Tips for Vegan Pizza

July 26, 2022 Julia Haberecht
Rezepte | Ratgeber

Tips and Tricks for Vegan Pizza

We approach the topic structurally, first the dough, then the sauce, and finally the toppings.

The classic original Italian dough is already vegan. For Neapolitan pizza, only four ingredients are allowed in the dough: flour, water, yeast, and salt. Other recipes add olive oil or sugar. You can do it as you like.

Now to the tomato sauce. Some use pureed tomatoes, others use tomato paste with water, and yet others use seasoned canned tomato pieces. The holy grail, of course, is San Marzano tomatoes. If you don’t happen to have them in your garden, it's best to use whole canned San Marzano tomatoes (for example, from Mutti). The most important thing is not to use a blender, as it will destroy the seeds and make the sauce bitter. Please only handle the tomatoes by hand. For whole tomatoes, remove the stem end and crush them by hand. The ideal pizza tomato sauce for me is a can of Polpa from Mutti (not San Marzano tomatoes, but very good tomato quality), which is canned tomato sauce with pulp. Open it, put it in a bowl, refine, done. Just a little personal tip. Which brings us to the ingredients for the tomato sauce. Here's another little tip when buying canned tomatoes in our blog post with YouTube video. Here too, opinions vary. It's great if you take the time to produce your own tomato sauce, bottle it, and use it from the pantry when needed. For those who don’t, here are a few other ideas.

Recipe for the Tomato Sauce:

1-2 cans of tomatoes of your choice (San Marzano, Polpa, or others)
a good splash of olive oil
Several basil leaves (also see our blog post the Basil Trick)

Now it’s time for the toppings. Vegetables are, of course, a great option. Your imagination knows no bounds. From classic variants like Mediterranean vegetables such as bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes to winter vegetable pizzas with cabbage, beets, or pumpkin, and even experimental versions. The most important thing is for the topping to be tasty and juicy since the cheese is missing.

Tips for Toppings

The quick alternative is numerous vegan cheese preparations. Perhaps you already have a favorite that you can use. It doesn’t always have to be mozzarella. Many other types of cheese give a great flavor to the pizza. Surely you can find a vegan alternative too.
And for those who want to skip cheese entirely: Marinate vegetables in olive oil before placing them on the pizza and season with herbs to taste.
Grilling vegetables before placing them on the pizza enhances the flavor.
Pickled vegetables like sun-dried tomatoes, pepperoncini, olives, and capers also add flavor to the pizza.
Try adding a few dollops of pesto on your toppings or drizzle with chili or herb-infused oils after baking.

Also, check out our blog post How to Create a Wow on Your Pizza . It offers suggestions for delicious toppings that can be added after baking.

Do you have any other tips that have already proven successful for you? Then share them with us here in the comments.