Vegan Pumpkin Pizza with Kale
Perfectly warm, yeasted dough with golden edges holds a 4-ingredeint creamy sauce with a bunch of miso, contrasting beautifully with the soft, sweet pumpkin in this vegan pumpkin pizza. Crispy pumpkin seeds join in, with softened kale, and hints of chili and cinnamon. Red onion and garlic bring it all together for a colorful, flavorful, autumnal pizza filled with textural variation.
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Happy Pumpkin Season!
I love pumpkin! Most of the time I use pumpkins, I use canned pumpkin puree. It’s convenient, tasty, and cheap. But when pumpkins are in season, I’ll change it up and go for a whole-pumpkin type of recipe. This recipe happened after heading to one of the two amazing farm stands I’ve found this summer, and finding pumpkins there for $1 or $1.50 for slightly larger ones. At that price, how can you not buy a few pumpkins? Even if they just sit on my porch, they’ll have been well worth the price. But buying a pumpkin and not cooking it isn’t a realistic possibility for me. If it can be cooked and eaten, it will be. And since pumpkin pie has never really been a favorite of mine, I decided to go in my favorite direction- savory- and make a pumpkin pizza pie. Happy Pumpkin Season all!
Check out this guide if you’re looking for tips finding the right pumpkins for cooking.
Looking for Pumpkin Recipes? Try one of these!
- Indian-Spiced Vegan Warm Pumpkin Salad
- Simple Homemade Vegan Pumpkin Ravioli
- Vegan Pumpkin Pie Spice Granola
- Pumpkin, Pecan and Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
- Savory Herbed Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
Learning to Use a Pizza Stone
This recipe really should have been finished about a week ago, but it got greatly delayed by a sudden interest in using a pizza stone. I’d had a pizza stone and pizza peel lying around for a while, left behind by a roommate from years and years ago, when out of nowhere I decided to use it. The first pizza I made was going really well, until it came to transferring it on to the pizza stone. It got stuck on the peel, and the resulting pizza was stretched into a strange, uneven kidney shape. The second time I tried was even worse- the whole pizza sort of gathered together into a super thick crust blob, with toppings strewn all over the pizza stone. Mature human that I am, I sulked and crossly refused to try and do any more work for hours after that incident. Since I really couldn’t afford to loose another day to failed pizza, I looked up a trick online that (thankfully) worked really well for me.
Lightly flour your pizza peel, and cover it with a sheet of parchment paper. Make your pizza on top of the parchment paper, and when it comes time to place it in the oven, slide the pizza and the parchment paper directly on the the pizza stone. Wait a few minutes for the pizza to firm up, and then go in and slide the parchment paper out so that the bottom of the pizza still gets browned. Perfect! In theory, you could also just flour your peel correctly and do without the paper, but honestly it was just not working out for me. But hey, you do you.
Making Vegan Pumpkin Pizza
Let’s make vegan pumpkin pizza! Start by making your crust- mine is a slightly modified version of this one from Sally’s Baking Addiction, but you can do another crust if you like or even use store-bought dough. Homemade dough needs time to rise (about an hour), so I used that time to prepare the other bits and pieces for our pizza. The pumpkin needs to be pre-roasted, along with some pumpkin seeds (side note- roasted pumpkin seeds=most amazing thing ever). The cashew-based sauce also needs to be made. I always boil my cashews for about 10 minutes before using them, because it softens them up nicely for a creamy, smooth sauce. You can also soak them overnight, over if you have a good blender you might not need to do either. After that, the sauce is blended and you’re done.
When assembling the pizza, start by spreading the sauce in a thin layer across your stretched dough. Next put the kale, because the kale needs to be protected by the other toppings or it will too quickly burn. After the pumpkin, onion, garlic, and pumpkin seeds go on, give it a little salt, pepper, olive oil, chili powder, and cinnamon. Yes, cinnamon. We don’t use a lot of it- in fact, you can’t really taste it- but you can smell it a little, and the hint of cinnamon with the pumpkin and pizza dough really adds to the whole eating experience. Then you bake, slice, and eat, enjoying all of those pumpkin fall flavors!
Vegan Pumpkin Pizza with Kale
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup warm water
- 1 tsp. instant yeast
- ½ tbsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (60g) raw cashews
- 1 tbsp. nutritional yeast
- 2 tsp. white miso paste
- 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 small pumpkin, about 1 lb. (you can also use half or a quarter of a larger pumpkin)
- Olive oil, as needed
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 large kale leaves
- ¼ red onion
- 1 clove garlic
- ¼ tsp. cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. chili powder
Instructions
- Start by making the pizza crust. Combine the warm water, yeast and sugar in a large bowl and allow to sit for 5 minutes to activate. Add the salt, olive oil, and flour and mix until combined. Turn the dough out onto a lightly-floured surface and knead for a couple minutes until the dough feels smooth and even. Test that it’s kneaded enough by poking it- if it slowly returns to its original shape, you’re good. Lightly oil your bowl, place the dough in, and cover with a clean dish towel. Allow to rise for about an hour in a warm spot, until it’s doubled in size.
- While the dough is proofing, start on the other elements. Boil the cashews in water for 10-15 minutes to soften them, then drain. Add the cashews to a blender, along with the other elements for the sauce and 2 tbsp. of water. Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender as needed.
- Next prepare the pumpkin. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C), making sure to place your pizza stone in the oven if you are using one. Remove the pumpkin skin and discard, scoop out the seeds and set aside. Slice the pumpkin into ½-1-inch thick slices and place on an oiled baking sheet along with the pumpkin seeds. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with a little oil, and roast for 15 minutes. After that, remove the seeds so they don’t burn. Flip the pumpkin slices and roast for another 10-15 minutes.
- Wash and finely chop the kale. Slice the garlic clove, and cut the onion into half-moons.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down to release the air. Increase the oven temperature to 500°F (260°C). Stretch your dough out, and place either on to a pizza or baking sheet, or a pizza peel if using a pizza stone*. Start by evenly spreading your cashew sauce on the pizza. Next do a thick layer of kale. Thirdly, add the slices of pumpkin, onions, and garlic, along with the pumpkin seeds. Finally, sprinkle with cinnamon and chili powder, as well as a drizzle of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Place in the oven and bake for around 10 minutes, until the crust is golden-brown.
Notes
* Note: After a good amount of experimentation and having a lot of pizzas fall apart when trying to get them in the oven, I highly recommend placing a sheet of parchment paper on your pizza peel. When you place the pizza on your pizza stone, slide the piece of parchment in as well. After 4-5 minutes in the oven, go in and remove the sheet of parchment paper and let it bake the remaining 5 or so minutes directly on the stone.
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