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NEXT MAIN MENU PREVIOUS Freaky Eyeball Pizza You ever feel like someone is watching you while you’re eating? Maybe you’re not paranoid after all. EEEEEEEEEEEEE! The elegantly named Freaky Eyeball Pizza is a really pretty simple combination of complementary flavors: vegan mozzarella, pizza sauce, pesto (seriously, this is a damn good pesto for people who are trying to limit oil, which is kind of silly to use on a pizza with cheese but still, you could use it again for other things) red peppers and olives. Feel free to use the items you’d like to create the classic gaping eyeball. Another idea is to make a Mexican-style pizza with guacamole for the iris and black beans for the pupil. The other thing that makes this a fun dish to make is if you are in the mood for something easy, most of these items are or could be purchased pre-made. I will let you know what I used but feel free to make your own choices here.    Freaky Eyeball Pizza Enough dough for one 16-inch pizza (I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free Multigrain Pizza Crust Mix, which I highly recommend as it makes a fantastic crust)* 1 ½ - 2 cups pizza sauce (I used Muir Glen) About 2 cups vegan mozzarella Pesto (recipe below) 1/3 – ½ cup chopped olives ½ red bell pepper, cut into thin slices Prepare and pre-bake your pizza crust according to package instructions. Spread pizza sauce across the crust using the back of a large spoon or a silicon spatula. Leave about 1 – 2 inches of space at the edge. In the middle, scoop your pesto. Cover part of that in a ring of mozzarella like the white part of the eye. On top of that, mound a little circle of chopped olives. My husband thought to put a little mozzarella in that, too, like the glinting in an eye. Place some red bell pepper slices across the surface like blood vessels. (This is how it looks pre-baked: the baked version is the one you see on the top of the page.) Bake the pizza according to your package instructions. Be reassured that no one is watching you. (Or are they?) Pesto recipe: 2 cups fresh basil 2 cups spinach ½ cup toasted walnuts (pine nuts are traditional but they are expensive and there are issues with using them) ¼ cup low-sodium vegetable broth 2 teaspoons mild white miso paste 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon organic lemon peel, grated Salt and pepper to taste Purée in a food processor until combined. (By the way, this will make more than you need for this recipe so enjoy in other uses as well.) * You could also use a ready-made crust.   © 2015, Vegan Street