Potato Pizzas I Have Loved. . .

Potato Pizza Sauce(s) and Veggie Toppings

First, follow Susan’s instructions for baking your potatoes. If you want to avoid oil altogether as I do, then use a silicone baking mat or baking parchment to line your cookie sheet. If you don’t have or don’t like russet potatoes, never fear. Yukon golds, and even sweet potatoes work great. No need to adjust the temperature or cooking time. It works like a charm.

Here is my version of Tomato Sauce. Similar to Susan’s, but a bit lazier.

about two tablespoons of tomato paste.
1 1/2 tbs of dried mushrooms, any kind you like,  crumbled, and softened in boiling water
about 3 tbs of carrot, diced very small
good shake of garlic granules or a garlic clove grated on a microplane
tbs or two of chopped oregano, or a teaspoon of dried , or more to taste
1/4 tsp of fennel seeds
1 tbs of port wine or raspberry vinegar, or even white wine vinegar
optional add ins: 1/4 tsp or dash of curry powder, about a tbs of grated shallot or other herbs like fresh rosemary, which is very nice with the carrot and tomato, as is the oregano).
1 15 oz can of no salt added crushed tomatoes (fire roasted is nice).

Heat a couple of tablespoons of the mushroom soaking water in a sauce pan. When bubbling add the tomato paste and stir until it starts to cook and heat, adding adding more broth a little at a time if necessary. Add the rehydrated mushroom pieces, carrots, the oregano, garlic granules, fennel, and cook all until the flavors are melded into the tomato sauce. (I just do that by smell and look really). Add small amounts of the remaining mushroom water as necessary during the process. Add the crushed tomatoes (if you can’t find crushed tomatoes, you can “crush” chopped tomatoes in the food processor). Once that’s all combined with the tomato paste mixture, add the wine or vinegar (and a little curry powder if you wish). Simmer for about 20 minutes until all the flavors are blended.  If you like your sauce garlicky, you can always grate in more garlic in the last couple of minutes of simmering. Or add more curry powder. Or a bit more wine. Taste. See.

Corn Sauce

The Esselstyns’ taught me to love corn and potatoes together in the recipes in Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Though they didn’t use it this way, the following sauce is virtually a direct “steal” from their Sweet Corn Sauce recipe. It just uses frozen corn, makes less, doesn’t cook as long, and adds an optional dash of something different.

about 5 oz of frozen corn
half a small sweet onion or shallot
1/4 cup of veggie broth or leftover corn pasta cooking water
dash of lime juice or poultry seasoning

Blend first three ingredients  in the food processor or blender until you have a lumpy sauce. Heat it up in a 10 inch skillet. Taste. Add a dash of lime juice if you’ve got it. It heightens the corn flavor a notch. Or sprinkle in some poultry seasoning, which gives it a little spike.

The corn sauce is especially yummy on sweet potato pizza. It can also be used sort of like cheese sauce along with the tomato sauce or even a small amount of ketchup.

Veggie Toppings

Use any veggies you like. For these I chopped up zucchini, mushroom, red pepper and green onion or shallot. I tossed them in raspberry vinegar (though balsamic vinegar is also wonderful) and sprinkled with a good shake of garlic granules. Sometimes I chop up a small amount of arugula or even dandelion greens and add them to the veggie mix. Fresh or dried herbs of your choice are a great addition. I used oregano on these. If I’m using the tomato sauce, I sometimes add thawed out frozen corn kernels.Tossing the veggies in a little vinegar and garlic granules brings out their flavor and helps them not to dry out too much in the oven. You can also top everything with a little nutritional yeast, or almond parmesan.

And, if you’re feeling extra “cheezy,” try a version smothered with Susan’s velvety versatile Cheesy Cauliflower Sauce:

To go with the Cheesy Cauliflower Sauce, I poured boiling water on thinly chopped pieces of cauliflower and kale ribbons and let them sit for 5-10 minutes so they’d begin cooking a bit before going in the oven. Then I drained them and tossed them with chopped red pepper, fresh bronze fennel, winter savory, and rosemary leaves in a bit of lemon juice and garlic granules. I also added some freshly grated garlic on the top.

One more option: if you’d like a Mexican spin on your potato or sweet potato pizza without a tomato sauce base, remember to give my In Between Black Beans at try. That’s the first thing I ever used them for, and the way I fell in love with them. Unfortunately, I ate them up before I thought to document my Mexican potato pizza affair, but here is a shot of the beans: