Thai Veggie Pizza

So I finally discovered the greatness that is Trader Joe’s. And I’m. in. love.

I know I’m a little, okay maybe a lot, late to this bandwagon, but considering that the only Trader Joe’s within driving distance of me just opened a month ago, I think I deserve a break. Because what I lacked in timing, I made up for in grocery items.

After two hours of braving suburbia madness, I looked down to find that everything from freeze dried bananas to chocolate covered edamame had somehow made it into my grocery cart. I don’t know what came over me. It was like I had been dropped into a grocery store Disney World. (If anyone  has any suggestions on what to buy next time and the many times after that, my taste buds and I are very open to suggestions.)

When I woke up the next morning and started plotting for dinner that night, I realized I had bought a bunch of food that didn’t seem to go together. So I started with what was going to go bad first, cue the fresh pizza dough. Then I tried to figure out what protein I had that could make this pizza a meal. Enter tofu. Surprise!

I thought that if I had named this recipe Tofu Pizza you would immediately turn away in disgust, but hopefully if you’ve gotten this far you’ll give it a try. I too hesitantly entered “tofu pizza” into Google, and was surprised to find this gem of a blog: Iowa Girl Eats. Complete with a Thai Tofu Pizza recipe!

Her recipe not only won a pizza contest, but became dog approved at my house later that night. So it has to be good! I came home from work in such a state of hangriness (hungry/angry) that I threw this thing together in 20 minutes. The poor pizza dough became a therapeutic punching bag.

Fortunately, I was able to eat two pieces of deliciousness before I found that the rest of my labor of anger had been devoured by the dog. And I wasn’t even able to take one of those “shamed dog pictures” because he was perfectly content with what he did. Guess he likes tofu! I can’t complain though. At least he didn’t do this…

Thai Veggie Pizza

Adapted from: Iowa Girl Eats

1 12″ pre-made pizza crust (I used Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough)

Peanut sauce (recipe to follow)

1/2 block extra firm tofu, crumbled

1 cup cheese (I had cheddar on hand, but mozzarella would be good too)

1/2 cup broccoli slaw

2 chopped green onions

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Peanut Sauce

3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter (I used PB2)*

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon water

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon Sriracha

1 teaspoon honey/agave

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

• Preheat oven according to pizza dough directions. (Note: I can never get my pizza dough fully cooked the first time around, so I suggest putting this in the oven a few minutes before you add the toppings.)

• Combine peanut sauce ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.

• Mix 2 tablespoons of sauce with crumbled tofu (should resemble feta) and saute on medium heat until lightly browned.

• Spread remaining sauce on pizza crust. Top with tofu, broccoli slaw, cheese, and green onions. Bake according to pizza dough directions.

• Top with cilantro. Eat and repeat!

*PB2 is a peanut powder that when mixed with water makes magical peanut butter! It’s half the calories of regular peanut butter, and while it doesn’t taste as good as the real thing, you can hardly tell when it’s mixed in when things.