The Spicy Spatula

Happy Monday, my fellow vegans! I hope you’ve had a fantastic weekend, I know I did.

What I did do, no one at all asks? Well I make mucho progress on book 2 in my Emerald Creek book series. It’s shaping up to be a fun and sexy story that I can’t wait to finish!

While taking a quick break from the writing cave, I came upon the most recent episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (that’s the name, right?) and even though most of the dishes are so meat-centric that they cannot be recreated, occasionally there are vegan dishes and sometimes there are things that can actually be veganized. The stromboli on this episode was one that could be recreated.

And not just recreated and veganized, but for me this is a throwback episode from my college days. Back in Charleston when I attended good ol’ Eastern Illinois University, there was this restaurant called Jerry’s (which oddly enough there is also a pizza chain here in Romania called Jerry’s) and they made a delicious stromboli. It was filled with vegetables, sausage, chicken and some kind of ham, of course lots and lots (and lots) of cheese. I LOVED it and whenever we held Mock Trial meetings there, that’s what I would get.

So to see my old friend again was all the reminder I needed to recreate it with a vegan twist.

I must tell you right up front that this is not a calorie friendly recipe because pizza dough is just never going to be calorie friendly, unless of course you have a dehydrator and make a cauliflower pizza crust, but I digress. Aside from the calories, you’ll find this recipe easy to make, delicious and quite memorable.

Whether it’s pizza night, football (soccer or American) night, or just movie night and you want something pizza-esque but not, consider this vegan salami and sausage stromboli recipe!

What You’ll Need:

*Cutting board
*Silicon baking mat
*Skillet
*Oven mitts

Ingredients:

*Pizza dough
*Onion
*Green & red bell peppers
*Vegan salami
*Vegan cheese (I used Mr. Plantel emmentaler)
*Vegan sausage
*Crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions:

*Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F

*Chop onion and bell peppers into uniform pieces.

*Add to a skillet over medium-high heat, cooking until fragrant and slightly browned on the edges. Add water or broth if the veggies start to stick.

*Season with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, cumin & cayenne pepper.

*Remove from heat and let cool until you can touch it or, use tongs and assemble it right away.

*Sprinkle cornmeal, salt and herbs on the silicon mat. I used oregano, marjoram and thyme.

*Roll out pizza dough on the mat and assemble the ingredients down the middle. Start with the vegan salami and then add the veggies and the salami. Top off with the cheese and fold each side over so you have a long stromboli rather than wide.

*Brush with oil (optional) and sprinkle with garlic and crushed red pepper flakes.

*Bake 12 to 17 minutes in the oven until the stromboli is golden brown on the outside. Let cool and serve.

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