One of my favorite homemade vegan pizzas is this Green Pepper Olive Pizza. Vegan sausage optional, salty capers, fresh basil on top.
The homemade crust, using my pizza dough recipe is super easy to make and bakes up light and bubbly with crisp edges. I dust the bottom of the crust with some corn meal and the edges with vegan parmesan.
Vegan pizza is such a fun and easy eay to DIY a family meal! I hope you can give this recipe a try…
Pizza Crust
For the best Homemade Vegan Pizza, you should experiment with learning how to make your own crust. Making pizza dough is easier that we all think!
Sure, it takes a few hours of planning ahead of time – for the dough to rise – but the actual time of hands-on work is very small. Usually under 15 minutes. And if you have a stand mixer, even less!
I love to brush my pizza crust with a bit of EVOO before adding sauce and toppings. I also love a bit of corn meal on the bottom of the crust and some vegan Parmesan along the bubbly edges.
How thin or thick you roll out / toss out your dough is up to you. This recipe works for both thin or thick crust pizza.
Pizza flour?
I usually love using double zero ’00’ flour for my homemade vegan pizza, but this time I simply didn’t have any on hand so I used a basic all-purpose flour. And the results were perfect! I actually didn’t miss the double zero flour at all. Interesting! You can basically use whatever flour you have on hand. Bread flour. All purpose. And if you are savvy about gluten-free flours, you can give that a try.
Today, I modified this recipe in the NY Times for Roberta’s pizza dough. It calls for “00” flour, but I made some tweaks and only used AP flour.
My Favorite Pizza Toppings
I have a lot of fave pizza toppings. Give me the chance and I could easily add 5-10 veggies/toppings to a pie. But you don’t want to over-do toppings and weigh down your pizza. So choose wisely! Here are some of my faves….
- green bell pepper
- kalamata olives or black olives
- red onion
- vegan sausage
- sliced raw garlic
- capers
- spinach or kale
- red pepper flakes
- vegan Parm
- Mozzarella shreds (any vegan brand)
- vegan pesto
- vegan ricotta
- lemon slices! (Remove them before eating, but bake the pizza with them on..)
- pineapple (yup)
- mushrooms
- fresh tomato slices
- broccoli florets
- roasted potatoes
- artichoke hearts
- and more!!
You can see the ingredients I chose today on these pizzas and in the recipe below. But basically I love a few super salty ingredients (olives or capers…) and then some earthy veggies like the bell pepper or some leafy greens or mushrooms etc. And sometimes, a sweet accent like BBQ vegan chick’n or pineapple rings.
What About Vegan Cheese?
Well I did a pretty extensive ”vegan pizza cheese’ review a while back. I should probably update it because I had such success with this Violife Mozzarella that I used today. Have you tried Violife yet? I’m loving it! I also loved Miyoko’s Mozzarella, which you can slice into rounds or shred.
What About Sauce?
For homemade vegan pizza, you have three options for pizza sauce:
- DIY your own pizza sauce
- use a jarred ‘pizza sauce’
- use a jarred ‘marinara sauce’
The difference between pizza sauce and marinara sauce is usually two things: the consistency and the sugar. Pizza sauces are a bit thicker – less watery or oily and they contain a bit more sugar for some slight sweetness.
Personally, I actually love either making my own or using basic marinara sauce on my pizzas. For these pizzas I used a portobello mushroom marinara sauce by Whole Foods. It’s only around $2 and has great flavor!
Thick or Thin Crust Vegan Pizza?
This pizza dough works with any thickness you’d like! For my homemade vegan pizza, I personally like a thinner inner crust and then some bubbly thick edges. But whatever you prefer can be used! You can see I made two pizzas with this dough – one thinner and one thicker.
How Much Sauce on Vegan Pizza?
Again, add to your preferences! I like a little more, but not too much to make it ‘soggy.’
Homemade Vegan Pizza with Cheese and Veggies
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
- 1 tsp yeast
- 1 Tbsp olive oil, extra virgin
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 Tbsp vital wheat gluten, or sub more flour
- 1 cup water
Basic Pizza Toppings:
- 1/3 cup marinara sauce
- 2 tsp olive oil, extra virgin
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup vegan cheese , shreds, Violife Mozz used
- 1 tbsp vegan parmesan shreds, follow your heart used
Other Dough Ingredients:
- 3 tbsp corn meal
- additional flour for work surface
Veggies +More:
- 1/3 cup green bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp capers
- 1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted
- 1/2 vegan sausage, optional
Instructions
- A few hours ahead of time, start up your dough. Combine the water and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve. Let sit for five minutes.
- Add in the olive oil, salt, flour and optional vital wheat gluten. stir to combine using a large wooden spoon – or a stand mixer and dough hook. When dough is combined, transfer to a floured surface and knead for about 2-3 minutes. Place the dough back in the mixing bowl and cover with a clean dish towel. set in a warmish location in your kitchen.
- Allow the dough to rise for 1-2 hours.
- When dough has risen, turn out onto a lightly floured surface. If doing two pizzas, split dough into two sections. Roll the dough out to desired thickness. I use a combination or rolling, tossing and hand-stretching.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prep your pizza pan, stone or baking sheet with some light oil if needed for sticking.
- Shape dough into rounds with fluffy edges – crust. Sprinkle the corn meal on your work surface and drag the bottom of the crust through the corn meal to stick. If it's not sticking enough you can brush the dough with a bit of water or oil.
- Add the olive oil to the dough and brush over the center and edges. Add the sauce – spread to thin. Then add the cheese followed by all the toppings. finish with a sprinkle of Parmesan – I like to focus it on the fluffy crust edges.
- Bake pizza(s) at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes – or until the edges become browned and bubbly.
- Slice and serve!
Equipment
- pizza pan or baking sheet
- rolling pin (optional but helpful)
- large mixing bowl
nutrition estimate | per serving
