Rhonda's Basil Pesto Pizza

For many years, prior to going on The Hallelujah Diet, I was a pizza connoisseur! While pastoring in Glens Falls, New York, for the first half of the 1970's, after Sunday evening service, a large group of folks from our church would head for the best pizza restaurant in town for pizza and fellowship. I loved pizza! Then in 1976, after being diagnosed with cancer, I stopped eating it because I wanted to get well.

A few years ago I realized you could make pizza that tastes good without cheese or meat on a whole grain crust. But none of these cheese less or meatless pizza's dazzled my taste buds, though they did taste good and did satisfy my pizza cravings. Then a few months ago, Rhonda discovered a new way of making a pizza that produced a pizza that to me tasted better than any pizza I can remember ever eating – and to top it all off, it makes a healthy vegan dinner without any bad ingredients. The following recipe serves four:

THE CRUST

Although you can make this pizza on any crust, our favorite is a crust you can buy in most Health Food Stores and an increasing number of Super Markets. It is made and distributed by The Rustic Crust Company. Their website is www.rusticcrust.com .They have 5 different crusts, but some have cheese in them and are thus unacceptable. The one we like best is the TUSCAN SIX GRAIN crust. If you cannot locate it locally, you can order direct in 8-packs, for less than $5.00 per crust, through their website. This crust is also available at our Hallelujah Acres store in Shelby.

THE SAUCE

We also recommend the recipe for Rhonda's Basil Pesto, a simple vegan recipe that we use on this pizza instead of a tomato-based sauce. 

Ingredients

1 Rustic Crust All Natural Tuscan Six Grain Pizza Crust

1 Recipe of Rhonda's Basil Pesto

2 Plum Tomatoes (sliced fairly thin)

1 cup Broccoli (chopped fairly fine)

1/2 cup Sweet Red Onion (diced)

1/2 cup Red Pepper, or orange or yellow (diced)

6 Kalamata Olives (coarsely chopped)

Vegetarian Parmesan Cheese to taste (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 450. Place a light coating of extra virgin olive oil on crust and place on pizza pan or stone. Top with pesto sauce, followed by sprinkling of Vegetarian cheese, followed by prepared vegetables. Place in oven and immediately lower temperature to 425, and bake for 8-12 minutes. This makes a large pizza that we cut into 4-quarters to make an easy vegan weekly meal plan. We each eat a quarter that first night, and either freeze or refrigerate the remaining quarters for a future meal. ENJOY!