Mozzarella

**Oveeja** · Dec 29th, 2010, 04:25 PM

I am planing on baking a pizza for my family New Year's dinner but I have a problem.
Where I live there are no cheese substitutes of any kind; so I searched for recipes to make my own mozzarella, but they ask for stuff that I cannot get here such as: agar powder, nutritional yeast, arrowroot, soja yoghurt, etc.
Basically no dairy, egg or butter substitutes are sold here, the only thing I can acquire here is tofu.
I am trying to impress my family with amazing vegan recipes because only I am vegan and my brother is vegetarian (he's halfway through the transition to becoming vegan).
What I came here to ask is for a recipe for mozzarella (if anybody knows one) that doesn't require these ingredients. Or a recipe for a delicious cheese-less pizza.
Please help.

**Est** · Dec 29th, 2010, 04:34 PM

I wouldn't try to fake a cheese substitute unless you're very confident you've got a good recipe and all the right ingredients. In your situation, I would either go cheese free or swap to a different recipe altogether. Some omnis are a bit funny about eating pizza without cheese so it might not make a good impression on them, no matter how delicious it tastes.

Pizza toppings that I think work well are: red onion, garlic, artichokes and sliced black olives (based on a Pizza Express restaurant pizza we have here called Campo de Fiori) or a mix of 'posh' mushrooms with some white onion.

You could also consider trying some of the recipes on this site: http://www.parsleysoup.co.uk/ (written by a member on here)

Good luck whatever you do, and I hope they are all very impressed with your delicious vegan cooking!

**harpy** · Dec 29th, 2010, 04:41 PM

Hello Oveeja. Italian pizzas don't always have cheese on so in the circumstances I would probably go for a cheeseless one. If you put garlic, herbs and so on in the tomato sauce and plenty of nice vegetables on top I doubt if anyone will miss the cheese. (ETA, sorry, was posting at the same time as Est - didn't mean to contradict!)

If you and your family like onions, there's pissaladiere, a French type of pizza with an onion topping. I haven't tried this recipe but it gives you the general idea http://thebloomingplatter.blogspot.c...saladiere.html I have made something similar with a pizza base rather than pastry.

**Est** · Dec 29th, 2010, 04:52 PM

Hee hee, it's ok harpy... I was coming at it from a UK perspective and you're right that cheese isn't used on pizza everywhere. It might be fine after all

**harpy** · Dec 29th, 2010, 04:56 PM

You're right, though, that it does depend somewhat on what people are expecting. If Oveeja's relatives are among those who think pizza isn't pizza without cheese, perhaps Oveeja could just make up a new name for it...a "veezza"?