21-Day Vegan Kickstart / a Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) site

We hosted one this past Saturday. For the cooking demo, we had two requirements of the consultant:
*nothing processed - typically the recipes start with some sort of pre-made dough (poppin fresh biscuits for example)
*the recipe had to be vegan

We put crudite (red bell pepper, carrot, celery) and multi grain crackers on the table with some hummus, plus vegan mini spinach quiches, and homemade chewy granola bars (PB, rolled oats, whole wheat, raisins, craisins, agave) as snacks.

It was a challenge but she found something: mediterranean hummus pizza! We will be adding this one to our menu repertoire - it looks like it'll work with all sorts of veggie toppings. Hubby made the whole wheat dough ahead of time that morning (after freshly grinding the wheat). We made the roasted red pepper hummus that we love (Kickstart recipe). The recipe calls for topping it with feta so we had some on hand and put it on half the pizza and left half with just the veggies: mushrooms, kalamata olives, onion, diced tomato, zucchini - it was REALLY good even without the cheese (even the non-vegans liked it!) DS liked the little bit of kick the hummus gave it (and he's a cheesy pizza lover - he tried it with and without the feta and liked it both ways)

Original recipe:
Mediterranean Hummus Pizza

Crust:
1 Tbsp plus ½ tsp olive oil, divided
1 pkg. (13.8 oz.) refrigerated pizza crust
1 garlic clove, pressed

Toppings:
2 jars (7.5 oz.) guartered marinated artichoke hearts, drained
2 medium plum tomatoes
¼ medium red onion
1 - 2” piece of seedless cucumber
½ cup kalamata olives
1 container plain hummus
2 oz. Mediterranean-seasoned feta cheese crumbles

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly brush Large Bar Pan with ½ tsp of the oil using Chef’s Silicone Brush. Unroll dough onto bottom of pan, gently stretching and pressing dough to cover bottom. Combine remaining oil and garlic pressed with Garlic Press in Prep Bowl; brush evenly over dough. Bake 12-14 minutes or until crust is light golden brown.

2. Meanwhile, for toppings, cut artichokes crosswise into smaller pieces using Utility Knife. Slice tomatoes in half lengthwise; scrape out seeds and dice. Thinly slice onion. Using Ultimate Mandoline fitted with v-shaped blade, slice cucumber; cut slices into quarters. Coarsely chop olives using Food Chopper.

3. Remove pan from oven to Stackable Cooling Rack. Spread hummus evenly over crust. Arrange artichokes, tomatoes, onion, cucumber and olives over hummus. Sprinkle with cheese. Cut pizza into squares using Pizza Cutter. Yield: 6 servings.

--Deb R