Thursday, October 25, 2012

This and That Thursday - Vegan Frozen Pizza (Gluten-free)

We are not gluten-free. None of us seem to be sensitive to gluten and I feel it can be a healthy part of one's diet. I echo JL Goes Vegan's post about being a gluten vegan. Rob and I went vegan looonggg before the gluten-free craze started so I find it interesting that we'll get questions if gluten is vegan or not or "you're vegan, but you eat gluten so you must not be into the healthy veganism" (for the record we also often hear comments about how we must be "healthy vegans"...still not sure what people mean by any of this). We are vegan primarily for ethical reasons. Yes, the environmental and health benefits are great, but ethics is paramount in my reason for being vegan. For the last 13 years I've had more than my own health to think about so, of course, nutrition is something I spend a lot of time thinking about, researching, talking about, etc.

That all said, we do make quite a few accidentally gluten-free dishes or on purpose for our gf friends and I do like to try new gluten-free vegan foods. Today I'll share our lately gf find, Bold pizza.
I won't compare Bold to other gluten-free vegan frozen pizzas because I don't think we've tried any others. I first saw this pizza at Common Ground Co-op. I think it was on sale (frozen pizzas are not cheap) so I bought one. I made it as a snack that very day for the kids and they requested we buy a case the next buying club order. I did, but then we had the refrigerator drama (the unreliable refrigerator has since been recycled) so we had to move through our frozen foods faster than normal (hence all the convenience food posts). 
 Anyhoo, what do we like about these pizzas? They taste great and we certainly didn't miss the gluten. The crust bakes up very flaky and crunchy. The toppings are just the right amount. Not too much vegan cheese, just enough to keep the veggies from falling off the pizza. Bold uses Vegan Gourmet cheese instead of Daiya which is nice because Daiya might over-power the other tastes. I also like that I can throw these little babies in the toaster oven. So handy! Especially, since we've had more appliance woes lately. The flattop oven that came with our house has given us problems for years. We've lived without one burner (if you turn it on, it won't turn off and there is no way to fix it because they don't make the part anymore) for longer than I care to remember. Then recently the oven would just start freaking out, even if you weren't cooking anything, on humid days. The other night the oven just quit on us because we had the audacity to try to roast veggies with some broth and that was too much liquid. I texted our fabulous neighbors, Vicky and Greg, and asked about their old extra oven they keep in the basement.
 The next day we had a new-to-us appliance that might be as old as I am. I love the retro feel!
 We have an oven thermometer because ever oven we've ever owned was off by some degrees. The one that just quit on us was off by sometimes TWENTY degrees! Not this old girl! She is SPOT on. Love it!
 The vintage look totally goes with our 100+ year old house. Yes, I know this isn't 100 years old, but I like the look.
 It took us a day or two to get used to the knobs instead of the digital buttons, but I'm hooked now. I never want to go back.
 We also have four, count 'em, 4, working burners at our disposal. Sweet! It is the little things people. It is so nice not to HAVE to buy another appliance yet when our last appliance purchase has yet to enter our house. Thanks to awesome neighbors who don't just get rid of old working appliances. What happened to ours? We set it by the curb and a nice guy came by and asked about it. We told him the troubles we've had and he said he wanted it anyway because he collects old appliances and uses them for parts to get others working again. We felt good about recycling our old stove and the man was super  happy to take it off our hands. I love a happy ending!
Back to the pizza. You can cook them in the oven, but I highly recommend you do as they suggest and cook it directly on the rack. I used a pizza stone one time and the crust was a little soggy. Dema says this is his favorite frozen pizza now. This is high praise from someone who is pretty picky about pizza. I asked him what he likes about Bold, "Everything! The crunchy crust, the veggies, the cheese, it is all good!" Dema often will pick the veggies off his pizza and then eat them later, but he eats Bold pizza all together and all in one sitting then asks for me to cook a second one.

1 comment:

JL said...

Ha! I love the term "accidentally gluten-free"! That's what happens to me, too! The pizza looks great and that retro stove is awesome!