The BEST Homemade Veggie Pizza Recipe
Family friendly, healthy pizza
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.