Fauxsage Pizza

I wanted to accomplish a few things with tonight's dinner:
1) Use up some stuff in the fridge.
2) Use a recipe from my new cookbook (500 Vegan Reicpes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman).
3) Make something that will get eaten in its entirety tonight - no leftovers.
4) Experiment with trying to recreate Pizza Hut Pan Pizza.

And I accomplished all four with Fauxsage Pizza. I used the recipe from 5VR for Cast-Iron Deep Dish Pizza Dough and Bread Bowls for the crust, which I cooked in my cast-iron pan (a la the pan pizza). I used the Basic Seitan Crumbles recipe from 5VR as a template and combined it with a vague replica of the spice combination for Tempeh Sausage Crumbles in Vegan with a Vengeance to make seitan sausage crumbles, which used up the rest of my ketchup (catsup?). I topped it with Cheezly mozzarella left over from the lasagna I made earlier in the week. And it was small enough (and delicious enough) for us to eat the whole thing in one go.

So, I know that baking in the cast-iron is part of the way to getting Pizza Hut Pan Pizza crust, because they used to serve the personal pan pizzas still in the little cast iron pans. But it didn't quite work out. I think part of it might be to bake the crust a bit on its own, and also oil the hell out of the pan before putting the crust in. Because that shit is greasy. And I think I might need to go with a higher oven temp, because it definitely didn't get as crusty as the Pizza Hut stuff.

Also, I'll attempt to recreate the fauxsage crumbles below. I need to tweak the recipe a bit - I didn't use enough fennel, and I used too much ketchup (catsup?) (following the guidelines in the recipe). It was good, but not perfect.

Seitan Fauxsage Crumbles

1/2 c vital wheat gluten
1/4 c nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground fennel seed
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp water

Place dry ingredients in a bowl and stir to thoroughly combine. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. When all of the dry bits are incorporated, break into crumbles with your hands. Fry for about 8-10 minutes in a large skillet or saucepan.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the deliciousness. We were hungry. And, you know, it just looked like pizza. But it was kickass good vegan pizza. And Mike is finally getting over his aversion to cooked fake cheese. Yay!