Veggie Pizza

Veggie Pizza

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Our best oven-baked vegetarian pizza. Red sauce, mozzarella, red onions, olives, bell peppers, artichokes, and golden crust. It’s here!

In our pepperoni-loving household, a veggie pizza seemed unlikely. Oh no!

Everyone enjoyed the salty Kalamata olives, juicy artichokes, oozing mozzarella, crisp red onions, and sweet yellow bell peppers over a thin tomato sauce.

This recipe makes a traditional vegetarian pizza like the one at your local pizza joint. This vibrant and delectable pizza should start you on your veggie journey.

Make it for Friday movie night or meatless Monday. Pizza makes eating veggies delicious!

Pizza Dough

Store-bought dough works, but homemade dough is delicious and easy to make. Buy or create two 1-pound pizza dough balls:

Let homemade dough rise overnight at room temperature. It will create flavorful dough with huge air bubbles. If you refrigerate the dough for longer storage, take it out an hour before to bring it to room temperature.

Vegetarian (or Any!) Pizza Tips

Tips for the finest pizza are below. Pizza mastery awaits!

Toppings: Avoid overloading the pizza! For crisp pizza crust, use less. Too much toppings or sauce can weigh down the crust.

Pizza oven temperature: Bake it hot. I followed Jim Lahey’s method of preheating the oven and then broiling the pizza.
Fun fact! This recipe’s no-knead pizza dough is developed from Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread process, which he pioneered.

Oven rack: Place it eight to nine inches below the broiler. That keeps the dough from burning. Since oven heat distribution varies, peek often. Mine’s different.Pizza stones and sheet pans cook differently. A pizza stone cooks faster than a sheet pan.

Pizza assembly: Top and bake one pizza. Start the second pizza while the first bakes.
Variations: Own It

What now? Really, everything is possible. Imagine it, make it. Follow the “what grows together, goes together” rule and pair vegetables with fresh herbs.

Use zucchini ribbons or fresh tomatoes with basil in summer. Sage or rosemary-roasted fall squash and root veggies seem great. Add asparagus with parsley or tarragon in spring.

MANY Vegetarian Toppings

Vegetarian pizza toppings. Most veggies can be topped raw, but some must be prepared to bring out their taste and prevent drying. It’s not complete, but it’ll spark your creativity.

Vegetables and other ingridients

  • Asparagus: Toss raw asparagus ribbons or rounds in olive oil.
  • Eggplant: Bake or cook thin rounds with olive oil.
  • Kale, arugula, and spinach with oil and vinegar. Top the pizza after baking or halfway through.
  • Mushrooms: Sliced raw or sautéed with olive oil.
  • Potatoes: Boil and slice. Oil them.
  • Roast butternut, honeynut, or delicata squash first.
  • Halve cherry tomatoes.
  • Cut up oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes.
  • Salt zucchini ribbons or rounds for 20 minutes. Paper towel off the wetness.
  • Cheeses
  • Parmesan
  • Goat cheese
  • Ricotta
  • Provolone Fontina
  • Gouda Cheddar
  • Gruyere
  • Hot and Punchy
  • Olives (any sort), pepperoncini peppers, capers, pickled or raw jalapenos, red pepper flakes
  • Basil, tarragon, Italian parsley, and cilantro are good pizza toppings.
  • Strong herbs: Add rosemary, thyme, sage, and fresh or dried oregano before or after baking pizza.
  • Reheating Leftover Pizza
  • Pizza is best reheated at 400oF. Bake it until heated, 5–10 minutes. Microwaving it makes the crust overly mushy. Pizza reheating tips.

Veggie Pizza

PREP TIME                    18 mins

Veggie Pizza
Veggie Pizza

This recipe calls for 48-hour handmade pizza dough. It takes roughly two hours to create and rise the day of.

  • 2 1-pound pizza dough (store-bought or handmade)
  • All-purpose flour for dusting countertops
  • Cornmeal to dust the peel or baking sheet
  • 3/4 cup pizza sauce
  • 1 cup (4 ounces) grated mozzarella
  • 1/2 seeded, sliced yellow bell pepper
  • 1/2 small red onion, cut
  • 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved if large.
  • 1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts in water, drained and quartered.
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
  • Olive oil, garnish
  • Basil leaves, garnish

 

Method

  • 450°F oven:
  • Put an eight-inch rack under the broiler. Pizza stone on rack. Preheat the oven to 450oF for 30 minutes.
  • Form dough balls: Flour your kitchen counter generously. Apply the dough. Half a 2-pound pizza dough recipe. You need two 1-pound dough pieces. Each piece makes pizza.
  • Fold all four corners of one 1-pound dough piece toward the center. Flip the dough and cup it. To make a smooth ball, rotate it twice. Flour your hands and sprinkle more flour on sticky dough. Rolling dough balls this method is easier.
  • Fold all four corners of one 1-pound dough piece toward the center. Flip the dough and cup it. To make a smooth ball, rotate it twice. Flour your hands and sprinkle more flour on sticky dough. Rolling dough balls this method is easier.
  • Form dough: Flour your kitchen counter and dough liberally. Press the dough ball into an 8-inch round with your fingertips. Press and stretch the dough to 12 inches in diameter.
  • Before stretching the dough, cover it with a dishtowel and let it rest for 10 minutes.
  • Transfer dough to pizza peel or baking sheet: Cornmeal a pizza peel or rimless baking sheet generously. If using a pizza stone, slide the pizza from the peel or baking sheet to the stone. Cornmeal keeps surfaces from adhering.
  • Handle the stretched dough to the peel or baking sheet. Stretch the dough to circle it again.
  • Broil instead of bake: While topping the pizza, switch the oven from bake to broil ten minutes before baking. Start the broiler. This boosts oven heat. Broiler-cooked pizza.

Add toppings:

  • Use the back of the spoon to evenly spread half of the sauce (a little more than 1/4 cup) on the crust. Sprinkle 1/2 cup mozzarella over the sauce.
  • Half the peppers, onions, olives, and artichokes on the dough.
  • Pizza bake: If using a pizza stone, slide the pizza off the peel onto the stone quickly and jerkily. Bake for 5–7 minutes until cheese bubbles and dough browns. Peek occasionally since oven heat affects cooking time. Slide the pizza from the oven onto a cutting board with the peel.
  • If using a baking sheet, bake the pizza for 7–9 minutes until the cheese bubbles and the dough is brown. Peek occasionally since oven heat affects cooking time. A pizza stone bakes faster than a baking sheet. Slide the pan onto a chopping board from the oven.
  • Assemble the second pizza with the remaining dough and toppings while the first bakes. After the first pizza is done, preheat the pizza stone and oven for the second and bake as before.
  • Serve sliced: Top each pizza with basil, Parmesan, and olive oil. Serve warm.