EASY VEGAN CALZONES
This best vegan calzone recipe features stuffed pizza dough with portobello mushrooms, kale, broccoli, tomatoes and garlic-miso cream for an easy and delicious lunch or dinner!
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 15 min
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Makes 4 calzones 1x
- Category: Entree
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: Vegan, Italian
Ingredients
- 1 1b. pizza dough (I used Trader Joe’s), divided into 4 sections
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 onion, sliced or diced
- 2 – 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 3 large portobello mushrooms (about 6oz.), sliced
- 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets, cut somewhat small
- 4 – 6 large leaves of kale (curly or flat), stems removed and roughly chopped or left somewhat whole
- large handful cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- himalayan salt and pepper, to taste
- cornmeal for dusting the pizza wheel
Garlic Cream Sauce
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked (see notes)
- 1/2 cup water, plus a little more as needed
- 2 – 3 cloves garlic
- 2 teaspoons white miso
- juice of 1 lemon
- himalayan salt & pepper, to taste
Instructions
Prep dough: Remove pizza dough, slice into 4 equal pieces, sprinkle with a little flour, lay a towel overtop and let pizza dough come to room temp away from oven heat for 30 minutes.
Garlic-miso cream: Drain cashews and place all ingredients for the cream into a small blender cup and process until creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. If cream is too thick and extra water 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency, being careful not to thin it out too much making it runny, if in doubt leave it on the thick side. Taste for seasoning, set aside.
Saute veggies: In large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and cook until onions become soft. Add in mushrooms, broccoli, kale, thyme and salt & pepper to taste, cook for another 5 minutes or so. Turn off heat and cover ajar to help steam and soften the veggies a little more while working on the next step.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place pizza stone or cast iron pizza pan in the oven to heat up.
Make calzone: On a lightly floured surface or parchment paper, roll each portion out into an eight inch oval, rectangle, circle – whatever works easiest for you. Lay on some of the veggie mixture, add a few heaping tablespoons of the garlic miso cream and top with tomatoes. Fold the other half over and seal the edges by pressing with a fork. Make a few small slits in the top so steam is able to release. Top with a light coat of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, pepper and thyme.
Bake: Dust the heated pizza stone with cornmeal, place calzone on the pizza stone (or if using parchment paper, transfer to pan or stone) and bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until crust is puffy and golden brown. Let cool a few minutes before serving.
Serve with garlic miso sauce on the side.
Store: Calzones can be kept in a covered container in the refrigerator for up 4 days. Reheat in a toaster oven or microwave.
Notes
Substitute the kale and use spinach instead, about 5 – 6 ounces.
Soak cashews in 1 of 2 ways (this softens them and makes them easier to digest):
- Soak cashews covered with 2 – 3 inches of water for 2 – 3 hours, overnight is great too but not necessary for cashews.
- For a faster soak, add them to hot water and let soak for 5 – 10 minutes (this is my preferred method).
Recipe edited: I’ve edited the recipe and removed the part of roasting and using 1 whole bulb of garlic before pureeing for ease and quickness. Here is the old directions in case you’d like to use this garlic instead.
- Roasted garlic: Using 1 whole bulb of garlic, remove most of the outer layer of skin on the garlic leaving enough to hold them in place, lay sideways and cut the tops off. Place garlic cut side up on a piece of tinfoil, drizzle with olive oil and top with sea salt & cracked pepper. Fold ends of foil up and squeeze together and crimp the edge. Place on a cookie sheet and cook in a preheated oven set to 400 degrees for 40 – 45 minutes. Add along with the cashews when making the cream.
Recommended Equipment: For making the garlic-miso cream, I use and recommend a small personal blender like this NutriBullet because it works perfectly for small jobs like this. I used this cast iron pizza pan (affiliate links) to cook my calzones.