Vegan pizza to lick your fingers

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the food lovers of online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat and what to cook. This time our chefs serve you: Vietnamese pizza.

Vegan dishes bursting with flavor that are on the table in no time: that's what it's all about in the new cookbook Vegan east by Milou van der Will, featuring Eastern cuisine as the main star. She shows you how to taste the traditional flavors of classic Eastern dishes with the most delicious ingredients, like this Vietnamese pizza, but of course in a plant-based jacket.

INGREDIENTS
For the pizza

1 tsp peanut oil
150 g portobello, finely chopped
pinch of salt
1⁄2 recipe gochujang sauce
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 green pepper, sliced into thin rings
1 tbsp peanuts, chopped
2 tbsp vegan mayo
2 tbsp sriracha sauce
8 sheets of rice paper

For the gochujang sauce

400 g diced tomatoes (1 can)
3 tsp gochujang paste (Asian store)
50 ml mirin
50 ml soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp ginger syrup
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cornstarch + 2 tsp water

“For this Vietnamese street snack, egg is usually used as the base topping. I replace it with my Korean gochujang sauce, a bit like the tomato sauce for Italian pizza. Fusion galore. Give yourself a few pizzas to practice, and you might almost start a food truck, it's that good.”

Here's how to make Vietnamese pizza

1. Heat a small frying pan with the oil. Fry the portobello with a pinch of salt. Set aside.
2. Gather all the toppings around you: the sauce, portobello, spring onion, green pepper, chopped peanuts, mayo, and sriracha. Also prepare a bowl of water with a brush and a spoon. Heat a grill or frying pan over medium heat.
3. For each pizza, use 2 sheets of rice paper.
4. Place 1 rice sheet on a plate. Brush with water. Place the second sheet on top and directly into the pan (without oil!). Rub circles with the back of a spoon, causing the 2 sheets to stick together.
5. At first, it seems like an impossible task and the top sheet curls up, but keep your spirits up. Keep turning in circles.
6. Massage extra with the spoon where bubbles form, because you don't want those.
7. After a while, the pizza base changes from transparent to whitish. When you see that happening, flip it over with tongs. Keep turning in circles now too. If necessary, lower the heat. Otherwise, the edges will burn quickly.
8. Time to top it. First, scoop 2 tablespoons of gochujang sauce onto the pizza. Spread it out. Then top with the portobello, spring onion, green pepper, and peanuts. Remove from the pan. Drizzle some vegan mayo and sriracha over it. Cut into wedges with scissors, or fold in half, serve authentically in an old newspaper and lick your fingers.

Here's how to make the gochujang sauce
1. Mix all the ingredients, except for the cornstarch and water, in a wok and heat the sauce over low heat. Let it simmer gently for a few minutes.

2. Meanwhile, make a slurry of the cornstarch with 2 teaspoons of water. Stir it into the sauce. Let it simmer for another 2 minutes until the sauce thickens. Use the sauce immediately.

Title: Vegan east
Author: Milou van der Will
Price: €25,95
Publisher: Good Cook

Text: Favorflav