Calzones!

So this was my first encounter with meatless ground, aka textured vegetable protein (TVP), aka fake ground beef. It was pretty tasty. And it really does have a texture just like meat, it's just virtually greaseless, so you have to add your own oil. For these calzones (there were 3), I made the same basic pizza dough, but with only 1 cup whole wheat flour and 2 cups unbleached AP flour. And I made it in the food processor to minimize the amount of flour I usually get on everything in my kitchen. I sauteed garlic and onion, added the TVP and browned it with some red pepper flakes and black pepper. The kale was sauteed separately in some olive oil and garlic. I meant to throw some mushrooms in there, but I forgot, so the second two calzones, I topped with sauteed mushrooms. Shrug. I put a piece of vegan cheeze on the bottom of each calzone before topping with kale and "meat."

This was actually quite tasty. The dough was much better and I always like dipping. The kale mixed well with the spicy TVP and the cheeze added just a bit of creaminess. However, next time I don't think the cheeze was really necessary. For me, vegan cheeze has not had much success. It just doesn't taste the same, and I'm really starting to just not miss cheese. I am still intending to try a few vegan tweaks of classics like mac and cheese. But for the most part, I think I'm slowly getting over my addiction to cheese. I also want to try a calzone that doesn't rely on a "fake" product. Maybe just lots of vegetables, like kale, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and maybe some chickpeas or hummus for protein. It's a thought. I've got so many recipes I want to try now....