The BEST Homemade, Plant Based Veggie Pizza Recipe

If there is one comfort food you can miss on a plant based diet, then it’s got to be pizza, right?

Pizza is just pure comfort food at its finest for most of us. It has everything you could ever want in the form of mood-boosting carbs, gooey cheese, and plenty of toppings for texture and taste.

But, you don’t have to give up this delicious treat just because you have changed your diet. We have designed for you the best, whole foods plant based veggie pizza ever. Our pizza is 100% healthy and complies 95% with the whole foods plant based lifestyle.

Why eat pizza?

Pizza can be either healthy or unhealthy, depending on how you prepare it. You actually don’t need all those refined carbs and fats on your homemade veggie pizza like you may think you do just to make it tasty.

Pizza is all about the herbs, spices and flavours. If you can pack in those flavours, then you are going to end up with a tasty, end product. It’s not just cheese and bread, it’s flavour and getting those taste-buds tantilised.

Why is THIS pizza so healthy?

Our homemade, plant based pizza recipe is so healthy because we use a wholemeal spelt base. You can use another wholegrain flour if you wish, but spelt works well with this pizza and is better for you than your average, refined, white flours.

We make our own 3 minute tomato sauce base that is crammed full of lypocene rich tomatoes and tasty herbs. It’s vital you make your own sauce base if you want to be able to keep it fresh and cram in more flavour.

High protein

For our protein source, we have used just plain, chopped tofu chunks. Seriously, that’s all you need. No need to marinate (who’s got time for that?). Just add your chopped tofu plain and it will soak up all the other flavours, herbs and spices that you will be adding to your pizza.

The toppings on this pizza are lots of veggies. And, we mean LOTS of veggies!

You want to cram this homemade pizza with healthy veggies such as colourful bell peppers, spinach, and red and white onion. That, along with a simple, homemade chili and garlic oil to finish.

Batch Cook Everything!

You will LOVE this pizza so much that we have no doubt you will want to eat it over and over again. That’s why you need to make more of everything to save you time next time you fancy a pizza night.

This recipe will make four large pizzas. Kids will probably only need half each, so bear this in mind. But, it’s so worth making enough of your tomato sauce and pizza dough for next time, as these are the messiest and most time consuming components to your pizza.

Other toppings

You don’t need to use our topping examples (though, we do feel these are a great combo), you can use anything you like. Be sure to add a protein source to keep it filling and complete.

If you want your pizza to look super appetising, make sure you use a rainbow of colours.

Here’s some examples of toppings you can use:-

• Mushrooms
• Sliced peppers of all colours
• Red and white onions
• Spinach (pre-cook)
• Kale (pre-cook)
• Swiss chard (pre-cook)
• Courgette
• Aubergine
• Green beans
• Avocado (better added after cooking)
• Chili peppers
• Garlic
• Sliced, fresh tomatoes
• Edamame beans (high protein)
• Peas (high protein)
• Chopped tofu (high protein)
• Seitan (high protein)
• Chopped tempeh (high protein)
• Plant based pepperoni or other meat substitutes
• Legumes and beans
• Tahini (drizzle on after cooking)
• Plant based cheese substitutes
• Plant based mozzarella

The BEST Homemade Veggie Pizza Recipe

Family friendly, healthy pizza

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 1 day d 50 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 50 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Servings 4

Calories 650 kcal

Ingredients

  

For the bases

• 2.5 cups wholemeal or white spelt flour
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 tbsp coconut sugar
• 2 ¼ tsp active, dry yeast powder
• 1 ¼ tsp fine salt

For the garlic and chili oil

• 1 chili pepper finely sliced
• 4 cloves garlic crushed
• 4 tbsp of olive oil or, you can melt coconut oil to use

For the tomato sauce

• 1 400 g can tomatoes
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• salt and pepper

Toppings (toppings are for 4 people. If you are freezing some of your dough, then just amend the amount of toppings you prepare)

• 400 g block plain tofu chopped into 1cm cubes
• 1 large red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large yellow bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large orange or green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large white onion, sliced thinly
• 1 large red onion, sliced thinly
• 400 g of fresh or frozen spinach. You will need to lightly steam fresh spinach to wilt it. Once cooled squeeze at as much excess moisture as possible with your hand over the kitchen sink. Frozen spinach will need to be defrosted, then also moisture squeezed out.
• Dried oregano
• Dried thyme
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

 

For the dough

• In a large bowl, add your lukewarm water and sprinkle your yeast and sugar on top. Mix and leave to stand for 10 minutes until it bubbles. This activates your yeast, thus allowing your dough to rise.
• Now add half your flour and salt. Mix with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Add the rest of your flour and mix until you have a bread dough type consistency. You may need to add more flour of water to obtain this, but you need it to form a ball of dough that you can knead.
• Flour a large surface and knead your dough for at least 5 minutes (see video on how to knead if you aren't sure how). OR, use your food mixer to do this whole process. You will need to use your dough hook and allow to mix on a medium setting for 3-5 minutes. If you are using a mixer, then let your yeast mixture activate in the bottom of your mixing bowl instead.
• Make sure your dough is tacky to the touch, but not sticking to your hands. Add more flour if this is the case.
• Once you dough is properly kneaded, transfer to a lightly oiled mixing bowl. Cover with a tea-towel and leave in the warmest spot in your house for about half an hour (or, the amount of time it takes to prep the rest of your pizza ingredients).

  Now prep everything else.

For the garlic and chili oil

• Mix your finely chopped chili, crushed garlic and olive (or melted cocounut) oil in a small bowl and leave to infuse.

For the tomato sauce

• Whizz all your tomato sauce ingredients together in a high spped blender for about 1 minute, or until smooth. Set aside.

Pizza construction

• Pre-heat your oven to highest setting. We need to recreate a hot pizza oven.
• Prepare a large baking tray by lining it with tin foil, then spraying foil with a fine layer of oil.

  You will need to use a sperate baking tray for all pizzas (unless you want to wait until your first ones have baked, then re-use the baking trays. It will save you time not to do this as it's better to have the next pizza ready to put in the oven.

  If ypu have a hot oven then you may be ablw to bake 2 pizzas at a time (maybe for slightly longer). Be sure to put your pizzas pretty high in your oven.
• Grab your dough and divide it into 4 pieces. You may wish to halve these pieces for children.
• Flour a large surface and roll out a piece of your dough to a large dinner plate sized circle (about 10 inches across). You may find it hard to get an exact circle if you're not a pro, but don't worry about it. It really doesn't have to be perfect and even a oblong pizza works.
• Carefully as you can, transfer your rolled dough onto your pre-lined and oiled baking tray.
• Now spoon about 2-3 tbsp of your tomato base onto your dough and smooth it all over right to the edges. You can use the back of a dessert spoon to smooth your sauce out as evenly as possible.
• Now you are ready to top. Start with your peppers and arrange them prettily on your pizza. Do the same with your onion slices. Do not be afraid to load this pizza up, it can take it because the veggies shrink during cooking.
• Now tear small pieces of your spinach up and squish blobs of it in-between your other veggies.
• Add your tofu chucks, sprinkling them randomly over your pizza (make sure they don't roll off too easily by pushing them in slightly).
• Finally, crack salt and pepper, thyme and more oregano over the top. Drizzle with your garlic and chili oil.
• Whack onto the top shelf of your pre-heated oven for around 20-25 minutes. Times will vary slightly, depending on how hot your particular oven gets. Keep checking until you can see it is quite well done. Don't under bake as you will need to make sure the base is fully cooked in the middle.
• Remove from oven and gently use a fish slice between the tin foil and the pizza to gradually remove. Go around every edge with your fish slice until it is loose, then push onto a serving plate.
• Cut with a pizza slice or scissors into 6-8 pieces. Serve with more chili oil, oregano and tobasco or chili sauce.

Video

Notes

Both the pizza dough and the homemade tomato sauce freeze well.

Keyword cheese free, whole foods plant based

CONCLUSION

Making your own homemade pizza is great fun and enjoyable for the kids. You can use any toppings you like once you have the base and tomato sauce. Have fun with it.

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