Vegan Mofo: BBQ Tempeh Pizza

The streets of Memphis are paved with barbecue sauce. Seriously. The people here live, eat, and breathe the 'cue. So it's no wonder that my cookbook will have lots and lots of vegan barbecue-based recipes. Thankfully, you can do a million and one things with barbecue sauce. Down here, we put 'cue-sauced protein on our sandwiches, nachos, salads, spaghetti, and even pizza!

A long time ago — back when I first started my cookbook project — I developed a BBQ Tempeh Pizza. But the early incarnations were more of a first draft. You can see old pics here and here. At first, I wasn't sure how to slice my tempeh for a pizza topping. But duh. I finally figured out that crumbled tempeh was the only way to go. Past versions weren't quite barbecue-y enough, but I've finally perfected my BBQ Tempeh Pizza:

The tempeh is sauteed in my homemade Memphis-Style Barbecue Sauce (heavy on the vinegar with a lovely hint of sweetness). It's crumbled atop a homemade nutritional yeast-based cheeze sauce and a bed of fresh baby spinach.

There's no red sauce though. The nooch sauce takes the place of a traditional marinara and, thus, erases the need for shredded vegan cheeze. Nothing against shredded vegan cheeze pizzas though. Daiya pizza totally rocks my world. But I feel like the nooch sauce is a better complement to the tangy crumbled tempeh.

Speaking of cheeze, don't forget to enter Rick's Nacho Mama Vegan Queso giveaway over at the Health Sleuth blog!