’ve got it formed, put it in the oven to pre-bake for about 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime, you need to have done your veggie prepping and have it all ready to go. We made a couple of pies this time and the ingredients were pretty diverse. Sweet potatoes, beets, broccoli, zucchini, onions, sweet pepper, Pablano pepper, mushrooms, and carrots.

The process of precooking the veggies is basically the same approach you might use to stir fry. I start with a little bit of olive oil and saute my garlic and onions. Then I add the firmer ingredients first — potatoes, turnips, broccoli, etc. Let that stuff cook down a little, but still crisp.

Continue adding and cooking your veggies to your pan, let them steam a bit.

By now, your crust should be ready to take out of the oven. I haven’t figured out how to prevent polenta from cracking like this, but its no big deal.

You’ll need some red sauce done the way you prefer. We make our own by cooking down tomatoes and adding things like garlic. Spread fresh basil over the sauce.

So, obviously, you don’t have to do this, but we add a very thin layer of cheese. In this case, mozzarella.

Meanwhile, back at the stove, heap as much fresh greens as you can over your stir fry. I strongly recommend kale.

Cover the pan and let the greens wilt down. Usually about 5 minutes on low heat.

Bring your pan over to your precooked/sauced crust and dump the stir fry onto the crust without allowing excess liquid onto it. Spread the veggies out evenly.