Don’t miss it pizza

Sometimes people ask me what I miss when it comes to food. They think being a vegan is a sad, deprived life where I suffer constantly thinking about all the things I CAN’T eat. Well, I CAN eat anything, but because I choose compassion as my guiding force I WON’T eat certain things if they cause animals to suffer.

 

But as I’ve said before, what makes animal products taste good? It is not the flesh itself, but the spices and sauces we slather on. Why not eat just the spices and sauces and save a life?

 

Last week I had a down and dirty, obsessive craving for sausage pizza. So I had one. On Friday I made up a batch of this excellent gluten free vegan sausage made from black eyed peas and mushrooms and all the smoky spices. http://theveeword.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/gluten-free-spicy-italian-sausage-part.html    On Saturday I made us a pizza.

 All Saturday during the day I kept finding myself smiling inwardly or giggling as I pictured how good the pizza was going to taste. Spiderman finally stopped asking me. He would just say, “Thinking about the pizza again, huh?” and I would grin like a possum and bob up and down like a cork (my usual indicators of extreme joy).

 

I caramelised an onion and a pepper and browned the sausage whilst I made the crust. I topped it with tomato sauce with a few Tablespoons smoky BBQ sauce stirred in. I spooned on the onion, pepper and sausage and drizzled with tangy vegan cheddar cheese made from cashews and  nutritional yeast.

 Doesn’t that look amazing?

 Here it is up close.

 It was, without a doubt, the best pizza I’ve had in a long time. We used the new pizza pan since the old pan is behind the digital radio to give us better reception. It was smoky, spicy, tangy and crispy.

 We had enough sausages left to make another dish the next day and then I froze one for when the next sausage pizza craving comes over me again. 

 

I called it Don’t miss it pizza because that is what it is.

 I don’t miss sausage and cheese  because I know they cause suffering.

 I sometimes miss the tastes of those animal parts, but I don’t have to miss the flavour because I can make a delicious, healthy, vegan, gluten free substitutes.

 I don’t miss it at all.