How to Make Pizza Dough for Plant-based Pizza
Who here loves pizza night?
We usually have pizza night on Fridays about one or twice a month. It is generally followed by a good movie or by playing Just Dance on Playstation and have a bit of a laugh.
When I went plant-based, I wasn’t sure how to make pizza to fit my new way of eating. The vegan cheese available in supermarkets doesn’t melt very well and it can taste very superficial. This is the reason why I prefer to make my own pizza instead of ordering it. There are two places in Dublin that make the best vegan or plant-based pizza in my opinion: Paulie’s Pizza and The Lab. They both use vegan mozzarella and it tastes very good.
I’m still exploring the realms of plant-based cheese and I recently bought the latest book from The Happy Pear to explore more recipes. Making plant-based mozzarella is on my list for sure.
Plant-based pizza with peppers, mushrooms, olives, red onion, fresh basil
I’m a strong believer that the secrets to a fantastic plant-based pizza is the dough, 3-4 star toppings and little to no plant-based cheese. You can find below some of my favourite toppings combinations. Feel free to try your own.
My favourite pizza dough recipe is below. Let me know if you try it and what do you think!
Plant-based pizza with mushrooms, peppers, mashed chickpeas and shredded vegan cheese
Plant-based pizza with beetroot, red peppers, red onion, toasted pumpkin seeds and shredded vegan cheese
Plant-based Pizza
Yields 2 x 20cm pizza or a bigger 30-40cm pizza
Ingredients
350gr flour (2 1/2 cups)
a pinch of salt
3 teaspoons active dry yeast
aprox. 1 cup warm water
1/4 teaspoons of olive oil
150ml tomato pasatta or 4-6 tablespoons of pesto
1 teaspoon oregano
3-4 toppings of choice (peppers, mushroom, red onion, capers, olives, chickpeas, white/black beans, courgette, roasted peppers, aubergine, falafel or pineapple)
optional: fresh basil, crushed black pepper, plant-based/vegan cheese such as Violife or try a homemade one.
Instructions
Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Create a little gap in the flour and salt mixture.
Mix the dry yeast with a bit of warm water to activate it. Pour the mixture into the gap in the flour and salt one.
Use a wood spatula to mix the flour, salt and yeast mix.
Start adding the warm water bit by bit and incorporate it into the flour mixture. The dough will be quite wet and sticky. Resist adding more flour.
Cover the bowl with a kitchen table and let it rise for about 45-90min (depending on how warm and humid the room is; I live in Dublin where the humidity is high, so I usually let my dough rise for almost 90min).
After the dough rose, heat the oven to 180C (fan)/200C (simple).
(if using) Make the tomato sauce by mixing the pasatta with the oregano and a pinch of salt & pepper. Prepare your toppings so you have them handy when arranging your pizza.
Take 1-2 trays (depending on the size suggested above) and coat them with baking paper.
Put the olive oil on top of the risen dough and take it from the bowl. If you are preparing 2 pizzas, split the dough in two.
Add the dough to the tray and with the help of your hands stretch the dough to fit the tray.
Add the tomato sauce on top of the dough and keep adding the toppings, including the vegan cheese (if using). Make sure you don’t add too many toppings to your pizza as the dough might not cook through.
Place the pizza in the oven and cook it for 15-20min.
When the pizza is dones, sprinkle fresh basil or crushed black pepper on top.