Easy Vegan Pizza with mozzarella from scratch 

Below we share out tips for how to make epic pizza from scratch and below this our vegan mozzarella. Its a fun process to make the dough and leave it rise and shape it out. Traditionally pizza comes from Napoli and is cooked in a wood fired oven at temperatures of 450-500 degrees celsius. Home ovens will struggle to get over 250 degrees C. Here we show you have to make great pizza at home using the baking tray method. We also share our recipe for easy vegan mozzarella balls which are surprisingly great. 

Take 1 hour prep, 1-2 hours proofing dough and 30 mins making up pizzas

Serves 2 large pizzas

Pizza bases

400g strong flour (can use normal flour but strong is easier)

pinch salt

250ml luke warm water

7g active dried yeast

1 tsp liquid sweetener such as maple syrup, agave syrup etc

5g of Fresh herb of choice - rosemary, oregano, thyme

Tomato sauce

500g jar of tomato passata or tin of chopped tomatoes

100g pesto of choice (this will en-richen the tomato sauce and layer in more flavour)

1 tsp maple syrup

pinch of salt to taste

veg

2 courgette

2 red pepper

2 yellow peppers

2 red onion

Other toppings

olives

artichoke hearts

rocket to serve

dukkah

Sauerkraut (red if possible for more colour)

add the yeast water and sweetener into a bowl together to activate the yeast

Add flour to a mixing bowl, make a well, add the water and yeast mixture.

Flour your hands and kneed the dough for 10 minutes to form some elasticity.

How do you know your dough is ready is by the window pane effect’ - you can stretch it and see through it when held up to the light just like a window pane without it breaking.

Cover it and leave to sit for an hour to double in volume. This might take longer if your room is cooler but what you are looking for is that it doubles in volume. 

While your dough is rising, time to roast the veg. Preheat your oven to 180C.

Remove the seeds from the peppers, peel the onions and finely chop all the veg. In a bowl cover them in a 2 tablespoons of oil and a good pinch of salt and mix well. Spread them out on a baking tray or 2 if needed and bake them for 25-30 minutes until they start to char at the edges. Remove once done and put aside.

To make your tomato sauce simply mix all the  ingredients and season to taste by adding more salt, ground black pepper or ground chilli powder.

Time to make your pizza bases

Divide the dough into 2 balls to make 2x200g pizzas

preheat the oven to the hottest temperature 250C 

If you are using a pizza stone put this in the oven. 

Dust your surface with flour and lay out some baking parchment. Using a rolling pin roll out one of the dough balls ontop of the backing parchment till its nice and thin.

Place the rolled out dough on the baking parchment onto the baking tray and piece with a fork in a few place to avoid the dough puffing up in the centre. Bake for 6-8 mins to seal the base to ensure that you will have a crispy base.

Remove from the oven being careful not to burn yourself and add a thin layer of tomato sauce to the base ensuring to spread it out thinly and bring it right to the edges. Decorate with your toppings of choice. We like to be generous with the toppings, we often drizzle a little pesto ontop to add even more flavour. 

 Put bake in the hot oven at 250 degrees Celsius for 6-10 mins until the crust has gone golden and the base feels crispy when pierced with a fork.

Decorate with any fresh greens such as a handful of rocket or often we like to add some sauerkraut or dukkah to add another unexpected flavour.

enjoy!

Vegan mozzarella

This one started out as a wild goose chase and we weren’t sure at all if it would work out, but it turned out to be a winner and very similar to the real thing. We have got great feedback for this recipe. It is quick and easy to make also :).

Takes 20 mins

Makes 15 small balls

100g cashew nuts (soaked overnight or else boiled for 10 mins in boiling water)

200ml water

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

1.5 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

3 tablespoon tapioca flour/ arrowroot flour/ rice flour

Drain and rinse the cashew nuts. Give them a good rinse to wash away lots of acid created by soaking. Put the cashew nuts and the water to a blender and blend till smooth. If you did not have time to soak the cashew nuts overnight, simply boil them for 10 minutes to soften them, they will blend much smoother. 

Once cashews are blended into a smooth texture, add your nutritional yeast, apple cider vinegar, salt, garlic powder and tapioca flour and blend again until smooth, It should be the consistency of pancake batter. 

Add this mixture to a non-stick saucepan on a high heat and stir continually until it starts to thicken. Be patient, this may take 5-10 minutes. 

The mixture will eventually come together into one ball, then transfer to a bowl. 

With wet fingers, to prevent sticking, grab a small bit of the mixture, form into smaller mozzarella balls. 

If not using immediately, transfer into a jar of brine (this can be made by mixing 400ml of water with a little salt (2 tbsp)). The mozzarella will keep like this in the fridge for up to one week. 

Use as you would use regular mozzarella which goes great on the pizza above.  Alternatively we like to put ours on some sourdough toast, rubbed with garlic, with a drizzle of oil, some chopped cherry tomatoes and fresh basil leaves – it really hits the spot!