Vegan Mushroom, Olive, Pepper, Arugala and Basil Pizza

olives, mushrooms, red pepper, arugula, basil, Daiya cheese

Mmm vegan pizza… so many delicious options for veggies and herbs to put on your pizza. My friend and I made some homemade pizza crusts using this dough recipe below.

This dough recipe is from Zojirushi’s bread maker recipe book

Traditional Pizza Dough Recipe (Bread maker)

Makes 2 12″ pizza crusts

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil (I skipped it)
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tsp active dry yeast

Directions:

  1. Measure all ingredients and sprinkle into baking pan, making sure the yeast doesn’t touch the sugar or water.
  2. Select dough setting on bread maker and press start.
  3. Remove dough and preheat oven to 400 F degrees.
  4. Roll out dough and shape into desired shape.
  5. Cover dough with cloth and let rest for 15 minutes.
  6. Spread pizza sauce over crust.
  7. Top with desired toppings and vegan cheese if desired. (I used Daiya.)
  8. Bake 20-25 minutes until crust is golden brown.

This pizza was topped with olives, red bell pepper, sautéed mushrooms and onions, fresh arugula, fresh basil and Daiya cheese. Not a typical vegetarian pizza, but it was very delicious! If you can’t find Daiya cheese you can substitute another vegan cheese, make your own vegan cashew cheese, or leave it with just sauce and veggies like a flatbread.

Quick and Easy Thick Plant Based Pizza Sauce (Oil-Free Vegan Recipe)

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Plant based or vegan pizza is probably something you’ll have to make at home, depending on where you live because not a lot of places offer vegan cheese, or are familiar with cheese-less pizzas if you go that way.

I really don’t like store-bought pizza or pasta sauces, they’re full of junk and usually bland.  So I make my own.  I wanted to come up with a really fast recipe for thick pizza sauce that you don’t have to spend forever cooking on the stove and adding raw ingredients too. Once mixed this is ready to go on the pizza.



I also like thick sauces, because low-fat healthy pizza crusts can be a little dry and you really want to have that moisture from the pizza sauce on there. Here’s one that’s oil-free, fat-free and vegan!

Quick and Easy Thick (Vegan) Pizza Sauce

Ingredients:

1 small can of tomato paste
6 tbsp of water with 1/2 tsp Better Than Bouillon Vegetable base OR 6 tbsp water mixed with 1/2 veggie cube bouillon
1 tbsp liquid sweetener (honey, vegan honeybrown rice syrup)
3/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp freeze-dried garlic or garlic powder
2 twists of ground black pepper
dash of smoked paprika
dash of sea salt *if desired
A sprinkle of chili flakes *if desired



Directions:

1. Open the can of tomato paste and scoop into a bowl. Add all of the ingredients to the bowl and stir to combine. Taste test, adding additional seasonings if desired.

2. Spread over pizza crust leaving a small gap for the crust of the pizza.

This recipe should cover up to an extra-large pizza with sauce, or several personal pan pizzas.

I had extra leftover even after liberally topping my large pizza crust. I also topped it with my special recipe of sautéed baby portobello mushrooms and onions, frozen pineapple, kalamata olives, and fresh garlic. As you can see I really like pineapple! Mine is the side on the left lol.



If desired you can also sprinkle some Daiya mozzarella cheese or other vegan cheese on it, but for a truly fat-free recipe, you can skip it.

Let me know what you think! What do you put on your plant-based pizza?