Those pizzas I ate were for medicinal purposes.
Amy Neftzger
On vacation in Mexico two years ago, which seems like ages ago now! I had a sweet potato crust pizza at Mi Vegano Favorito in San Jose del Cabo. It was everything you want a pizza to be. Tasty crust that’s just the right thickness to hold all the veggie and melted vegan cheese goodness. It was so good that I’m still talking about it and trying to recreate it, two years later.
Back in week 3 when we were just starting out our pizza journey, I tried two different sweet potato crusts. Neither worked well enough to present to you on the blog. I wanted to try one more time before this yearlong pizza journey is through to see if I could find a recipe that works.
I found this recipe on From My Bowl and for the first time my sweet potato crust came out pretty good. I’m grateful it worked because sweet potatoes are a lot healthier than flour, so it’s nice to have the option of a non-flour, gluten-free crust. I didn’t have tapioca flour so used cornstarch instead. I added oregano to the dry mix and otherwise followed the recipe faithfully. I even used my kitchen scale.
I love sweet potatoes. They are high in vitamins A, C, B6, potassium and manganese. They have 4 grams of protein a serving and are almost fat free. Plus, they are very filling. My favorite are the hannah white variety, which is what I used above. Purple sweet potatoes are also fun to use and jazz up the look of your dishes.
As always, you can use any veggies you like. Because this was a dish I first tried in Mexico, I tried to recreate the flavors of that dish by using similar veggies. Here’s the original for some inspiration. I love that this pizza has a rustic crust with a hint of red sauce, light melted cheese, and a mound of healthy veggies. If you visit San Jose del Cabo, you have to try it (and bring me back a slice!).
Ingredients
- Sweet potato crust (see recipe link above)
- handful vegan mozzarella, shredded
- 1 broccoli stem, florets cut into bite size pieces, use the stem if you like, diced small
- 3 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1/4 red onion, diced
- 1/4 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed in hot water for 10 minutes
- 5 slices of zucchini or cucumber, diced
- handful cherry tomatoes, sliced in half and sprinkled with salt
- 1/2 cup marinara sauce
- guacamole or avocado to serve
Per instructions on the sweet potato crust recipe, I baked the crust for 10 minutes in a hot oven before putting on any sauce or toppings. It dried it out quite a lot, as you can see from the photo on the far left. Next time I will bake it with a scant amount of sauce or brush it with olive oil first before baking to keep it moist.
As you can see, I use only a small amount of sauce. I used a jarred marinara. Sadly, I threw the rest away. I sometime buy the type of tomato paste that looks like tomato toothpaste just so I don’t end up discarding an almost whole jar of marinara. But, the spices and flavors of marinara are really good, so it’s up to you.
See above that I have put the veggies on before the cheese? That’s because I was waffling on whether or not to use cheese at all. I knew I wanted to serve this with guacamole so thought I might go cheeseless. In the end, I put about 1/2 cup of mozzarella on top and it didn’t quite melt correctly. If you are using cheese, put it on over your sauce and under the veggies.
Instructions
- Bake your sweet potato crust for 8-10 minutes in a 425° oven. I recommend you bake it with either a brush of olive oil or 1/2 cup marinara to keep it from drying out.
- Remove from oven. Top with cheese first if using, then your veggies. You can pan fry your veggies first. I often do this so that I can toss them with olive or avocado oil and spices. Also, if you are using any hearty veggies like the stalk part of broccoli, they need more time to cook, so then pan frying before baking is the way to go.
- Bake for an additional 10-12 minutes. This makes approximately 20 minutes total.
- Slice, serve with guacamole (and maybe some margaritas!). Enjoy!
52 Vegan Pizzas 