Pizza dough

Packet of active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
3 cups King Arthur "white whole wheat" flour
Olive oil
Additional flour at the ready
Corn meal, for dusting the pizza pan

Dissolve sugar, then yeast in warm water. Set aside to "proof" for at least 10 minutes. Eventually the yeast will foam and you'll know you've got a good 'un.

When your yeast has proofed and your veggies are ready to go, add the liquid mixture to the flour. Begin kneading. Add additional flour in small amounts as needed until a malleable but not sticky consistency is reached. Knead for five minutes.

I like to turn my hands out while pushing my thumbs in, over and over, with the NPR app yapping at me about the economics of zoos.

Pizza topping

1 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 yellow squash
1 large carrot
An onion
Three cloves garlic
Half a bag of field washed spinach
1/4 can coconut milk
Garam masala (or Chinese five-spice seasoning, if you don't have it)
Salt
Pepper

Rehydrate the shiitake mushrooms. I brewed them up in a teakettle with a tea ball of roiboos.

Roast the bell peppers. On a gas stove this is easy. Use tongs to pop whole peppers onto burners over medium heat. Turn them often. A little charring is OK. When there is a little char on every side of the pepper, remove it and wrap it in aluminum foil. Set peppers aside in foil for ten minutes to steam.

When peppers have steamed, remove aluminum foil. Use a knife to scrape off most of the char. If the peppers steamed properly this is easy. Remove stems and seeds and slice peppers.

Sautee the onion and garlic, adding salt and pepper to taste. Add thin, round slices of squash and carrot. Add a generous shaking of garam masala. Strain the mushrooms and add them to the sautee pan. Add bell peppers. Add spinach and sautee until wilted. Add coconut milk and sautee an additional three minutes.

Assembly

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Pizza ovens should be hot! Don't be shy.

Liberally dust pizza pan with corn meal. This prevents the pizza from sticking.

Flatten out the pizza crust onto the pizza pan. Brush with olive oil, then roll out with a rolling pin right on the pan until the pan is well covered and use your fingers to finish the fit. Maybe you're nimbler with pizza crust than I, but I never have any luck transferring a rolled-out crust to a pan.

Pour topping over pizza and even out with your hands.

Bake for 20 minutes or until unmistakably golden-brown at the rim. If your topping is as thick as mine, you'll need the 20 minutes. If not your pizza will likely be ready a little sooner. Don't pull it out too soon or you'll have "mud in the middle."

Serve and enjoy!

Suggested Order of Battle

1. Proof the yeast.
2. Start brewing the shiitakes in the kettle.
3. Roast the peppers and wrap them in foil.
4. Chop the veggies.
5. Knead the dough.
6. Preheat the oven.
7. Scrape, clean and slice the peppers.
8. Sautee the veggies.
9. Roll out the dough.
10. Add topping.
11. Bake.
12. Devour.

Normally I wind up eating half a vegan pizza by myself; cheese is where both the calories and the fat that eventually tells your brain to stop are in a regular pizza. When you make a pizza without cheese, and especially without cheese or tomato sauce, don't be shy about using other delicious things like coconut milk! With this one I felt full after two slices and ate a third just for the hell of it.