Just because you are vegan, it does not mean that you have to miss out on pizza!
Thanks to the rise in popularity of veganism in recent years, there are lots of vegan cheese alternatives available, which means that you can now buy and also make your own vegan pizzas.
Pizza is a classic Saturday night takeaway food. If you are struggling to find a vegan takeaway that is up to scratch, or you are looking for a slightly healthier vegan alternative, then why not make your own at home?
This DIY vegan takeaway pizza recipe is just as good as any takeaway!
Not only will you end up with some yummy vegan pizzas to eat but they are also really fun to make. So get the whole family involved, pick your toppings and you could even make it a competition and award prizes for the best pizza.
Vegan pizza fakeaway recipe
This vegan pizza recipe takes around 15 minutes of preparation time, 15 minutes of cooking and an hour for the pizza dough to rise.
These quantities will make two large or four small pizzas and will serve four people. You can always scale these quantities up or down if you need to.
Ingredients
To make the vegan pizza dough, you will need:
- 500g strong white bread flour
- 1 teaspoon dried yeast
- 1 teaspoon caster sugar
- 1 and a half tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
To make the tomato sauce, you will need:
- 100ml passata
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
- 1 crushed garlic clove
Method
- To make the pizza dough, you will first need to add the flour, yeast and sugar to a bowl
- Mix together 150ml of cold water and 150ml of hot water together. This will give you the ideal temperature for the yeast
- Add the oil and salt to the water
- Pour the water over the flour and stir well with a spoon
- Knead the mixture together until it forms a soft, slightly sticky dough. If it is too dry, add a splash of cold water
- Dust some flour onto the worktop and knead the dough here for 10 minutes
- Return the dough to the mixing bowl, covering it with cling film, which has been greased with a few drops of olive oil
- Leave the dough in a warm place to rise for an hour or until it has doubled in size
- Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius or gas mark 9 and put a baking tray in the oven to heat up
- Knead the risen dough again on a floured surface. The texture of the dough at this point should be springy and less sticky than it was previously. Set the dough to one side as it is time to prepare the tomato sauce!
- Put the passata, basil and garlic into a bowl and season with salt, pepper and sugar before mixing well
- Divide the dough into two or four pieces, depending on how many pizzas you would like to make
- Shape each piece into a ball and then flatten each piece out using your hands or a rolling pin. Here you will need to decide how thick you would like the base to be. To get a takeaway deep-pan style pizza, keep the dough quite thick
- Spread four to five tablespoons of the tomato sauce on top and then add your desired toppings and the grated vegan cheese before drizzling with a little olive oil
- Add the pizza to your pre-heated baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes, checking that the base is puffed up and that the vegan cheese is bubbling and golden in patches.1
The best vegan pizza toppings
Obviously you will need the most important (and most delicious!) component of a pizza: the cheese! Choose a vegan mozzarella-style cheese and grate it.
Then select any combination of these ingredients to create some delicious toppings:
Mushrooms, black olives, pineapple, peppers, sweetcorn, tomatoes, spinach, hummus, broccoli, artichokes, cauliflower, jackfruit, courgette or vegan meat substitutes.
Ideas for side dishes
If you are going all in with a DIY pizza takeaway, then you might as well have the sides too!
Our favourite vegan takeaway sides include:
Potato wedges
Already vegan, these are simple to make.
- Simply cut your potatoes into wedge shapes, and parboil for 10 minutes.
- Once drained, shake them in a colander for a few seconds and then pop them on a baking tray.
- Add salt and pepper to season and drizzle with olive oil before popping into the oven for 20 minutes.
Vegan dough balls
To make vegan dough balls, you can follow the same recipe for the pizza dough with the only difference being that you will need to shape them into smaller balls.
- Mix vegan butter with garlic and parsley and spread half of this over the dough balls before cooking.
- Cook for 10 minutes and then spread with the remaining garlic butter and enjoy!2
Last updated: 26 January 2021
Sources
1 https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/vegan-pizza-margherita
2 https://www.peta.org.uk/recipes/dough-balls/
