Flatbread Fall Pizza with Walnut “Cheese” Sauce

This is a great recipe to celebrate the flavors of fall; it’s also fairly quick to make and you can switch up the veggies you use to customize it.

I used a pre-made flatbread for the pizza crust, but you can use any crust that you prefer, or even put it on a pita. Instead of a traditional red pizza sauce, I opted for my walnut sauce, but I added a handful of sage to it so that the taste really came through once it was all blended together. The sage also made the sauce a cool shade of muted green which looked so great with all the bright colored veggies on top.  Pears added a touch of sweetness to the pizza as well and by using shallots instead of onions, the onion flavor was not as aggressive as it can be when using red or even sweet onions.

I like Follow your heart parm for the walnut sauce, but you can easily swap out nutritional yeast instead if you prefer to use a less “processed” cheese for flavor.

Lastly, if you really want to cut down on the cooking time, you can “peel” the veggies into thin slabs or slices instead of dicing them.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup walnuts (unsalted) and soaked in hot water for 1/2 hour to soften (drain before using)
• 8 large sage leaves
• 3 cloves garlic (roasted is preferred, but raw is okay to use.  If you are using raw, cut the garlic down to 1-2 cloves)
• 1/4 cup parm (I use Follow Your Heart)
• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 1/2 cup diced squash (I recommend delicata or butternut squash)
• 1/2 cup yellow peppers, diced
• 1/2 cup diced pears
• 1/3 cup shallots
• flatbread of choice
• vegan mozzarella for top if desired

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. In a blender, combine walnuts, sage, parm, garlic and apple cider.  Puree till smooth and creamy.  Add the apple cider last and do it a little at a time until you reach the desired consistency to spread on the pizza.
3. Put the flatbread on a baking sheet and spread the walnut mixture on top.  “Sprinkle” the veggies and pears on top then add the mozzarella if using.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the veggies are tender (but not mushy).

Recipe is enough for 2 pizzas

Enjoy!