Vegan Practically

Fridays on the blog are fun days where I talk about food. What better Friday food than pizza? I know people who have pizza every single Friday. Some order it in. Others make it lovingly at home, no longer even needing to consult their favourite dough recipe, each family member selecting toppings of choice.

Or you can go out for it, which I did last night (though it was Thursday). Here in London I have two go-tos when I want pizza. Pizzeria Madre and Zen’za Pizzeria. Both have vegan options, with Zen’za having the edge on that where selection is concerned because they have a full plant-based menu. Indeed, I overheard the pizza chef Wayne once saying that they won’t add a new pizza to the omni menu until they can offer it in an equally good vegan version.

When I go out for pizza I typically keep the toppings simple, so I went for the Famous Margarita Pizza and added mushrooms and hot peppers. They use vegan cheese and nutritional yeast at Zen’za, and that’s a good combo whether you’re making your own or ordering from a pizzeria. Even the chains these days usually have a vegan cheese option. Some cheeses are more melty than others — this has always been a huge challenge for vegan versions of cheese. Flavour is the other challenge. Mozzarella is of course very mild but good mozzarella still has flavour. I do think there are a lot of really good vegan cheese out there but so far I haven’t had any take-out or eat-in pizza with both melty and flavourful vegan cheese that approximates the gooey yumminess of actual mozzarella. For me, the joy of good restaurant vegan pizza these days is in the toppings, crust and sauce.

That’s why I actually prefer Pizzeria Madre’s vegan pizza, the Testa Rossa, which has no cheese but has the best crust, a delicious sauce, and tomato, garlic, pickled chilis, basil, capers, and olive oil. Even the way I get it — hold the garlic! — it’s packed with flavour. I really feel as if I’m eating something special when I go there.

Pizza at home is a different story because I have actually found some not-bad mozzarella substitutes. Violife and President’s Choice both have great shredded vegan mozzarella that melts relatively well and has some flavour. And I’m sure there are other brands. I make my own dough, so it’s fresh. And because I roll it out myself, I can get the thickness just right and also can have as much or as little crust as I (or a dining companion) like. There are lots of easy dough recipes out there, including this one from the Banana Diaries (Pro tip: most pizza dough is vegan). I usually use either a canned sauce or simply canned tomatoes (diced or crushed) with some dried oregano and basil mixed in. My favourite toppings: broccoli, mushrooms, hot peppers, red peppers, arugula or spinach, sometimes plant-based pepperoni, and Violife or President’s Choice shredded vegan mozzarella.

An alternative to the cheese besides leaving it off altogether is hummus. Hummus is amazingly good on pizza, and when I first became vegan and there was no good cheese alternative for pizza I used to put little dollops of hummus all over the pizza. Delicious.

Bon appétit!