Have you ever tried making your own homemade pizza from scratch? And no, I don’t mean buying a ready-made base, throwing a few toppings on top, and popping it in the oven. I’m talking real, made from scratch pizza, with your own homemade dough.
I’m here today to tell you it’s much easier than you think, and something I have no doubt you can whip up in 30 minutes – tonight.
How to make your own wholemeal spelt pizza
I’ve created this Wholemeal Vegan Pizza in collaboration with Vitamix, as part of my 2023 partnership with them. Did you spot the Matcha Smoothie Bowl we made together already? If not, be sure to check that out – it’s divine, and includes a stack of hidden vege that you’d never know about.
Back to our pizza though. The nutritionist within me couldn’t send you a pizza with regular old white flour of course, so I’ve made this dough with my favourite wholemeal spelt flour instead. It’s unrefined, high in fibre, and lower in gluten than a processed white wheat flour. Often people who feel that have gluten sensitivities, actually have more of a sensitivity to heavily processed white wheat flour. Therefore replacing it with beautiful organic wholemeal spelt flour (with the outer husk of the grain intact) can be a great option, whilst still achieving that classic fluffy dough feel you know and love.
Plus, I’ve made this dough in literally less than 5 minutes in my Vitamix. If you haven’t already heard me raving about my Vitamix blender, check out the plethora of recipes I’ve shared on the blog using it (well before I was an ambassador). Yes it’s an investment, but this is a blender you pass down, not throw away. I know of people who had their Vitamix for 20 years, then gifted it to one of their children – it’s lasted that long. Green flag straight away is its 10 year warranty – unheard of in appliance land these days.
Your Vitamix will do so much more than just smoothies too. This pizza recipes shows how you can make your own homemade dough with it, as well as an additive-free pizza sauce, and creamy cashew cheese if you wish too.
If you want to grab one, Vitamix have given me a super generous discount code BUFFY25 – giving you 25% off all Vitamix until the 25th August. You can’t use it on any already discounted models, BUT, you can use it on their Vitamix bundle which is what I have and think is by far the best deal. Head here to check them out.
Then come get kneading with me, and try this quick and easy Wholemeal Vegan Pizza tonight!
Ingredients for this homemade vegan pizza
To make this wholemeal vegan pizza you’ll need:
- Wholemeal spelt flour – spelt is an ancient grain, which we don’t see used much in our current food environment. It’s a relative of wheat, and still contains gluten (so not appropriate for coeliacs), however it does seem to be tolerated much better by people who have a wheat sensitivity. Modern white wheat has been bred to contain a high gluten content for the production of high-volume commercial baked goods. Unless you buy organic, it has generally been stripped of its fibrous outer bran layer, has often been bleached, converts quickly to sugar unless balanced with fat and protein, and is generally not tolerated well by a large portion of the population. Wholemeal spelt in contrast retains the outer bran layer, is higher in fibre, easier to digest, more gentle on blood sugars, and yet results in a very similar texture and taste for baked goods. It’s the perfect replacement for making your own homemade wholemeal pizza dough.
- Instant dried yeast – I’ve used instant dried yeast as opposed to active yeast. Active yeast needs to be activated before use (taking you a bit more time), while instant dry is ready to be used straight away.
- Olive oil – use the best quality olive oil you can find for your pizza dough, it really adds to the flavour. If you’re opting for an oil-free / low oil diet, you can omit this, but it does make the pizza crispier once baked, and prevents the tomato pizza sauce soaking into the dough making it soggy.
- Pizza sauce – you can buy ready-made pizza sauce from the supermarket to make your pizzas even quicker. It’s different to tomato paste, tomato passata, or tomato puree, and generally contains tomato paste, salt, garlic, onion, and some herbs. Or you can easily make your own in your Vitamix – simply blitz up a jar of tomato paste with a pinch of salt, garlic clove, ¼ of an onion, and some oregano or basil, and use as per the ready-made.
- Vegan mozzarella – vegan mozzarella has been designed to emulate the stringy effect regular cow’s milk mozzarella achieves on pizzas. It is a more processed product, but in the interests of making your pizza quick and delicious, it’s worth giving a go. I also feel that given 90% of this pizza is being made from plant-based wholefoods, a small dash of more processed mozzarella is not going to throw your nutrition goals off track. The choice is yours though – you can substitute with a regular cow’s mozzarella, or try the Fermented Cashew Cheese from my book Be Good (I make this in 5 minutes in my Vitamix too). Alternatively, if you’re not fussed about the stringiness, try sprinkling your pizza with some nutritional yeast for the cheese flavour, and add some chopped avocado after baking to replace the creamy factor
- Your favourite veggies – as you know, the sky’s the limit in terms of what you can put on a pizza. I’ve gone with a simple combo of red onion, mushrooms, cherry toms, olives and basil.
Step-by-step
Recipe tips
- Make sure your yeast is fresh – we’ve all done it, made a baked good with expired yeast from five years ago. You’ll still get a pizza out of this, but won’t get the rise or fluff. I’m all for minimising food waste, and have been known to eat food months after it’s best before. However, this is one occasion where I’m happy for you to dump your expired yeast in the compost.
- Let it rise – do cover your dough and give it a good 10 minutes to rise before you roll it out. Again, we want fluffy pizza, not hard carboard pizza base. You can still get this pizza on the table from scratch in under 30 minutes, even with the 10 minute rise time.
- Don’t overcook – given we’re using wholemeal spelt flour which is already a bit earthier and dense, it’s best to slightly undercook your pizza so it’s still tender and soft.
All ovens are different, so have a look at your pizza after 10 mins of baking – it might already be good to go (and as our pizza is vego, we’re not actually trying to heavily cook any of the toppings).
Substitution ideas for your homemade vegan pizzas
- Wholemeal spelt flour – if you can’t find spelt, try wholemeal wheat flour instead, or regular organic wheat flour. If you’re gluten free / coeliac, use your favourite ready-made gluten free blend, or try 1/3 brown rice flour, 1/3 buckwheat flour, 1/3 tapioca flour / potato starch.
- Instant dried yeast – if you want to use active yeast instead, simply mix it with some warm water in a bowl (make the water measure in this recipe half hot and half cold so as not to kill off the yeast), leave it to “bloom” for 10 minutes (it goes fluffy on top), and then proceed with the rest of the recipe.
- Toppings – take things more left wing with leftover roast pumpkin, red onion, and cashew cheese; grilled eggplant, olives, and avocado (add after baking); or marinated artichokes, olives, red onion, cherry toms, and pesto or hummus. As long you have something creamy (cheese, avo, pesto, or hummus), you can’t go wrong.
Serving and storage
This pizza is without a doubt best served fresh out of the oven straight away. Leftovers will keep for 1-2 days, but it does get a bit dry. In saying that, I always keep a few spare pieces for the kids’ lunchboxes, and they always come back empty.
One thing you can do though, is store your second dough ball. This recipe makes two 30 cm pizzas (enough for 2-3 adults), so if that’s all your needing, roll the other half of the risen dough in a ball, wrap in cling wrap (one of the only times I’ll use cling wrap) or a reusable honey wrap, and pop in the freezer. Bring out an hour before using when your next pizza craving hits, then roll out into your base and top as per usual.
Want more vegan pizza? Give these a try:
- Mushroom and Mozzarella Pizza (chickpea base)
- Cauliflower Pizza with Hemp Pesto (cauliflower base)
- Green Protein Pizzas (broccoli chickpea base)
If you make this Wholemeal Vegan Pizza, let me know! Leave a comment and rating below, or post your version on Instagram, TikTok or Facebook, and tag me @begoodorganics. I can’t wait to hear what you think.
Ingredients
- ¼ pumpkin ~800g
- 1 cauliflower
- 2 beetroot
- 12 cloves garlic
- salt and pepper
- ½ c vegan grated cheese
- ½ c vegan smoky bacon
- 4 handfuls baby spinach
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ¼ c vegan aioli
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220°C bake (or 200°C fan bake).
- Chop pumpkin, cauliflower and beetroot into bite size chunks and place on an oven tray with the whole garlic cloves. Drizzle with a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper, toss to coat, and bake for 20 minutes.
- 5 minutes before the veggies are finished, remove from the oven, sprinkle with grated cheese and smoky bacon bits, then put back in the oven for the final 5 minutes.
- Remove garlic cloves from their skins (leave whole, or chop roughly if you prefer), top with baby spinach, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, then toss together. Serve in bowls topped with a dollop of aioli. Will keep in the fridge for 4-5 days (if so, let the veggies cool slightly before tossing with baby spinach).
Recipe Notes
- Gluten free: As is.
- Nut free: As is.
- Sugar free: As is.
- Oil free: Roast veggies on a tray lined with baking paper.
- Weight loss: This recipe is perfect for weight loss as it’s relatively low in carbs and total calories.
- Keto: Swap the pumpkin for parsnip for an even lower carb / keto version.
- If you can’t find vegan bacon, use a similar plant-based chorizo or spicy sausage (something with a bit of flavour to it, ideally not a plain tofu sausage).
Did You Make This?
Tag @begoodorganics
I can’t wait to see your creations!
