Grace Dickinson

The blog is undergoing a sweet potato takeover.

Here goes the third recipe in a row, although, this time it’s not breakfast-oriented but rather an awesome lunch or dinner option…That just so happens to be vegan and gluten-free.

High five to my favorite kind of tuber.

With warmer and warmer days quickly creeping in, there’s only a limited amount of time left where I can justify using sweet potatoes on as many occasions as possible.

Here, I tried to create a winter-meets-spring recipe, mixing hearty sweet potatoes with the summer-like vibes of pizza, arugula and tomatoes.

That’s as good of an excuse as any that I can give you to bake up some sweet potatoes in the middle of June.

This was my first time experimenting with making a sweet potato crust, and while I was a bit nervous with how it would turn out, I was pleasantly surprised by the results.

My main challenge was determining whether to mix the baked sweet potato with oats or chickpea flour to compose the dough. I make socca — a pizza-like flatbread created simply from chickpea flour and water — all of the time, so it seemed natural to go that route.

However, ultimately, I wanted the dough to be a bit chewier, like actual pizza, versus the more tender consistency of socca, so I decided to pulse some oats and create an oat flour of sorts instead.

The result? An incredibly delicious crust that was surprisingly easy to make.

The crust here is certainly chewier than socca, but I would say a bit softer than a traditional dough. That being said, you can both eat this pizza with a fork, like you might socca, or pick it up with your hands, like you would with pizza.

It’s not too hard to cut through, but it’s also durable enough to do a fold-over and devour as you would a large, triangular slice of ‘za.

I also went with a white sauce for the pizza, which I felt might pair better with the subtle sweetness of the crust and the bitter arugula with which I wanted to compliment it.

While the almond milk bechamel is another step in itself, it relies on just four ingredients, which are whisked to create the sauce in just a handful of minutes.

Lastly, let’s talk about the vegan chorizo. I love Trader Joe’s soy chorizo, and a little bit of it goes a long way. However, if that’s not accessible to you, you could easily pan-fry some thinly sliced vegan sausage, instead, or tempeh bacon, or other substitute of your choice. Anything with a hint of spice and smokiness would pair quite well with the crust.

And, of course, the crust could be finished with an entirely different topping combination of your own — feel free to get creative!

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