The following "recipe" is an idea that came to fruition in less than two weeks, nothing short of miraculous for me. I generally opt for la-la land, an imaginary place where my creations are wholly unique, often produced, and loved by all. They just never enter the realm of reality.
Speaking of which, reality sort of sucks. I work long hours, sometimes 12 hour days, and find myself uninspired to cook and mainly just ready for bed. I need to create a cooking schedule for myself so I know to make time ahead of time. I need a stunt double, only one who limits themselves on the stunts and excels in the kitchen. I mean we have limited space you know.
Comfort food without the guilt, on a pizza
I'm not a super health nut. I eat my fair share of fat and sugar. I don't feel guilty about this.
This recipe was conceived of before I became vegan, in the final year where I was slowly realising cheese shouldn't play such a primary role in my meals. I was keeping my animal fats to a minimum. Cancer, diabetes, and heart disease run in my family so while I still consumed dairy, I was still careful.
The idea of a full-fat cheese pizza even then made my stomach feel week, making pizza a once-in-a-blue-moon treat because I knew it would only leave me feeling weighed down for the rest of the day. But then I started thinking "ah, but why should a pizza be tomatoes and cheese?!" And this sos and mash pizza was born out of these thoughts.
A great way to deal with leftovers
I don't know about you, but root vegetables always seem to accumulate in my pile of stuff to use up. They sit around in quantities not quite large enough to feed two people, so they continue to sit around a little longer. Then there's the packages of things, like veggie sausages, that come in three or five (yes, I cheated and got these at the store. Usually I like to make my own), so there's always one or two left over.
Never mind. This vegan sos and mash "pizza" is a great way to use up any leftover root veg. Boil 'em and mash 'em and there's your base for a unique pizza.
The components of a sos and mash pizza
There's no need for a recipe for this. If you need a recipe, find your favourite pizza recipe and use it as a guide! There are 3 basic components to this pizza:
- Pizza base, bought or home-made
- A thick gravy (think the consistency of a tomato sauce for pizza)
- Mashed potato (give it some flavour by mashing it with some soy milk plus garlic, chives, butter, and/or other favourite mash ingredients...)
- Veg sausages, sliced and lightly fried
I'm confident you can work out how to put it together, but just for reference the stack goes base + gravy + mash + sausage. Bake following the directions for your pizza base.
I know this isn't particularly exciting, but it's a fun and unique take on the traditional British sausage and mash dinner. It's fun to eat, filling, and very tasty. I definitely plan to make this again, but next time I might add a little sweet potato to the mix!