If you really care about the cows, it’s time to switch to vegan cream cheese! Don’t worry, your favorite pizza will taste just as delicious. Quite understandably, pizza is one of the most loved dishes globally, even though it began as a humble pie in the ovens of Naples. No wonder then that this dish tests our resolve to remain vegan! Thankfully, there are options like vegan cream cheese and cashew cheese. So, here’s a recipe that is sure to satiate your craving for pizza.
Ingredients
Once you’ve assembled these ingredients, it takes less than half an hour to prepare this delicious pizza. Here’s what you need:
- Vegan pizza base of your choice of size
- Half a cup each of loosely chopped red, yellow, and green bell peppers
- A quarter cup of loosely chopped onions
- A small cup of chopped button mushrooms
- Half tablespoon each of dried oregano, basil, and garlic powder
- Salt to taste
- Tomato paste
- Cashew cheese or vegan cream cheese
- Olive oil
This recipe doesn’t necessary need cashew cheese. You can use cheese made of almond, macadamia, soybean or anything available on your vegan cheese platter.
How to Make the Pizza
- Preheat your oven to 220ºC and place a rack in the center
- Place a skillet on the rack and put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
- After a minute or two, when the oil is heated, put your bell peppers and onions in the skillet and cook until soft. Then add the mushrooms. The whole process should take 5 to 7 minutes.
- While your vegetables are being sautéed, prepare the delicious sauce to go on top of the pizza base. Take some tomato paste and add water until it reaches the consistency you desire. Then add some dried basil, oregano, garlic powder and salt to the paste. In case your paste is a bit sour, you can add a pinch of sugar.
- Now it’s time to assemble everything. Take your pizza base and spread the tomato sauce that you have prepared on it. Pour some in the middle and spread it outwards in circular motions. Make sure that the sauce covers your entire pizza.
- Once the sauce is spread, place the sautéed vegetables and add the cheese as a topping.
- Now your pizza is ready to be placed in the oven. Place a parchment paper under the pizza base and use a baking sheet to gently slide the pizza onto the pre-heated oven rack.
- Bake the pizza for 14 to 15 minutes or until the corners become golden-brown in color.
While vegan cream cheese is readily available online, it’s super easy to make it at home. To make cashew cheese for the pizza, take a handful of cashews and add some nutritional yeast, salt, and garlic powder to it. Blitz it until it becomes a fine paste and your delicious vegan parmesan is ready.
Once your pizza is done, take it out of the oven and sprinkle some dried oregano and red pepper flakes on it.
