Whole Wheat Pizza with Lemon Ginger Tofu, Port Soaked Fig and Roasted Pear topped with Spinach

Pizza is one of those foods I make when I don’t know what to make. Pizza is something that I have made some many times I don’t even have to look up the pizza dough recipe.

I like to make different variations of pizza so that we aren’t eating the same variety time after time. I had some pears in the refrigerator that I wanted to use tonight. Since pears work with figs I decided to make a vegan version of a pizza my chef friend Ian makes that my husband and I always loved. He uses port soaked figs, Gorgonzola, prosciutto and arugula. Since the Gorgonzola and prosciutto are out I needed to add flavor in other ways. The roasted pears added a nice sweetness, walnuts provided crunch and the spinach dressed with lemon added acidity and a lacy texture. Since I didn’t want to tofu to taste like tofu I added powdered ginger and lemon zest. The overall flavor combination worked well together. Here is what I made.

Whole Wheat Pizza with Lemon Ginger Tofu, Port Soaked Fig and Roasted Pear topped with Spinach
Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 recipe whole-wheat pizza dough

4 pears, cored and sliced into ¼ thick pieces, top to bottom

½ cup port
10 Turkish figs, stems removed and sliced ¼ inch thick

14 ounces extra firm tofu, drained
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¾ teaspoon ginger, powdered
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 lemon zested

4 cups baby spinach, julienned
1 lemon, juiced

4 tablespoons walnuts, roughly chopped

Directions:

Prepared the pizza dough per the instructions found here. You can prebake the crust or not, depending on your schedule. Depending on my schedule sometimes I prebake, and sometimes I don’t. My instructions below assume your pizza crust has been prebaked per the instructions in the crust recipe.

While the pizza dough is rising preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roast the pears into they are both slightly browned and softened and set aside. In my oven this took 10 minutes. When the pears are finished increase the oven temperature to 500 degrees.

In a small pan place the port and figs in a single layer. When the port begins to simmer turn off the heat and put a lid on the pan so the figs will absorb the flavor. I allowed mine to stand for an hour but 15 minutes is all that is necessary.

Place the tofu, salt, ginger, black pepper and lemon zest in the food processor and process until everything is combined. If doing this ahead of time refrigerate the tofu until needed

Clean the baby spinach and julienne. Add the lemon juice and toss just before serving.

Spread ¼ of the tofu on each prebaked pizza crust. Top with the roasted pear slices and port soaked figs. Bake to warm everything through and finish baking the crust. This took 5 minutes for me at 500 degrees convection on a baking stone. The exact cooking time will vary depending on your oven and whether you use a baking stone or not.

Remove the pizza and top with the baby spinach that has been dressed with spinach (excess lemon juice shaken off), and chopped walnuts.

Serve hot.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 519.84
Calories From Fat (18%) - 94.44

Total Fat - 12.95g
Saturated Fat - 0.86g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 260.77mg
Potassium - 479.88mg
Total Carbohydrates - 97.6g
Fiber - 12.85g
Sugar - 17.08g
Protein - 16.86g

The numbers above assume I used half whole wheat and half sprouted whole wheat flour in the pizza dough. Additionally I reduced the fat in the dough from 2 tablespoons to 1 tablespoon and it didn't compromise the texture.

Comments:

My husband thought this one of my better pizza variations. He even said it would stand up to any restaurant pizza, vegan or not. Additionally my omnivore parents enjoyed the pizza and remarked that it was a nice combination of flavors that didn’t taste healthy (this was their way of complimenting the pizza).

Pizza is definitely an indulgent meal for us. However, my omni parents like it and it is much healthier than anything they normally eat so I like to make it periodically when they are having dinner with us.

Each serving of this pizza contains more than 1,400IU of vitamin A, 140mg of calcium, 190mcg of folate, 80mcg of vitamin K, 180mg of phosphorus, 70mg of magnesium, and 19mcg of selenium. Not a nutritional powerhouse but better than the standard American diet.

Unrelated note:

Today was a lazy day at our house. We didn’t go to the farmers market this morning and spent much of the day lounging at home. I am a big believer in listening to your body and resting when your body tells you it needs it. The body repairs itself when we rest. I think it makes sense to allow yourself to sleep until you wake up naturally when you can. Sunday was that day for us. We both woke up feeling much more rested and relaxed.

Tomorrow it is back to the daily grind for both of us. I will be starting a new exercise routine to see how adding more weight training impacts my shape. Recently I have been focusing mostly on yoga but want to get back to weight training. I spent much of today documenting the routine I am going to do for the next thirty days. I am definitely one of those people that work better from a list. Just to be certain I know how the routine is working I will be taking measurements before and after 30 days to check my progress. Do any of you have any workout tips or trick you would like to share? I would love to know what you do to stay in shape.

For now I am off to make nut butter for tomorrow. If I have time I may get my soymilk recipe posted this evening. However, if I run out of time I will post it in the morning. I hope you all have a great evening.