Skillet pizza – potato and leek

My latest challenge has to been to develop a good vegan pizza – without the use of vegan cheese. Obviously it wasn’t going to be cheesy but I wanted it to have a combination of flavours and textures that satisfied my pizza appetite.

At the same time, I also want to document the cast-iron skillet + grill (US: broiler) technique I use to cook pizza these days.

Ingredients

Makes 3 medium pizzas, serves 3-4.

You will need a cast-iron skillet and a grill (US: broiler).

Cashew sauce

• 0.5 cup raw cashews
• 0.25 cup water (approx)
• 1 tbsp olive oil (approx)
• 1 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 0.5 tsp garlic powder (optional)

Pizza base

• 2 teaspoons dried yeast
• 180ml warm water
• 315g strong flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1.5 tbsp olive oil

Pizza

• 3-6 tbsp tomato paste
• 3 tbsp extra light olive oil
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• fresh (or dried) rosemary
• 2 cups diced roasted potatoes (about 3 good sized potatoes)
• 1 leek – sliced

Method

The general order of things is:

1. Much earlier – make pizza dough and leave to rise
2. Earlier – roast potatoes
3. Make cashew sauce
4. Prep other ingredients
5. Make pizza
6. Eat pizza

Cashew sauce

1. Combine ingredients and blend.

The texture should be spreadable, add more extra virgin olive oil if required.

Pizza base

1. Mix yeast into warm water and leave 10 minutes to develop. It should froth up a bit. If it doesnt, either the water is too hot or the yeast is dead, try again.
2. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl.
3. Make a well, pour in yeast mixture and olive oil.
4. Mix to combine.
5. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until it’s all the same consistency and springs back when pressed.
6. Apply a fine coat of olive oil, put back in the bowl and cover. Leave in a warm place until it has risen to at least twice the original size.

Pizza

Get everything ready first.

1. Take a third of the dough and roll out to the size of your skillet.
2. Heat the skillet to medium-hot and the grill to medium.
3. Put 1 tbsp of extra-light olive oil into the skillet.
4. Put the rolled out dough into the skillet.
5. Coat with about 2 tablespoons of the cashew cream and 1-2 tablespoons tomato paste (to taste).

6. Sprinkle leeks, roast potatoes, rosemary and salt.
7. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the top.
8. Put the skillet under the grill.

9. Leave under the grill until it looks cooked (some slight blackening is expected).
10. Return the skillet to the burner and cook until the base is done (it should be nicely browned).
11. Remove, slice and serve.