I was utterly greedy and ate a full one of these. It was too much, I was stuffed full and then felt a little in pain. But I blame the after-effects of doing Live Below the Line, as this was my dinner on the day after doing it! I was CRAVING pizza, and missed out on Vegan Pizza Day on the Saturday 28th June. And pizza is not even normally a food that I am that bothered about. However, with this budget friendly, no yeast dough, vegan pizza recipe, there is actually enough for two as a plentiful dinner, especially if served with salad or other vegetables. For less hungry people, it could even spread around four.
The pizza base itself is silly cheap to make if you use basic ingredients (around 9p for the whole batch - which makes an approximate 12 inch pizza), and it works well for a quick meal, because no yeast is required. So if you love fresh pizza, but are put off by having to make a dough that needs yeast, then try this base out instead.
It is, of course, the topping which adds the cost on, and the vegan cheese is the most expensive ingredient, as dairy cheese would be also. You can opt for different toppings like onion and frozen spinach, along with the sweetcorn - and miss the cheese and mushrooms - if you are on your last meagre few pennies of your student grant, or whatever.
I was suitably impressed with this no yeast dough, and the pizza itself, considering how little time it took to knock it up. And honestly, don't let 'time contraints' put you off. It takes as much time to make this pizza base from fresh and bake it, as it does to open the packaging of a ready made frozen pizza, which comes at twice the price and takes longer to cook (if it's a substantial one).
Regarding the cheese, I used my absolute favourite which is the Vegusto No Moo Melty. I think another good one to use, although it would have a smoky flavour, is the Tesco Free From Smoked Soya (or Sheese Smoked), as this melts really well too. I based my cost on the price I bought my Vegusto pack for (£6 for two), but the Tesco dairy-free cheeses are around £2 a pack, so that would definitely be a better budget option. Though I prefer Vegusto much more.
However, for future - I'm not sure how many commercial vegan cheeses I will be buying as I have bagged myself The Non-Dairy Formulary Book, which is packed with amazing artisan vegan cheese recipes. And these are ones that melt, grate, shred etc - so maybe I will be satisfied with them from now on.
Anyhow - here's my recipe, this time with some budget planning assistance too (bear in mind I am referring to supermarket very basic ranges here, and it's rather approximate!):
Easy Vegan Pizza
Makes one approx 12 inch pizza, enough for two with sides
Pizza base: = 9p
1¼ cups / 175g plain flour 5p
1½ teaspoons baking powder 2p
½ tablespoon olive oil 2p
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup / 125ml water
Pizza topping = £1.11
¼ cup / 50g frozen sweetcorn 4.5p
½ cup / 100g chopped mushrooms 20p
25g (quarter package) Vegusto No Moo Melty or other vegan melting cheese 75p
2 tablespoons tomato purée 5p
2 teaspoons olive oil 3p
1 clove garlic, minced 2p
1 teaspoon dried basil 1p
Total cost of pizza: £1.20
1. Preheat the oven to 200 C. Prepare a baking tray with some greaseproof paper over it, or grease the tray with oil.
2. Make the pizza dough by sifting the flour, salt and baking powder together, then whisk the water and oil together in a small jug, and stir into the flour. You will need to get your hands in to the dough to mix well and knead it a little.
3. Roll the dough to your desired shape – this amount should make a pizza base approx 12inch diameter. Bake the base for about 10-15 minutes until very slightly golden. Remove from oven and set aside while you prepare topping.
4. In a small bowl, mix the tomato purée with the olive oil, garlic and dried basil. Spread over pizza base, then layer on the mushrooms, sweetcorn and vegan cheese (or your preferred topping). Place back in the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until the pizza topping looks cooked and the cheese has melted.
5. Slice and serve with salad, fries, or vegan coleslaw.
I'm Andrea, and am obsessed with creating fabulous food. After I managed to ditch dieting, the reason Chocolate and Beyond was born, it seemed natural to evolve my site into a foodie blog. More so since I also ditched animal produce to be vegan. Now, I love showing how inventive cruelty-free cooking can be. And sometimes I like to rant, too. I wouldn't be myself otherwise :) x 
Wow! So glad I just googled vegan pizza base!!! Going to make this now as have ready prepared some yummy grilled balsamic veggies and fancy a pizza. The cost is a brilliant bonus too.....thank you :)
Posted by: Caroline Cannons | September 06, 2014 at 05:02 PM
Lovely recipe and lots of information too many thanks
Posted by: Norma Oswalt | August 22, 2015 at 11:12 AM