BBQ tofu pizza

I've been a vegetarian for half my life now, so there are many meat-based foods that I've never even tried. BBQ chicken pizza is one of those foods. But late last summer I had the urge to make BBQ tofu pizza, and it turned out great! I've been experimenting with different iterations of fried tofu, because I like the completely different texture that it takes on.

I started with a whole wheat pizza crust, similar to this one by my friend Brandi. Pizza crust doesn't take too long to make, and I've heard you can start it in the morning, stick it in the fridge, and then it's almost ready by dinner. I think I accidentally used twice as much dough as I should have for this crust, so it ended up pretty thick. Also, my secret to pizza crust is when the dough is still in a ball, plop it on a pile of cornmeal so that as it rolls out, it won't stick to the pan.

While the dough was still rising, I fried up some strips of tofu and then let it marinade in BBQ sauce. I wish I had gotten a more fancy sauce, but I just used the cheapest kind. I also sauteed up some red onions and broccoli, then drizzled on some balsamic vinegar for good measure. When the dough was ready and rolled out, I spread some olive oil and minced garlic on the crust, loaded it with shredded mozzarella cheese, and then laid out all the toppings. I baked it at 400 degrees until the cheese and crust began to brown, but I wish I had broiled it a bit to get the cheese really done.

Altogether, this makes a great stand-alone meal. Clean up was a bit harsh because I used two bowls for the dough plus the large pizza pan, but I did use the same pan to fry the tofu and veggies. But who can argue with homemade pizza?

[UPDATE] This is what happens after broiling on low for just a few minutes. I'm definitely doing this from now on! I made the same recipe, only this time used the right amount of crust, I spread some BBQ sauce onto the crust first, I used Jack cheese instead of mozz., and I used raw onions instead of cooked. I liked the texture of the onions better this way, and caramelized onions would have been a bit too sweet altogether.