by One day my mom was telling me about a pepperoni substitute pizza topping that Rachel Ray made on one of her shows from zucchini. It sounded really good… so I googled it. I actually found 2 recipes- Rachel Ray’s recipe and another, and I tried making them a few times. The original recipes called for the zucchini to be soaked in olive oil, but I thought the oil was unnecessary & not worth the added calories. I ended up cutting out the oil, and also changing up some of the spice amounts a bit between the recipes to come up with a version that worked best for me.
One of the recipes also indicated to place the zucchini on a single layer on a tray or cookie sheet, and put it in the refrigerator to “cure” for a couple of hours. I didn’t want to try fitting a cookie sheet in my fridge, so I just left the zucchini in a bowl in the fridge for about 30 min to 1 hour, and it worked perfectly fine for me. I use a vegan mozzarella cheese for my pizza instead of regular mozzarella, and vegan cheese tends to be a little dry & not melt well on top of a pizza. I have found that leaving the zucchini in a bowl in the fridge for an hour releases some of the water from the zucchini, and the extra moisture makes the vegan mozz melt really well in the oven. A total game changer if you use vegan mozz.
I’ve never used regular mozzarella with this vegan pepperoni, so the added water might not work as well with that type of cheese… so if you are using regular mozz, you may want to try placing the spiced zucchini slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet because the zucchini would probably dry out more that way. But if you are using vegan cheese, just tossing the zucchini and spices in a bowl, and throwing the bowl in the fridge works great- I think the added moisture makes the cheese melt better.
Zucchini Vegan Pepperoni
Ingredients
- 1 zucchini
- ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Slice zucchini into very thin disks using a mandolin or sharp knife. Place the zucchini slices in a medium sized bowl.
- In small food processor (or with a mortar and pestle), lightly crush the fennel seeds
- Then add the remaining spices to your small food processor, and process until well combined. (or just mix all the spices together in a small bowl)
- Sprinkle the spices over the zucchini, and toss until the zucchini is well coated on each side.
- Cover the bowl, and place in the refrigerator for 30 min to an hour.
- When ready to make your pizza, remove the zucchini slices and arrange the slices on top of the pizza and bake.
