Hot, cheesy pizza loaded with your favorite veggies is one of the easiest and funniest dinners to make at home. With just a few key tips, you can create a restaurant-quality crust and have the best homemade pizza that’s fully customizable to your taste. Plan your next pizza night using my foolproof recipe, to make the perfect vegetarian pizza from scratch every time!
About this recipe
I promise you will never want to order delivery again after seeing how easy it is to make pizza at home with fresh ingredients.
This recipe includes instructions on how to create a soft, slightly crispy crust at the bottom using all-purpose flour or bread flour. It makes a much better (and cheaper!) Dough than any store-bought dough or restaurant pizza I’ve tried.
Even the tomato sauce is made from scratch! It’s wonderfully simple and flavorful, and it’s the perfect base for layering lots of cheese and your choice of toppings.
Ingredients
For the pizza crust
▢ 3 to 3.25 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour, 375 grams
▢ ½ teaspoon of sugar
▢ 1 cup of lukewarm water or add as needed
▢ 1.5 teaspoons of instant yeast 4 to 5 grams or 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
▢ 3 tablespoons of olive oil
▢ 1 teaspoon of salt or add as needed
▢ 1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil to brush the dough
▢ Semolina or cornmeal (makki ka attack) or all-purpose flour to sprinkle on the pan
Also Read: Banana Bread (Egg Free And Vegan)
For the pizza sauce
▢ 5 to 6 medium tomatoes – 500 grams
▢ 2 teaspoons minced garlic or 8-10 small to medium garlic cloves, 5 grams of peeled garlic
▢ ¼ cup olive oil
▢ ¼ cup chopped basil or 3 to 4 teaspoons dried basil
▢ 2 teaspoons of dried oregano or 2 tablespoons of fresh oregano
▢ freshly crushed black pepper or ground black pepper, as needed
▢ salt as needed
Toppings
▢ 1 onion, sliced or cubed
▢ 1 bell pepper, sliced or cubed
▢ 1 tomato, chopped or sliced – optional
▢ 10 to 12 sliced pitted green olives, optional
▢ 10 to 12 sliced pitted black olives, optional
▢ ½ cup canned corn kernels or steamed sweet corn kernels
▢ ⅓ cup sliced miniature corn
▢ ⅓ to ½ cup fried kale
▢ ⅓ cup of sautéed spinach
▢ ⅓ to ½ cup cauliflower, fennel, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (steamed, roasted or sautéed)
▢ ½ to 1 cup sautéed button mushrooms
▢ ⅓ to ½ cup broccoli or green beans (blanched or sautéed)
▢ Italian seasoning – as needed
▢ Mozzarella cheese or pizza cheese, as needed
▢ parmesan cheese (vegetarian), as needed
▢ Red pepper flakes – as needed
Instructions
Making pizza dough
- In a large bowl, take the instant yeast, sugar and lukewarm water.
- Stir and let stand at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes until it becomes frothy,
- Add a cup of flour, salt, and olive oil to the frothy yeast mixture.
- Mix well. Add another cup of flour and mix again. The mixture becomes sticky.
- Add the last cup of flour and continue stirring.
- Knead the dough into a soft, elastic ball. Apply a little olive oil all over the paste.
- Cover loosely and set aside in a large bowl at room temperature for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- The dough will double and rise nicely.
Make pizza sauce
- Mash or make a smooth tomato puree in a blender.
- Heat the olive oil. Brown the minced garlic for a few seconds. Add the tomato puree. Mix and cook uncovered for 5 minutes.
- Season with salt and mix. Cover and simmer the tomato sauce over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have softened.
- If the sauce seems too thick, you can add ¼ cup of water. Then cover and continue cooking.
- Add the herbs and crushed black pepper. Mix well.
Assembly and cooking of vegetable pizza
- Preheat your oven to 230 degrees Celsius (450 degrees Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes.
- Cut the dough into 3 or 4 equal parts. Flatten the dough into a disc. On a lightly floured surface, begin roll out dough to ¼ inch thick.
- Place the dough in a buttered and sprinkled mold.
- Brush a little olive oil on the base of the pizza. Spread the tomato sauce on the pizza.
- Top with grated mozzarella cheese and vegetables.
- Sprinkle with grated Parmesan.
- Keep the pan near or close to the lower heating element of your oven.
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 230 degrees Celsius (450 degrees Fahrenheit) until the base turns golden and the cheese on top melts.
- Wait a minute or two and serve the vegetarian pizza while still hot.
