Pizza Craving Fix: Gluten Free and Vegan Polenta Pizza Recipe

 

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my pizza craving and my adventures in the frozen food aisle to find gluten/dairy/egg/sesame free pizza options.  And while I liked the one I tasted from Amy’s Kitchen, I still wanted to explore further.  Although I have not been back to the frozen food aisle to try the few others on the market, I was still craving pizza.  What to do?  I didn’t want to make a crust from scratch on this day (but it is in the plans!), so I decided to try something with a few items I had in the house.

I had just come back from picking up my favorite chocolate, and in an impulsive moment, I grabbed a package of pre-cooked polenta; boiled cornmeal that is baked into a roll.  I knew this could possibly satisfy my pizza craving.  The plan was to make bite-sized pizzas!  Maybe, just maybe, they would be tasty enough to serve at my next soiree as an appetizer as well.

I could have made my own polenta; cooking up cornmeal with water or chicken stock and letting it boil until it becomes thick and creamy, put it into a cake pan or glass baking dish and let it cool until it solidifies.  But the pre-cooked version I purchased was organic, gluten-free, GMO-free, so there was no need for me, on this occasion, to cook my polenta from scratch.  With a few other ingredients, it was an easy recipe to make!

Polenta Pizza Bites

Makes 12 pizza bites

1 package of pre-cooked polenta

1/4 cup of homemade tomato sauce or bottled sauce

1/4 cup Daiya mozzarella-style shreds

1/4 cup steamed spinach (optional)

2 teaspoons olive oil

Nutritional yeast to taste (optional)

 

Open the package of polenta and slice it into 12 1-centimeter discs.

In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Place the polenta discs into the pan and cook for 5 minutes on each side, or until they begin to crisp (the time will depend on the water content of the polenta).

After flipping from the first side to the second side, put one teaspoon of sauce and one teaspoon of Daiya mozzarella-style shreds on top of each disc.  Add the steamed spinach.  After five minutes on the second side (from the time you flipped the disc, not the time you finished topping them), turn the heat off and cover the pan for one minute, allowing the “cheese” to melt.

 Serve your pizza bites while they’re hot!  If you are dairy-free and miss the taste of Parmesan cheese, add a sprinkle of nutritional yeast.  If you are not dairy-free, go ahead and use the Parmesan.

Although not as crunchy as authentic pizza crust, the creaminess of the inside of the cooked polenta mixed with the crispness of the edges definitely hit the spot.  I loved the addition of spinach, but I could also see adding sauteed onions, chopped pepperoni (phony pepperoni of course) and so many other tasty toppings to satisfy anyone’s craving for pizza bites.

Will I make this again?  Absolutely!  Will I continue my hunt for the perfect gluten-free and vegan pizza?  You betcha – and I will continue to share my findings with you.

xo

B

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