Pizza Night Forever

Vegans can have great pizza ... with the right recipes

Dan and I have always cherished homemade pizza night. Some of our first dates were pizza and movies at Dan’s place back when movies came in red envelopes through the mail. Back then, we often used pre-made pizza dough from Trader Joe’s and lots of cheddar and mozzarella.   

Pizza was so important to us, Dan promised to always make me pizza in his wedding vows.

When I transitioned to a cheese-free, plant-based diet, I knew I had to find a way to keep pizza in the rotation. And it can be very easy—there are so many options for vegan cheese now! Bandit makes some of the best. Their fresh mozzarella makes a wonderful pizza. 

Most store-bought vegan cheeses contain coconut oil, so they are pretty high in saturated fat. I want to avoid that because I’m trying to control my cholesterol through diet. Miyoko’s pourable plant-milk mozzarella is good, but I don’t love buying anything in a plastic bottle. (Plus, I’d have to make pizza more often than I want to in order to use up the bottle before it goes bad.)  

I have been making my own pourable mozz for a while now, and I think it’s pretty great. It’s creamy, it browns, and I make just enough for one pizza, so there are no leftovers. It’s definitely not the same as a pizza glistening with dairy cheese, but it works for us.

Then there’s the issue of pizza dough. I have been through so many pizza dough recipes over the years. There are many great ones! I’ve written some. But ultimately I wanted one that was at least half whole wheat—the fiber helps moderate the blood sugar spike that comes with white flour—and I wanted it to work in a sheet pan. 

Enter Susan of Susan’s Cooking School. I don’t know how I found this delightful Midwestern cooking school teacher, but I have been extremely faithful to her since discovering her pizza dough recipe. I follow it to the letter. (Watch the video to see how she does everything.) Thank you, Susan! 

In addition to the pourable mozz, which I’ll share below, we use plain crushed tomatoes for sauce. (I am loving First Fields lately.) And, of course, we pile on the vegetables! Our favorite plant-based pepperoni is from BE-Hive.

Pourable Mozz for Pizza

Makes enough for 1 pizza

½ cup water

25 grams raw cashews (a scant ¼ cup if you don’t have a scale)

11 grams olive oil (a scant 1 tablespoon)

5 grams tapioca starch (roughly 1 ½ teaspoons)

6 grams white miso (1 teaspoon)

1 teaspoon nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

½ teaspoon ume vinegar (optional—see last week’s newsletter)

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon sugar

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

Put everything in a powerful mini blender and blend until smooth. (I use the one-cup Vitamix attachment, but a personal blender like the Nutribullet would work. In that case, I would soak the cashews beforehand.)

When you are ready to top your pizza, put the mixture in a small pot over low heat and cook, stirring, until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.

I like to add the toppings over the tomatoes and then pour the mozz on top of everything before baking the pizza. 

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