Vegan Pepperoni Pizza

Vegan pepperoni pizza - this tasty pizza is easy to make and so much better than shop bought!

Crisp, fluffy pizza dough is topped with spicy tomato sauce, vegan mozzarella and my delicious seitan pepperoni. Comfort food heaven!

Since developing my vegan seitan pepperoni recipe, I obviously had to use it to make pizza!

Can you believe that until now I hadn't shared a vegan pizza recipe on Domestic Gothess?! Crazy seeing as it is one of my favourite foods and something that I make regularly!

This vegan pepperoni pizza is easy to make; with a crisp yet fluffy dough base, spicy tomato sauce, vegan mozzarella and of course my homemade pepperoni (though shop bought is good too!).

What Do I Need To Make Vegan Pepperoni Pizza?:

Vegan pepperoni: I use my home-made seitan pepperoni but a shop bought one is good too.

Vegan mozzarella: I am fussy when it comes to vegan cheeses and I'm not a fan of most supermarket ones, but for mozzarella alternatives I do love Purezza, MozzaRisella and Bluffalo Notzarella which are available online and in select shops. Use whatever kind of mozzarella alternative you like the flavour of.

Tomato sauce: I make my own (recipe below) but shop bought is totally fine too. If you are making your own you will need olive oil, onion, garlic, tomato puree (paste), tinned tomatoes, dried oregano, chilli flakes and some optional fresh basil.

Bread flour: You need white bread flour (also called strong white flour) to make the pizza dough. Plain/all-purpose flour won't give you the right texture.

Instant yeast: I always prefer to use instant yeast when making bread as it can just be added straight to the flour and doesn’t need to be activated first.

Salt: Salt is important in bread making for the flavour, colour and crust. I use fine sea salt or table salt.

Sugar: Just a little for the yeast to feed off.

Olive oil: Adding some fat to the dough in the form of olive oil helps keep the inside of the crust soft and adds flavour. You can also swap the olive oil for any other neutral oil.

Semolina: This is optional, but I like to use some fine semolina to dust the surface and baking tray when I'm rolling out my pizza bases. It helps to make them nice and crisp.

How To Make Vegan Pepperoni Pizza:

(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)

Place the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Mix everything together then add the olive oil and water. Stir together to form a rough dough.

Turn the dough out onto an un-floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and set aside to rise for an hour or two until doubled in size.

While the dough is rising prepare the tomato sauce. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the onion. Cook gently for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato puree and cook for another minute or two.

Add the tinned tomatoes, oregano, sugar and chilli flakes. Simmer for about 20 minutes until it has reduced down to a thick sauce. Add the basil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Divide the dough into two pieces and roll into balls. Dust a worksurface with flour and semolina.

Either use a rolling pin to roll out one of the balls of dough, or use your hands to stretch it into a circle about 23-25 cm wide. Try to make it slightly thicker around the outer edge.

Spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce over each pizza base. lay slices of the mozzarella on top, then the pepperoni slices. Sprinkle with chilli flakes, dried oregano and black pepper.

Bake at a high heat for 12-15 minutes until golden brown, crispy round the edges and cooked through.

Top Tips:

For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.

If you want, you can let the dough rise overnight in the fridge rather than at room temperature. This breaks up the workload and gives the pizza an even better flavour.

The tomato sauce can also be prepared up to a couple of days in advance and stored in a covered container in the fridge.

Make sure that your yeast isn’t out of date! Old yeast can lead to dough that doesn’t rise.

The rising time of the dough will vary depending on how warm it is; on hot days it will rise much faster than on cold ones.

This recipe makes two 9-10 inch pizzas, enough for two very hungry people or four not so hungry ones.

The pepperoni may become a bit crunchy in the oven. Make sure that you brush it with a little olive oil before baking and be careful not to over-bake the pizzas.

If you have a pizza/bake stone then I recommend using it! Make sure that it is in the oven before you start preheating it so that it is good and hot when you are ready to bake your pizzas. You will likely need to cut the cooking time down a bit so keep an eye on them.

If you tried this recipe let me know how it went! Rate it, leave a comment or tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess

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