Sautéed mushrooms, onions, and peppers are piled on top of a cashew cheese covered cornmeal crust and smothered in garlicky tomato sauce to create this vegan deep dish pizza.
I have a handful of ambitious recipes that have been on my to-make list forever. Stuff like this: vegan deep dish pizza. The thing is, as much as I love the idea of something like this, I can mentally psych myself out. It'll be a massive project. I'll trash the kitchen. It'll probably take me eight tries to get it right. That kind of thing.
Okay, so I did trash the kitchen, but I trash the kitchen when I make toast, so don't read so much into that. And yes, this was a project, but you know what? It was fun and totally worth it. In fact, I didn't even whine about it when the first set of photos sucked and I had to make the whole thing again! Because this baby was tasty business. Totally worthy of a couple of afternoons worth of kitchen trashing!
There were two major psych-out factors to this one. Firstly, the dough. I rarely make yeast breads because I'm too lazy to knead the dough and also too lazy to bust out and clean up the stand mixer. Usually though, when I do decide to suck it up and get to kneading, it's not nearly as bad as I expect. This particular dough was exceptional -- super moist and crumbly thanks to some olive oil and cornmeal. I can handle seven minutes of kneading for that.
Then there's the cheese. I'm all about making vegan cheese...when it's easy. Like vegan cream cheese. Or nacho cheese. Throw stuff in the blender kinds of cheese. I know I'd have to do a little something extra for pizza cheese, wasn't sure I was up for the effort, and didn't know if I'd like the result. Here's the thing though: in a Chicago-style deep dish pizza, the cheese goes under the toppings. When you've got your vegan cheese squished between or under other stuff, it's a lot harder to tell what's going on.
The cheese actually turned out pretty decent in it's own right, but under a bunch of sauce and veggies, I'd probably not have guessed it was vegan. Feel free, of course, to go super lazy and use some vegan mozzarella shreds -- you'll be missing out on half the fun, but that's on you!
Loaded Vegan Deep Dish Pizza
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour, or more all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cornmeal
- 1 ½ teaspoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 package active dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon warm water
- ¼ cup olive oil
For the Vegan Mozzarella Cheese
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water 4 to 8 hours
- 1 cup unflavored soy or almond milk
- 3 tablespoons tapioca starch
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- 2 tablespoons white miso paste
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the Sauce
- 1 14 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the Toppings
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 ounces white button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
- ½ medium green bell pepper, sliced into strips
- 1 small onion, sliced into strips
- salt and pepper
Instructions
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Begin making the crust by stirring flours, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and yeast together in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the water and olive oil until a dough forms. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 7 minutes. Lightly oil a medium bowl, then transfer the dough the the bowl, cover and place in a warm spot to rise until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.
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Lightly oil a 9 inch cake pan or springform pan. Transfer the dough to the pan and press until it stretches to cover the bottom of the pan, then press some of the dough up the sides of the pan to form a rim about 3 inches high. Cover the dough again and allow it to rest while you prepare the fillings.
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While the dough rests, prepare the cheese. Place all ingredients into a blended and blend until smooth. Transfer to a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, and lower heat. Allow to simmer, whisking almost constantly. The mixture will get a bit lumpy at first, and then it will become thick and stretchy. Eventually it will start to pull away from the sides of the pan, after about 7 minutes. When this happens, remove it from the heat and set aside.
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Prepare the sauce by stirring all ingredients together in a small bowl.
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To prepare the toppings, coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil and place over medium heat. Add mushrooms in an even layer. Allow to cook for 5 minutes, until browned on bottoms, then flip and cook 5 minutes more. Raise heat to medium high and add peppers and onions, along with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cook until veggies begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
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Once the dough has sat for 15 minutes, turn the oven on to preheat it to 425°. Once preheated, place the crust into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven, and spread the cheese in an even layer over the center. Distribute the veggies over the cheese, and then spread the sauce over the veggies. Cover with foil and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the sauce just begins to bubble.
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Remove from the oven and allow to sit for at least 10 minutes before cutting - the longer it sits the less messy it will be.
nice....blog....
Hi! Thank you for the recipe. I did my own version today. I finally made my own cashew cheese this past weekend and it did not turn out to my expectation. It was more like a flan. I used agar agar to gelatinize... then I saw your post. I made it today and also put in some zuchinni. It was a hit. thank you for this great recipe.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I've had a similar experience with agar! It's tricky, and I haven't had luck getting a mozzarella-like texture from it.
kappa carrageenan In stand of agar agar use kappa gives that mozzarella like cheese
I've heard carageenan works well, but never tried it. Thanks for the tip!
I am so happy I found this recipe! It's the best vegan pizza ever!
I'm glad you like it!!
I just made this and it’s a terrific recipe! Thanks! I’m curious if it will firm up more in the fridge and stay together with reheating!
I'm glad you like it! It should firm up a bit in the fridge, and it'll soften up when you reheat it, but I think it should still stay together.
Hi! I have everything but miso- any ideas for a substitution, or is it super important?
You could leave it out and just increase the salt. I'm guessing an extra 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon - add a bit at a time and taste test!
My adult daughter and I have been picking a recipe to do a zoom cooking session since the pandemic. We both loved this, making our own tweaks (she's not vegan). I thought the cheese recipe resulted in the most delicious vegan cheese I've had and will definitely make again. Because it's so "wet" not sure I would use it in pizza again as opposed to store bought vegan mozzarella. On the other hand - it is absolutely yummy and I don't want to add carageenan so...Loved especially the addition of corn meal and olive oil to crust - but this is a particular mouth feel so not sure it will be universally liked. Used jarred tomato sauce as I had some open and, of course, the vegetables can be infinitely customized. Overall, a wonderful starting recipe to your own deep dish. Thanks Alissa!!
Has anyone had any luck doing the dough in the stand mixer instead of by hand!
I feel like I always over do it by hand
Alright I made this and I was as nervous as you, even with a recipe in front of me, because I am dough-phobic too. But this was great and really easy. I didn't have whole wheat pastry dough, so I used half whole wheat and half all purpose in place of that ingredient. I luckily had a springform pan which made shaping this really easy. The cheese was great. Maybe I'll try store bought next time to save time, but I wanted to try your creation first! My husband is super picky about pizza and hasn't liked a single vegan one we've purchased frozen or from any pizzeria (except Unos). HE LIKED THIS!!!! Major score!!!