White pizza with spinach & bacon

I haven't explored pizza dough recipes at all since our household became gluten free. I haven't had to-- Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust mix is awesome! Each bag makes two big pizzas that mostly fill an 18" x 13" jelly roll pan or cookie sheet if you like your crust thin, as I do.

I've made a lot of pizzas recently, and while the classic-- tomato sauce, tempeh bacon, spinach and bell pepper-- is delicious, themed pizzas let my creativity shine. Thai (peanut sauce, faux chicken, spinach and bean sprouts), Mexican (tomato sauce with cumin, coriander, chili powder and oregano, Soyrizo, spinach and roasted corn) and Indian (tomato sauce blended with Tasty Bites channa masala, spinach and thin slices of potato) have been favorites, but then we needed a new idea.

Enter the leftover cashew ricotta I had made for a fancy dinner. To be used as the base sauce! With that one change, our classic pizza became a luscious meal.

White pizza with spinach & bacon

vegan, gluten-free

Ingredients

• 1 batch of vegan, gluten-free pizza dough
  (One bag of Bob'sRed Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix makes two)
• 1/2 batch of cashew ricotta
  Veganomicon has a great recipe.
• 1 cup spinach
• 1 batch of tempeh bacon
  The recipe in Vegan Brunch is my go-to, but here's another. Make sure to use wheat-free tamari instead of soy sauce, which nearly always has wheat. Tamari is also a lot saltier, so cut back by about 1/3 the amount and replace with water if needed for volume.
• 1/2 cup grated Follow Your Heart Monterrey Jack or Daiya
• red pepper flakes and/or fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bob's Red Mill dough instructions call for 425, but my super-thin crust gets too dark at that temperature. If you like yours thicker, try 425.
• Prepare pizza dough according to package directions. Usually for GF doughs, this involves pre-baking the crust so that it stays crisp under the toppings. Also make sure your ricotta and tempeh are ready, although you don't have to cook the tempeh separately.
• Spread crust with a thin layer of ricotta. This stuff is rich, so a little goes a long way! Top with a layer of spinach, then temeph bacon. Scatter with cheese if desired, but go easy-- the ricotta is plenty cheesy.
• Bake for 10 minutes, check the crust's color, turn, and bake another 10 minutes-- less if the crust is already getting brown after the first 10.
• Sprinkle with pepper and enjoy!