This vegan deep dish pizza is your ultimate comfort food! The jammy caramelised pumpkin is delightful and brings out the savoury flavours of the other fillings.
This recipe is easy and sooooo delicious!!! It has a fluffy pizza crust, layers of melty cheese, loads of veggies and, my favourite, sticky sweet pumpkin!
If you've made pizza before, this is a bit of fun in the kitchen. But if this is your first time making pizza from scratch, don't worry this blog post holds your hand every step of the way :).
Alternatively, if you're looking for some super quick pizza recipes, see my Veggie Pita Pizza with pesto or Vegan Margherita Pizza with sweet potato crust.
How to make the dough for the deep dish pizza
I used traditional pizza dough for the base of this pizza. It includes:
- Plain, wholemeal or spelt flour
- Warm water (not pictured)
- Olive oil
- Instant yeast
- Sweetener (I used coconut sugar)
- Salt
To make the dough, just chuck everything into a bowl, mix and knead until combined.
I used instant yeast which does NOT need to be activated, bloomed or proofed beforehand. The warmth from the water and the sugar in the actual recipe activates the yeast when everything is mixed together.
Once you have a smooth cohesive ball like below, cover the dough and leave it in a WARM spot in your home. Eventually, your dough will double in size (or thereabouts).
Fillings for this vegan deep dish pizza
While your dough is rising, you can prepare all your ingredients to fill your pizza! I used:
- Butternut pumpkin (or some people may call it butternut squash)
- Red capsicum*
- Cherry tomatoes*
- Vegan cheese
- Pizza tomato paste
- Bonne Maman Peach and Mango Conserve
* Or any other pizza-friendly veggies you have in your fridge :).
We need to par-cook the veggies beforehand because they take longer to cook than the pizza base.
First, I sauteed the capsicum in my Le Creuset cast iron casserole. The gorgeous white colour of my casserole reminded me that capiscums do indeed leak a orange-red colour when they are cooked. Shock horror! But so beautiful!
Without washing the casserole, I then sauteed the pumpkin. Since the pumpkin is quite dense, I added a little water to help them cook through.
Once the pumpkin was slightly charred , I stirred through Bonne Maman's Mango Peach conserve (which is soooooo addictive) and let it cook for another minute.
I completely adore this conserve. It reminds me of Summer every time I open the jar and smell it. Every spoonful is pure sunshine!
If you're a bit messy like me, your casserole would be a little charred at this stage. Wash it then you can get ready to assemble your pizza!
How to assemble this vegan deep dish pizza
If you've ever made a tart crust before, rolling and shaping your pizza dough is basically the same process!
First, roll out your dough so it's about 5cm (or 2 inches) larger than your casserole dish. I made sure my dough was in an oval shape as that was the shape of my casserole.
Carefully transfer the dough to your casserole. To prevent breakage, I roughly rolled my dough onto my rolling pin and transferred it over.
Now, roughly shape your dough into your casserole!
Traditionally, deep dish pizzas are assembled in the opposite order of pizzas, so cheese, fillings. then the pizza sauce (and maybe more cheese).
However, since I really wanted the caramelised pumpkin to retain its sticky sweetness, I set it aside for the top. Plus, deep dish pizzas aren't a big thing in Australia so who cares about the 'rules', right?!
First I scattered the cheese on my pizza dough. Then I arranged my tomatoes and capsicum on top.
Next I arranged my tomato paste/sauce in the pizza. And finally comes the gorgeous caramelised pumpkin and the leftover cheese!
Baking the deep dish pizza
I baked my pizza for about 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C. If your pizza starts to burn, pop on the lid of your casserole dish to slow down the cooking.
If you used vegan cheese like me (which is notorious for not melting in the oven), putting the lid on the casserole helps it to melt! Then, you have a perfectly messy deep dish pizza!
Check out my vegan comfort food recipes for lunch and dinner
- Vegan Margherita Pizza with sweet potato crust
- Fig and caramelised onion pizza
- Vegan Pita Pizza with pesto
- Deep Dish Pizza Quiche
Vegan deep dish pizza with jammy caramelised pumpkin
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
- ~2 cups (150g) plain or wholemeal flour, plus extra for dusting
- 2 teaspoons (18g) instant dried yeast*
- ½ teaspoon any good-quality salt
- ¾ cup (180mL) warm water
- 1 teaspoon cane sugar, or brown sugar, coconut sugar or a liquid sweetener
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
Fillings
- 1 cup pumpkin, diced into 2 cm or 1 inch cubes
- 1 small red capsicum, diced
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ¼ cup Bonne Maman Peach and Mango conserve
- ½ cup tomato pizza sauce
- ½ cup chopped canned tomatoes
- 1 cup vegan cheese, cubed or shredded
- 2 teaspoons olive oil, or as desired
Instructions
To make the pizza dough (1 hour beforehand or the day before you want to enjoy your pizza):
- Add all ingredients to a stand mixer or mixing bowl. Knead the dough for 5 minutes or until it forms a smooth and cohesive ball. Add more flour if the dough is sticky or add more water if the dough feels dry.
- Leave the dough in the bowl and cover it with a damp tea towel. Place the dough in a warm spot in your home. Let it rest for at least 1 hour or until it's doubled in size.**
To prepare the fillings (while the dough is rising):
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Place an oven-safe casserole dish (or fry pan) over medium-high heat. Saute the capsicum with 1 teaspoon of olive oil for 3 minutes or until the capsicum is slightly softened but still crunchy. Set aside the capsicum.
- In the same casserole dish (or fry pan), saute the pumpkin with 1 teaspoon of olive oil for 5 minutes. Add around ½ cup of water to the casserole dish allowing the pumpkin to steam. When the water has evaporated and the pumpkin is tender, stir through the peach mango conserve. Allow the pumpkin to caramelise for 1 minute then set aside the pumpkin.
- If your casserole dish is dirty, wipe it clean.
- To prepare the pizza sauce, combine the tomato paste with the chopped canned tomatoes. Set aside.
To assemble the pizza:
- Dust a clean surface with flour. Roll the dough on the floured surface so it's 5 cm larger than your casserole dish (or baking tin).
- Carefully transfer the dough into the casserole dish. Gently press the dough against the bottom and sides.
- Sprinkle ½ the vegan cheese on the base of the pizza. Then sprinkle the tomatoes and capsicum. Pour all of the prepared pizza sauce. Arrange all the pumpkin and cheese on top.
- Bake the pizza for 30 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
- Serve the pizza hot with a side salad. Store leftovers, if any, in the casserole dish with the lid on top.
Notes
Please leave a comment below if you made this recipe, have any questions or thoughts! Your comment will help other readers and Rainbow Nourishments.
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