Saturday, October 11, 2008

Vegan MoFo: Pizza Hut

Just the other day, Josh and I were discussing the finer qualities of Pizza Hut's crust--namely, the gooey inside and the oily, crispy outside. It's been a good 15 years since I've had one of their pizzas, but I still remember the goodness. Admittedly, this conversation started with me wondering how the Pizza Hut near us possibly stays in business, but this conversation also ultimately led to us helping the local Pizza Hut stay in business.

Facing a long, busy, work-focused weekend, neither of us really felt like cooking. And, since it's suddenly about 38 degrees outside, neither of us felt like riding our bikes either. So, we started brainstorming about delivery options. We came up with two possibilities: Pizza Hut or the generically named Colorado Wok. After glancing at the Colorado Wok menu and deciding that I'm not nearly brave enough tot give it a go, we decided to see if Pizza Hut's crust is as good as we remember. Since the last time I ordered pizza for delivery, they've developed a nifty online ordering system. At least it would be nifty it worked. It kept insisting that my name was already taken and, trust me, there is no way in hell that anyone else in the country has my full name. After screaming at the online system, I finally just called and ordered in a cool 3 minutes. We decided on sauce, red onion, green pepper, and pineapple, with no cheese. While we were waiting, I whipped up a variation of the Native Chi's from the Native Foods cookbook to put on top of the pizza when it finally got here.
Final Verdict: That cashew based cheese was delicious on Pizza Hut pizza. And the crust is good, though not quite as greasy and delicious as either of us remember it. I'm a little worried that this worked out so well. Ordering one large pizza with a tip was a pricey proposition (about $23) and it turned out so good that I can see us doing this more often than we should. Luckily, the shame I'll feel at putting out a recycling bin with a Pizza Hut box in it will probably deter me.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man, I've got to get that cookbook. And in other news, I don't know if this helps at all, but I don't think the pan pizza crust (which I'm only assuming you're talking about) is vegan.

thedalyn said...

Man, I think you're right. I just looked it up online and, though most of the info I found is several years old, it looks like the pan crust is not vegan. Shiiiiiiit. (I was trying to imitate Clive Davis there)

Matt Ramone said...

Is that cheese? I'm just confused.

thedalyn said...

Cashew cheese. Made at home. Rest easy.

Jen Treehugger said...

Cashew Cheese on Pizza is the best!
I laughed at your comment about the Pizza box being in the recycling!!
LOL!
What's in the crust to make it not vegan?

alaina said...

god i miss that stuff :(

Bianca said...

Well damn...now I just learned that the crust is not vegan! I've been eating the Pizza Hut Veggie Lovers with no cheese for years. And I just assumed. Damn, damn, damn. That's good stuff! And when I saw your post, I thought, hmm...I'll try that with some homemade cashew cheese. Guess not. Stupid Pizza Hut.

Bianca said...

Okay, so I just looked it up and apparently the thin crust is vegan...just not the pan. I wonder if they'd use thin crust on a personal size pizza if I asked. I'm going to investigate.

Ondine said...

I have a really good recipe for homemade pizza crust like Pizza Hut's deep dish. It's full of oil (2 Tbsp.) but you can use 1 Tbsp. without making it taste too dry. It's nearly perfect.

Use this crust recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Jays-Signature-Pizza-Crust/Detail.aspx

(and you can add spices to the crust mix itself if you like)

and follow these directions using the crust recipe above:

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/172/Pan-Pizza

Basically start where he pours the oil in the deep dish pans and lets them rise.