Delicious Vegan Autumn Pizza Recipe! ๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ฟ๐
- How To TBI
- Feb 5, 2022
- 16 min read
Cooking Level: 4 (Multi-Step, Semi-Homemade)
I love pizza. ๐. Or rather, I love complex carbohydrates, mainly breads. ๐ฅ Pastas, breads & potatoes are my jam. ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅจ๐ฅ๐
I think thereโs something about the warmness of them, the complexity & depth of flavors that can be developed, along with wonderful varieties, & how the best ones are often authentically homemade with lots of love. ๐
As Iโve gotten older, Iโve tried to mindfully lessen my starch intake, so itโs not something I have very often.
A number of years ago, I discovered this amazing pizza from a local regional chain which I absolutely loved. If you want to check out the original, you can visit Otto Pizza in the Massachusetts & Maine areas.
Theyโve got a wonderful variety of pizzas, ranging from the traditional cheese, all the way up to more creative varieties like this one.
Their original Fall Pizza is made with ricotta cheese dollops, which tastes amazing (Traditional ricotta, by the way, isnโt terribly difficult to make; you boil whole milk with an acid like lemon juice or vinegar, wait for it to curdle, then separate out the curd from the whey using a cheesecloth. You can then season with salt for savory dish, or sugar for sweetened.)
If you have a good vegan ricotta recipe that doesnโt involve tofu, please let me know in the comments, below!).
This particular version is one Iโve adapted to be plant-based ๐ฑ & I think tastes amazing.
Depending on the ingredients you have on-hand, the amount of extras you get from the grocery store may vary.
Back Story
I used to love to cook & bake prior to my TBI. Reading cookbooks and watching cooking shows were something I loved to do, and they were something I became good at.
I was known in my peer group for making tasty things whenever weโd have get togethers. It was something I hadnโt really stopped to recognize or fully appreciate how good I was at it & how much others enjoyed my creations, although Iโm sure part of it was also about sharing good company. If I had to pick a preferred cooking/baking style, mine wouldโve been complex.
Post TBI, re-learning how to cook & bake again has been really difficult.
I used to be able to come up with flavor combinations on my own that tasted amazing & I could make on-the-fly recipe adjustments to adjust for seasoning and taste easily, quickly, and without much conscious thought. I used to be able to more readily discern why something tasted a certain way, and to prescribe an addition or switch of cooking technique to compensate for seasonal variation in flavor profiles.
I remember way back when I first started to try to cook & bake again post TBI, and I couldnโt. For multiple reasons (to be discussed later in another post since the list of reasons why is very long).
Being able to feed yourself is one of the six Activities of Daily Living, and even now, to try to do it, thereโs A LOT of compensation strategies and framework methodology I have to utilize in order to be able to try to do it (with one of the main ones involving waiting until someone else can be around to help). I could probably write multiple posts and create multiple videos on all the different considerations that are involved & strategies you can employ.
In the meantime, until I can get to pulling together such posts, the biggest tip I can give you is to ask for and accept help from others. Doesnโt matter what it is. If itโs something someone else can help with & theyโre willing to offer the help, by all means, let them.
One of the main things that I remember after my TBI was that my food tasted disgusting. ๐คข. If youโve lost your sense of taste or smell to COVID, you can probably relate, with the difference here that with COVID, the food youโre making probably technically is fine and edible to yourself & others (even if it tastes or smells bad or like nothing to you) but with the TBI, the food I tried to make was empirically gross and inedible, not just to myself, but also to others.
Not just what my brain processing those tastes tasted like (unlike during & post-COVID, where perfectly good food tasted like trash), but that food Iโd try to make sounded like and tasted bad to others, too.
So much of whatever Iโd try to make tasted like literal trash. ๐
I remember talking with my OT about it, and my OT, among others, thought what I had made was also disgusting.
Pre-TBI, almost everything I made was delicious & I was known for it. And I knew that. And try as I might, I could not figure out how to make my food not taste like garbage. I wasnโt even aiming for delicious or tastyโฆI was aiming for making food that did not taste like trash. If youโre at this stage, know that youโre not alone & I get it.
Thereโs a reason why there are professional chefs, cooks and bakers. Thereโs a lot of methodology, knowledge and skill that goes into making something taste good. I used to have that knowledge readily available.
Trying to access that knowledge and put those skills into practice involves high cognitive load, and itโs taken me years of hard work and endless trying to get to a place where I can occasionally have semblances and glimmers of what I had previously try to come back, and only with lots of help, spread over multiple days, in multiple stages, with a significant amount of rests and naps in between.
I still donโt go a day without napping.
I used to be resistant to it, since I had previously come from a very can-do kind of perspective where I was very active, very ambitious, and often accomplished whatever I set out to do on a given day.
Post TBI, Iโve had to relearn and scale back what I set out to try to do each day, if that, and have had to learn quickly about the importance of pacing. Often, thinking about a whole day is too much, and instead,I try to focus more on morning as a block and afternoon as another (this blocking of time is something I can spend a while in posts and videos about, later).
The only person who can pace you is yourself. You (& possibly others) are the one who benefits when you do something, but you, alone, are the only one who personally suffers when you donโt pace yourself.
In my case, the ever-present migraines would get considerably worse, and when really bad, the vertigo, nausea, lack of balance, and risk of falling and re-injuring myself more would spike.
Tip: If you have migraines, try to learn what your prodromal symptoms are.
In my case, I learned that if I yawn, I have roughly 30 minutes or less to do something about it.
I need to immediately stop whatever Iโm doing, and rest, close my eyes, or take a nap.
Or if I push through and try to ignore it, itโll get so bad and beyond the point where medicine I could try to take or interventions I could try to do would not be able to adequately help and itโll affect not only the rest of that day, but possibly future days after.
So now that I realize yawning is a prodromal symptom for me, I try to notice more if I happen to be yawning and then adjust accordingly.
It still takes me a while to notice if thatโs happening, and sometimes I donโt notice Iโm yawning until someone else happens to prompt me by pointing it out.
Now when I become aware that it happens, I try to mark it as a trigger cue and then adjust and employ an intervention strategy like going to take a nap.
Often, for those who donโt know me, sometimes I get the sense they think that I think whatever theyโre talking about is boring, but really, itโs that the migraine is getting worse from trying to focus too long on whatever theyโre saying or whatever the cumulative amount is of whatever Iโve been doing prior to that moment), but Iโm trying to get better at noticing the yawn so I can immediately go and do something about it.
My personal health and daily quality of life is dependent upon my noticing and adjusting appropriately whenever my yawning happens. Hopefully that tip can help you, too.
PT/Vestibular PT/meditation taught me to notice my bodyโs exhaustion signals more, and to respond appropriately, which more often than not, means to nap.
Sleeping, specifically restful sleep, literally helps to clears the clutter out of your mind so that you can function better.
Between OT and Speech, we spent a LOT of time (as in months, upon months, still unfinished, but had to move on to try to touch upon other cognitive functional areas) trying to strategize about food-related things, specifically, to try to figure out how to not make things taste like literal garbage or trash.
I could not tell you the last time I had used a recipe. As in, word for word, ingredient for ingredient, and paying attention to actual measurements. And suddenly, post-TBI, this now needed to be a consideration (also something I could write and video many posts about, maybe later).
When you donโt have income coming in & medical & living expense responsibilities are going up, going out to eat a really special pizza that could cost roughly $20 or $4-$5 for a large slice, isnโt really a luxury you may be able to afford for quite sometime.
Mind you, thatโs completely setting aside for a moment transportation logisitics (to be discussed later) complex bill paying and physical cash acquisition logistics (to be discussed later) or figuring out how to order & receive take out or meal delivery.
One of the very first things my OT had to teach me how to do, which wasnโt easy, for multiple reasons I could write about or video later why (especially with a phone screen I had a LOT of difficulty using), was how to order takeout delivery, which is expensive, but you have to eat (I will try to cover other food options in many posts or videos later, since I have a lot of knowledge to share here that can likely help you, too, especially if you are or become low or fixed income during your recovery).
My guess is that if youโre reading this blog post (or on behalf of someone you love or care about with a brain injury or brain fog or an aging senior citizen), that most of what Iโm writing here resonates on a deeply personal level with you, too.
Right after my TBI, I had to cut out so much.
Anytime Iโd try to put something on my schedule, something that probably took me cumulative hours to try to figure out in my homework & would make my head hurt trying to think, Iโd then go to OT and feel defeated because theyโd literally have me erase most of my work and say I was trying to do too much.
Do 1 thing a day, *at most* 2.
Do you know what counts as 1 thing?
A shower. A grocery trip. A phone call. A Dr.โs appointment. Trying to figure out how to google something. Trying to do anything that utilizes a screen, especially if hidden menus or swipes and scrolling motion are involved. Trying to figure out how to get somewhere.
Anyone whoโs ever had to rely on paratransit can likely easily attest to how 1 Dr.โs appointment literally can take 1/2 a day or more when youโre waiting on transportation, both inside a hospital or Dr.โs office, and along the way from your home to medical location & the sheer physical exhaustion that comes from it.
Part of the injuries I sustained with my TBI impacted, among other things, my spine and pelvis, and trying to sit in a vehicle for any amount of time, especially if the driver revved up the RPMs, was truly sickening, difficult and painful.
Pacing yourself is a point they really drove home. And itโs something that was hard for me to accept. I already felt like I had cut out so much, and my rehab team had me cut out even more.
To try to make a meal?
What I used to be able to do, pre-TBI, start-to-finish, I could do easily within a couple of hours on a single afternoon, evening or morning.
Now, post-TBI, to make a meal is a 4 day process.
Without getting too much into specifics (for another post later), itโs planning on day 1, shopping on day 2, processing & prepping on day 3, and cooking/baking/eating on day 4. And that includes with receiving help from another person or service, throughout. For 1 meal.
So when I say this pizza is a Level 4 Cooking (the Levels of Cooking to be discussed in another post/video later), I mean it.
For those with a brain injury, this delicious pizza is something thatโd be good for a special occasion: a date night, an anniversary, a birthday, or something else celebratory. ๐ฅณ. Or just because. Itโs delicious & I hope you love it, too.
I recommend making this pizza for Saturday night food (or whatever your weekend is for you) since the time you spend making it can hopefully be more spaced out and relaxed if you run into timing difficulties. Hopefully, youโll be able to be more relaxed and enjoy and savor each bite.
If you donโt have a brain injury, you could also just make this pizza whenever and share your creation with your loved one to enjoy on a more frequent basis than rarely.
Hope you enjoy it! Please #PRINT this article out and share with others who may also enjoy it, as well, too.
If you get the chance to check out the original at Otto Pizza, please do since itโs great. While this post is not sponsored, a special Thank You to Otto Pizza for making a delicious product that inspired me to want to figure out a vegan ๐ฑ plant-based version of my own. ๐ฑ๐
Delicious Vegan Autumn Pizza Recipe
Ingredients (Stage 1):
1 large sweet potato ๐ (1/2 of a sweet potato is enough for 1/2 a dough ball)
sprinkle of salt
sprinkle of pepper
drizzle of olive oil to coat
Ingredients (Stage 2)
1 pre-made pizza dough from Trader Joeโs (or your nearby grocery store, see the refrigerated section). I find that 1/4 of a dough ball is enough for a small personal-sized pizza, or you could use 1/2 a dough ball to make a flatbread big enough for 2, or 1
person who is really hungry.
Ingredients (Stage 3)
mashed up cooked sweet potato from 1/2 large sweet potato
vegan carmelized onion dip from Trader Joeโs (the vegan cream cheese base here is coconut-based)
dried cranberries or raisins
1/4 diced mini apple ๐๐
sprinkle of salt
sprinkle of pepper
drizzle of olive oil
Finishing ingredients (optional):
handful of arugula
handful of blanched roasted unsalted almonds
1/2 to 1 tsp. hemp hearts
drizzle of balsamic vinegar glaze (NOT the same as plain balsamic vinegarโฆyou need to reduce it to a viscous syrup )
TOTAL INGREDIENTS
1/2 of 1 large sweet potato
1/2 of 1 refrigerated pizza dough ball (I got mine from Trader Joeโs, but you could get yours from other grocery stores near you)
1/8th of a container of vegan caramelized onion dip from Trader Joeโs
1/4 of 1 mini apple ๐ ๐
handful of blanched roasted unsalted almond slivers (I got mine from Trader Joeโs, but you could get yours from other grocery stores near you)
handful of dried cranberries (Craisins), or raisins, sultanas or other dried fruit
handful of arugula (or other leafy green)
drizzle of balsamic vinegar
1/2 to 1 tsp. of hemp hearts
A couple drizzles of olive oil
sprinkle of salt
sprinkle of freshly cracked black pepper
UTENSILS
a metal spatula to transfer the finished pizza flatbread
a chefโs knife to cut the sweet potato
a cutting board to cut the sweet potato
a wash cloth to go under the cutting board to cut the sweet potato and to help the cutting board not slide while cutting/use to dry the rinsed sweet potato skin/use to dry your hands
a vegetable scrub brush to help get dirt off the sweet potato skin (optional)
running sink water or clean water from a water bottle to wash/rinse the sweet potato
dish detergent soap to wash your hands after youโve used olive spread on the cut side of sweet potato halves
a pastry brush to spread olive oil n sweet potato halves and pizza dough crust (optional or you can use your hands)
a cookie sheet or small baking tray to put the raw sweet potato halves in
aluminum foil for the cooking pan that holds the raw sweet potato halves
a rack or elevated space to put a hot pan &/or hot tray
1 or 2 trivets or other potholder to put hot items on top of
a perforated pizza pan (or else a rack placed on top of a cookie sheet pan or pizza stone)
a large spoon to spread mushed up cooked sweet potato and vegan caramelized onion dip dollops
a teaspoon to remove and sprinkle the dried hemp hearts
a serrated steak knife to dice mini apple pieces
a butter knife to cut the pizza slices after itโs finished cooking
oven-safe gloves to remove hot items
if cooking elsewhere than home, a glass container with lid or other transportation container to put finished pizza or leftovers in. Donโt put hot pizza in a plastic container after since it may melt.
a large plate to put pizza on after and to cut the pizza
smaller plate(s) for others to eat pizza slices off of
HEATING ELEMENTS
an oven &/or a toaster oven
unsure if would work in air fryer or not
PASSIVE COOK TIMES
50 min. to 1 hour to roast sweet potato
10 min. to cook pizza flatbread
PASSIVE NON-COOK WAITING TIMES
20 min. for cooked sweet potato to cool down before handling
20 min. for portion of refrigerated pizza dough to thaw/sit out on counter
5 min. for pizza to cool down
NON-COOK ACTIVE POST COOKING TIMES
3 min. to cut pizza
7 min. to plate and put finished toppings on top
PREP TIMES
7 min. to process sweet potato
3 min. to process apple
10 min. to place other ingredients before pizza is cooked
MISE-EN-PLACE ASSEMBLY & GATHERING OF MATERIALS & INGREDIENTS
15 min.
TOTAL TIME: 130 min. to 160 min., a.k.a. 2 hr. 10 min. to 2 hrs. 40 min.
TOTAL ACTIVE TIME: 45 min.
TOTAL ACTIVE MISE & GATHERING TIME: 15 min.
TOTAL ACTIVE PREP TIME: 20 min.
TOTAL ACTIVE POST-COOKING TIME: 10 min.
TOTAL PASSIVE TIME: 85 min - 115 min., a.k.a. 1 hr. 25 min. to 1 hr. 55 min.
TOTAL PASSIVE COOKING TIME: 60-70 min.
TOTAL PASSIVE COOL DOWN OR THAWING WAIT TIMES: 25 or 45 min., depending on if you combine it all into 1 marathon cooking session (not recommended if you have brain injury, but ok if you have a higher reserve of energy or if you donโt have a brain injury).
time not included:
dish washing after cooking & eating
grocery shopping
transportation to grocery shop
transportation to cooking facility if not your home
nap times
Steps to Make Pizza
Go to the kitchen. Turn the kitchen light on and leave it on (doesnโt matter the time of day). This is a visual cue to remind you that youโve got something going on in the kitchen.
if your kitchen is big enough and has seating, try to stay in the kitchen the entire time, even while things are baking. This will hopefully minimize divided attention risk, especially if you have a heating element going on.
if your kitchen is not big enough and doesnโt have restful seating, try to stay in an adjacent room nearby, with the light on, during the kitchen cooking baking process.
If youโre light sensitive, recommend using overhead light that you strongly dislike, since thatโll keep the concept of coming back and focusing on why the light thatโs bothering you is on since youโre incentivized to want to turn it off since itโs bothering you. YMMV. You are trying to tie the light you hate to cooking and baking so that you can try to more presently remember and re-remember that you have the oven or stove on. (If you have suggestions on other products or things that can be used to help with this, please share in the comments, below). ***If youโre photo sensitive, keep in mind that while this tip may help, itโs helping because itโs provoking symptoms, so you need to plan, accordingly and pace yourself and only do it in a limited manner that makes sense, for you. The light being on has a cognitive load cost.
do NOT run a load of laundry ๐งบ or move a load from the washer to dryer while cooking or baking.
do NOT try to take a bath ๐ or shower ๐ฟ while things are cooking or baking.
do NOT go to another floor in your home, apartment or building when cooking or baking.
do NOT take steps, anywhere. Do NOT go outside your home or apartment unless an emergency.
do NOT go check the mail. At all. Even if you think itโll be quick. You can easily run into a neighbor or come across something or someone that will distract you and you may more easily forget that youโre cooking.
do NOT go on the computer while things are cooking or baking.
do NOT start an exercise routine while things are cooking or baking.
do NOT have a scheduled delivery arrive while cooking or baking.
do not initiate or receive a phone call while cooking or baking unless itโs an emergency. The exception to this: if you let the other person know what youโre doing and ask them to help remind you about things along the way as back up alarms and as back up reminders of what you were just trying to do.
Turn oven to 400F. If the oven has an oven light, turn the oven light on & keep it on. This is an additional visual cue to hopefully help to remind you that youโre cooking in the oven.
scrub sweet potato under running water to remove excess dirt.
put washcloth on flat counter. Put cutting board on top of washcloth. Put cleaned sweet potato on top of cutting board.
Very carefully cut sweet potato in half, lengthwise. Gently insert tip of knife into middle of sweet potato and and carefully rock back and forth to cut into the sweet potato more, each time the knife slicing further into the sweet potato until youโve cut all the way through. Turn sweet potato around and cut other part of sweet potato thatโs still uncut. This can be hard to do since sweet potatoes are very hard & solid. Ask for help, if needed.
Drizzle small amount of olive oil on cut sweet potato halves and spread oil around with fingers or pastry brush. Add freshly cracked pepper and light sprinkle of salt for seasoning. The salt and pepper are optional. The light coating of oil, is not. The oil will help to coat the cut sweet potato surface not shrivel up ne dry out while roasting in the oven.
put aluminum foil in a small box pan that has sides (not a cookie sheet); you donโt want your sweet potato halves to roll off the baking dish in the oven. Place the sweet potato halves, skin side down and cut side up, into the baking dish.
put the baking dish in the oven. Make sure oven light is on, if you have one.
set alarm on phone for 50 min. Set google home or Alexa alarm for 45 minutes. Set google home or Alexa alarm for 50 min.
rest.
Remove cooked sweet potato from oven & place on cooling rack.
Divide 1 lb. pizza dough bag into quarters. Roll out 1/4 of the dough into a round or rectangular pizza shape, whichever you prefer & that matches your perforated baking pan.
Put handful of cran-raisins, dried cranberries &/or raisins into a small cup with slightly warm water to slightly rehydrate. Set aside.
Spread thin layer of vegan onion dip on top. You could also use boursin cheese, or canned/jarred spaghetti sauce, or pesto if you'd rather.
Smush up pieces of the cooked sweet potato (doesn't need to be perfect) & drop in dollops or smears across the pizza dough, on top of the onion dip.
Drop small amounts of vegan ricotta on top (or regular ricotta if you don't have any).
Drain the cran-raisins, dried cranberries &/or raisins, & sprinkle them on top of pizza. Discard soaking water.
Dice some apple and sprinkle on top.
Sprinkle any Italian herb seasoning on top that you might have.
Add freshly cracked black pepper & lightly sprinkle salt over top of pizza.
Bake for 12-15 minutes (follow along with exact time & temp on bag of pizza dough) at 400F. Keep oven light on. Set multiple alarms.
Remove cooked pizza from the oven. The bottom should look relatively crisp. There will be some carryover cooking once removed from the oven, but not much, so the pizza should be mostly/fully cooked once removed.
Use pizza wheel to cut pizza slices.
Sprinkle arugula or any other tasty green leafy lightweight vegetable.
Sprinkle hemp hearts all around.
Sprinkle sliced almonds on top for some crunch.
Drizzle the top with balsamic vinegar glaze
Enjoy!
Comments