Vegan Pizza with Coconut Milk “Mozzarella”

For this challenge I wanted to think outside the box. Or maybe I ended up thinking inside my personal pizza-obsessed box. I said to myself, “What about a coconut vegan cheese”? I played around with many different recipes and finally came up with one that I liked, flavor-wise and texture-wise post melt. I do have to say that making coconut milk from Tropical Traditions dried coconut was far superior to the canned milk. Yup, I did taste tests and experimented on the family without their knowledge. It’s the only way to get real opinions from them. So please forgive me, family. “Very buttery” was the comment that came after the final testing. The "cheese" melts kind of oozey, but there isn’t a stretchy stringiness to it, which I’m working on thanks to a NYC guy who is also pizza-obsessed and looking into pizza cheese for the vegan and lactose intolerant folks.

So, this was a grilled pizza. It was in the 90's in CNY, and while we do have central air, I do try not to heat up the house in the summer. Besides, it’s fun to make pizza on the grill for a change of pace.

Vegan Pizza with Coconut Milk “Mozzarella”
by Diana

The “Mootz”:
15 ounces homemade coconut milk made from Organic Dried Coconut
2 teaspoons agar agar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons tapioca flour
1 1/2 teaspoons nutritional yeast

Whisk the coconut milk together over low heat until the fat and water are combined. Add remaining ingredients, except for the nutritional yeast. Heat over medium, stirring constantly and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and stir for 8-10 minutes. Off heat, stir in the nutritional yeast. Pour into shallow, flat dish and cool. Place in fridge once cooled a bit. It will gel up. Blob onto your dough or any other melty mozzarella dish and it will become somewhat gooey. Not stringy, but oozey at least. I get the tapioca flour, agar agar and nutritional yeast in the organic section at Wegmans.

The Pizza:
One 12 ounce round of pizza dough
Olive oil
Your favorite toppings—in this case I kept it simple and just went with grape tomatoes and basil.

Preheat your grill and oil the grate.

Stretch your dough into a semi-flat shape, brush it with oil and throw it on the grill. Flip it after a minute or so and then flip again. The dough should rise a bit and begin to get some golden spots. Flip one more time and top with the coconut mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, and turn off the heat. Just let it sit for a minute to let the cheese melt. Enjoy!

Tropical Traditions is America's source for coconut oil.  Be sure to check out their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil.