sa·vor /ˈsāvər/
verb: Taste (good food or drink) and enjoy it completely.
lin·ger /ˈliNGgər/
Stay in a place longer than necessary, typically because of a reluctance to leave.
If you long for more lingering and savoring, keep reading.
I am not vegan but have been leaning in that direction for years. I don’t miss meat in my diet and I am sure after a little time, I wouldn’t miss cheese either. Luckily, you don’t have to be vegan to enjoy delicious vegan pizza. I notice more and more that cheese doesn’t really matter when you are eating something really flavorful.
Pizza, tacos, sandwiches and salads can all be created sans cheese and still be wonderfully enjoyable. In fact, I prefer cheese-less to cheese substitutes.
If you are looking for a great way to entertain this weekend, invite friends over for pizza night. Use the recipes below and serve with a salad. You can cook small pizzas throughout the evening with different toppings for your guest to enjoy.
The Dough
For a wonderful European style thin crust, try my sister’s pizza dough recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Sugar
- 1 Cup Warm Water (approx 110 degrees)
- 1 Envelope Active Dry Yeast or Quick Rising Yeast
- 3 Cups Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
Directions
Add yeast to warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Combine flour, salt, yeast mixture and olive oil.
Mix well on low-speed* for 2 minutes until smooth and elastic. If sticky, add 1/4 cup flour. If dry, add warm water 1 teaspoon at a time. Cover with a cloth and let rise for 60 minutes. Punch and rise again. Punch and roll out.
*you don’t need a mixer to make this dough. You can also use the volcano method. Create a volcano shape with flour and slowly add liquid to the center working the flour in with your hands.
The Sauce
Use your favorite sauce or try my super easy recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 28 oz can tomato puree
- 1 10 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 can water
- salt
- oregano
- basil
Saute crushed garlic in olive oil until lightly browned. Add tomato puree, tomato sauce, 1 tomato sauce can of water. Stir and simmer. Add salt, oregano and basil to taste and cook on low heat for 60 minutes.
Miso Dressing
We discovered this was great on pizza by accident. We had left over miso dressing from the green bean and fingerling potato salad from The Conscious Cook and got creative.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons yellow miso paste
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon light agave nectar
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 shallot, minced
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 cup safflower oil
Combine all ingredients except oil with 1 tablespoon water in a food processor or blender and pulse to combine. With the motor running, slowly add the oil until the vinaigrette is emulsified.
Pizza Night
Use a combination of your favorite pizza ingredients on pizza night and try our family favorites shown below. The beauty of pizza night is that you eat slowly and have time to enjoy the evening. If you serve one or two small pizzas at a time, you’ll eat a small slice every 15 – 20 minutes. In the meantime, you can nibble on salad, savor a glass wine and get lost in conversation. Linger and savor the night away and really appreciate the evening.
Simple Vegan
roll out dough, add the sauce, broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, roasted red peppers. Cook for 8-10 minutes on heated pizza stone in 400 degree oven.
Miso Potato Pie
roll out dough, cover in miso dressing, top with cooked sliced potatoes. Add sliced tomatoes and arugula. Cook for 8-10 minutes on heated pizza stone in 400 degree oven.
Keep pizza night simple by having the ingredients prepared before your guests arrive. Let guests make their own pizzas or request their favorite ingredients. With fresh, flavorful ingredients, great music and good company, no one will notice that the cheese wasn’t invited.
note: I adapted the title of this post from one of my favorite vegan cookbooks: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule
What’s your favorite pizza topping?
Oh me, oh my – it looks delicious! Thank you for the recipes.
Laurie, Let me know if you try any of these suggestions! Hope you enjoy. xo
I’m not a vegan either. I do try to eat mindfully. I eat a lot of seafood, eggs, and cheese. Cheese is the one I’m thinking of right now. Recipe looks great but I’m afraid I’d have to add cheese.
DSG
You’ll only know by trying it without.
YUM!!! My husband and I are REALLY into making our own pizza’s right now. We were in Italy about a month ago and were so impressed with the thin pizza and how much flavor was packed into each bite. I am definitely going to have to try this one.
Let me know if you try it. My sister sometimes cooks the dough on her grill too. I haven’t tried that, but want to.
oops…I meant to write “…making our own pizza”
Hi Courtney. One of the reasons my blog has been quiet in the last two years, is that I now produce Australia’s first vrgan pizza cheese, which has even become more popular than the imports: Notzarella. Just had to tell you, after reading this post. Of course you can have yummy vegan pizza with out cheese at all, but I do prefer the full fat experience which is why I make and sell it 🙂
Ali, I was actually thinking of you when I wrote this post. Is your cheese available in the US? I’d love to try it!
Well, you guys have Daiya, which I believe is a very functional non-dairy cheese. Not to mention the fact I have yet to distribute properly around Australia! However I am talking with people in Europe about making the cheese under licence, and I’d be open with that anywhere, but I think the US would be a much harder market to crack as people aren’t so depserate as they were here (no daiya) and in the EU (no good pizza cheeses much). I’d love for you to try it too! Maybe if I visit the states or you visit Aus sometime (we just had Raam Dev so the path is paved).
Ali, Americans = bargain lovers. The surest way to crack our market is to offer a quality product at a price lower than the competitors’ prices. Daiya is great, but not if you’re on a tight budget, which is the vast majority of us these days, vegan or not.
Oh, and my favourite ingredients combination is mushroom, pineapple and Kalamata olives on Neapolitan sauce . Mostly I use pasta sauce from the supermarket instead of proper Neapolitan though. .
And drizzling with olive oil and lemon or lime makes for a great touch, bringing some of the cheesy tang back into the taste. For some real home-made vegan cheesiness, mix tahini, lime and a little salt with water to the consistency of molten cheese and drizzle on. This is what I was doing before Notzarella.
Thanks for this suggestion–I’m going to try it on our next pizzas!
Hey Courtney,
I like this & agree with you. My wife is French and through her and a little experimentation and open-mindedness of my own, I’m coming to realize that the best way hands down to enjoy food is to appreciate it in its simplest and most natural form.
Most foods, especially fruit and vegetables need very little preparation and if that is the right preparation (e.g. cooked just the right amount rather than too long – if at all, seasoned lightly with the right ingredients, sliced to the right size…) then they are delicious.
So, basically… I’m with you. 100% 😉
less is more with food too!
That’s fantastic! Thanks so much for the recipe. My husband is allergic to dairy and we’re always on the look out for dinners he can eat.
I hope he likes it Joanna!
Great minds think alike ;D
This has been our summer of pizza, too. Like you, we aren’t quite vegan, but getting there. But we’re eating much lighter and with more flavor. Ten years ago we could put away a large takeout pizza between the two of us, but there is no way we could digest it now! But we missed pizza and the no-cooking convenience. Then dinner at a local Mediterranean restaurant one night inspired some research and a solution:
Our favorite pizza uses the really large pita/naan/flatbread, which can be kept in the freezer and used as needed. We top it with a dollop of pesto, chopped black olives, homemade roasted red peppers, and slivers of whatever onion is on hand–red, sweet, or green. A very light sprinkle of cheese is optional. 8 minutes in a 400F oven.
Thin slices of tomatoes fresh from the garden and bits of fresh basil are also fabulous, drizzled with a bit of EVOO and sprinkled with sea or Kosher salt.
It’s faster, simpler, fresher, healthier, and far less expensive than takeout pizza. And, of course, utterly delicious!
Hi Meg! Welcome back to blog world 😉 I hope you had a great summer. Thanks for the recipe… sounds delish.
This looks so yummy! I’m inspired—maybe dinner tonight. I never seem to get my dough to make a thin crust, I’m going to try your recipe.
🙂
Kristina
Hi Courtney, I have been making my own pizzas for years,it was cheaper than buying already made ones with hungry teenage boys and their friends. I’m not vegan, have been at times, but am leaning that way again. Cheese is something I enjoy but find doesn’t agree with me but I still eat eggs from time to time. These look delicious, I never thought about using miso, I’ll have to try that.
wow! it sure sounds delicious! Can’t wait to try these recipes! thank you!
That’s not vegan. Yeast is a living organism… =)