Vegan Quinoa Pizza Bites With TVP Italian Sausage

Quinoa is always a great way to get your protein in and there are tons of recipes out there for these bites but I have yet to find one with tvp italian sausage and vegan. Before you begin though, you will need 1 cup cooked quinoa for this recipe. 

The binder was really tricky for this one though. I tried flax and chia egg. Neither worked. The pizza bites fell apart. Then came along #FollowYourHear #VeganEgg. It worked perfectly for this recipe and the little bites didn't fall apart.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Let's make the tvp first. 
Bring to a boil 1/2 cup water
2 tbsp of tamari or soy sauce
1/2 tsp fennel
1/2 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground thyme 

Once it comes to a boil, remove from the heat and add 1/2 cup tvp. Mix it up. Don't worry about the liquid you might see. The tvp will absorb it. Once everything is all mixed up, add 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar.  Set aside. 

Now for the pizza part. 
In a large bowl add:
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 Follow Your Heart VeganEgg 

Combine the quinoa and veganegg really well then add:
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/4 cup finely diced bell pepper
1/2 cup finely diced mushroom
1 clove or 1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil
1/2 cup of the tvp italian sausage
Mix it really well again.

Lightly oil two mini muffin pans with an oil of your choice. I used extra virgin olive oil. Then fill the wells of the muffin pan almost all of the way being sure to pack down the quinoa pizza batter.

After I filled one pan, I added about 1/3 cup of mozzarella to the remaining batter and fill the second pan. Bake for about 15-20 minutes depending on your oven.

Once they are out of the oven and cooled for about five minutes, run a butter knife around the edges of each little pizza bite. This will help with removing them.

Add a little dollop of pizza sauce to the top and enjoy.