Vegan portobello mushroom and kale calzone with garlic miso cream (from The Simple Veganista)

Since changing to a vegan diet two years ago, I had bookmarked about 30 different vegan food sites which I would frequently check for new recipes. Unfortunately, I accidentally went and deleted all of my bookmarks the other month, so I've lost them all. 

But not to worry, I'll just start over :)

Which leads me to my point. I have fallen in love with a new vegan food website called The Simple Veganista. Check it out please! There are so many delicious recipes, and the food photographs are so good that I could eat my laptop screen. No joke guys. 

I have had my eye on a recipe for Portobello and Kale Calzones with Garlic Miso Cream, and I finally had some time today to cook this baby up. 

It is such a good recipe! I was a bit lazy so I used a box pizza dough mix rather than making a wholemeal pizza dough, but it still tasted delicious and I still felt healthy chowing down on my calzone. 

The garlic miso cream was gooood! It was just the perfect flavour combination to accompany the veggies in the calzone. Absolutely delicious! Make this up, and whoever you serve it to will be totally and utterly impressed with you. 

Happy cooking!

Vegan Portobellow & Kale Calzone with Garlic Miso Cream
From The Simple Veganista

Makes 4

Ingredients

• 1 500g flour and 4g yeast packet from the Laucke Pizza & Focaccia Speacialty Mix, divided into 4
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 -3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 2 portabello mushrooms, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets, cut somewhat small
• four large leaves of kale, stems removed and roughly chopped or left somewhat whole (I used curly kale) or a bundle of spinach
• large handful cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half (I used small roma tomatoes)
• olive oil, to brush on top of calzone
• himalayan salt and cracked pepper to taste
• cornmeal for dusting the baking tray

Garlic Cream Sauce

• 1 cup cashews, soaked for at least two hours or over night
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup water, if you soaked the cashew for two hours use 1 cup, if soaked overnight use 1/2 cup water
• 1 head garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons white miso
• juice of 1 lemon
• himalayan salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200C).

First, roast the garlic for the garlic cream sauce. 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 cookie sheet and cook for 40-45 minutes. Let cool.

Once garlic is done, turn the oven up to 475-500 degrees F (250-260 C). Place pizza stone or baking tray inside the oven for about 45 minutes before cooking.

While garlic is roasting, make up the pizza dough according to the packet recipe. Cut dough into four equal portions, roll each portion into a ball, cover with light towel and let set for another 30 minutes away from oven heat to let the gluten relax....if the gluten isn't relaxed you may have a hard time rolling out your dough properly. (I let mine sit for 45 minutes after kneading it. After this time, it had tripled in size. I then cut the dough into 4 and let each ball rest for another 45 minutes. Lots of waiting, but trust me, your dough will come out better this way).

Next onto the garlic cream sauce. Drain cashews and place all ingredients into food processor/blender and process until creamy, about 4 to 5 minutes. 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.

Slice your grape/cherry/baby roma tomatoes in half, place in small bowl and set aside.

In large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onion, garlic and cook until onions become soft. Add in mushrooms, broccoli, kale/spinach, 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. 

On a lightly floured surface, 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 some of the kale and tomatoes (or layer however you like, this is just a suggestion, my emphasize is to keep the cream in the middle of the calzone as much as possible). Fold the other half over and seal the edges by rolling them up and sealing or by pressing with a fork, or both. Top with a light coat of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, pepper and thyme.

Enjooooyyy!!