How to Make (or buy) Good Vegan Pizza

This Mediterranean pizza (The Simple Veganista) is topped with artichoke hearts, olives, red onion, tomato, chickpeas and fresh basil. Skillet Pizza is ideal, if you don’t want to turn on the oven.

Keep fresh dough away from children and pets. Don’t give leftover pizza crust to pets, garden birds or wildfowl (could choke, and salt is toxic)

Just bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives) and tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures (they are okay to go in food waste bins, as this is made into biogas).

For tinned foods, rinse then remove lids (pop in cans) or pop ring-pulls back over holes. Pinch or flatten cans, to stop wildlife getting trapped.

Homemade or palm-oil-free pizza dough

To avoid palm oil, you can make your own pizza dough (also gluten-free). The quickest method is to combine self-rising flour and dairy-free Greek yoghurt, for a 2-ingredient pizza dough.

Or use The Northern Dough Co ready-made pizza doughs, which you can find in freezer aisles in grocery stores. Or their ready-made vegan pizza dough balls.

Recycle packaging at supermarket bins, if kerbside does not recycle.

Then just top your pizza base with tomato sauce, herbs, minced garlic, herbs, salt and black pepper. With sliced veggies (red onion, mushrooms, red pepper, pitted olives), sprinkled with vegan grated cheese and Moving Mountains vegan sausage, and some fresh basil or spinach leaves.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, watching it doesn’t burn. Cool and eat!

Variations for Your Vegan Pizza

• BBQ vegan pizza, with BBQ sauce, red onion, sweetcorn, and vegan chick’n.
• Hawaiian twist: pineapple chunks, vegan ham, spring onion.
• Veggie supreme: mushrooms, peppers, red onion, olives, spinach.
• White pizza, with garlic oil, spinach, and mushrooms, no tomato sauce.

Tofoo plant-based pepperoni deli slices

You can buy vegan deli slices from Tofoo (organic and made in Yorkshire, this tofu company now offers seitan products too).

Also look in stores for Vegusto vegan meat slices.

Keep faux meats away from pets, due to onion, garlic and salt.  Also don’t give leftovers to garden birds or wildfowl ((salt is toxic, and fat can smear on feathers, affecting waterproofing and insulation).

Recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside doesn’t recycle.

Why choose plant-based meat alternatives?

England is a country of around 67 million people. This means that although most people eat meat (though the amount of people who don’t is growing rapidly), there is simply not enough land for everyone to eat free-range meat, from animals that graze outside and have access to cosy indoors barns,

This means that most meats sold in England are either raised in factory farms here, or imported (for instance, most factory-farmed Danish bacon is imported to the UK for supermarkets).

So it’s not ‘harming traditional farmers’ to try faux meats, because people who eat meat will support them anyway by eating free-range meat. But for everyone else, then it’s good to discover some good vegan alternatives. And these are not just animal-kind, but cholesterol-free and not linked to cancers, like many processed meats (bacon is an obvious example, due to nitrates produced when cooked).

One Planet Vegan Pizzas (these are amazing!)

If you prefer ready-made pizza, there are a few good brands. Recycle plastic packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside does not recycle.

One Planet Pizza was founded by a father and son, and offers low-carbon footprint vegan pizzas that taste as  good as any from the big take-aways. They are generous in size and bake from frozen in 15 to 20 minutes.

Don’t give leftover pizza crust to garden birds or wildfowl (could choke, and salt is toxic). Throw away greasy parts of pizza boxes (can’t recycle).

This crowdfunded pizza brand was started in a Norwich garage, and are now made in the Netherlands (and sold across Europe). The son has even appeared on TV, judging plant-based cheeses! Find them in independent stores and supermarkets (ASDA, Morrisons and Boots). Flavours (all on a sourdough base) include:

• Margherita (tomato and vegan cheese)
• Tex-Mex (red onion, sweetcorn, peppers and vegan cheese)
• Peppernomi (secret sauce, smoked vegan pepperoni & vegan cheese)
• Hawaiian (tomato sauce, vegan cheese, vegan bacon and pineapple). Italians don’t class pineapple as pizza, but who cares, if it saves animals?

Whole Creations Vegan Pizzas (also good!)

Whole Creations offers a ‘sheesy’ pizza with char-grilled peppers and courgettes and marinated cherry tomatoes drizzled with basil dressing.

It also offers a cauliflower pizza crust (to add your own toppings) and a vegan cheesy garlic bread.

Caulibox (returnable takeaway pizza boxes!)

 

CauliBox makes reusable pizza takeaway boxes that can be washed and returned to companies to save money and reduce waste packaging. This is far better than takeaway boxes that often leave those plastic sauce pots everywhere next morning, where people litter the night before.

Purezza Pizzeria (Brighton, London, Manchester)

Purezza (London, Brighton, Manchester) is an award-winning vegan pizzeria that launched around 10 years ago, founded by an Italian who uses mostly local organic ingredients and no palm oil (outlets are furnished with reclaimed materials, run on green energy and even the loos have recycled bathroom tissue!

The range includes pizzas topped with their own cashew mozzarella (sold wholesale to other restaurants) includes Quattro formaggi (4 vegan cheeses!), Fungi pizza (with truffle oil) and Plant-based salami pizza.

Don’t give leftover pizza crust to garden birds or wildfowl (could choke, and salt is toxic). Throw away greasy parts of pizza boxes (can’t recycle).