This Paleo + Vegan Pizza has the perfect one-bowl chewy crust and is topped with the best homemade cashew cheese, pizza sauce and lots of fresh basil. It’s made with clean ingredients, gluten free, dairy free, egg free and sugar free.
I was beyond excited to take my first bite of this insanely delicious homemade paleo vegan pizza!
Based on how much I love making cashew cheese sauce AND my original paleo pizza crust (with an egg), I had high hopes for this egg free paleo pizza.
Even still, the result exceeded my expectations in every way! The crust is chewy with good flavor (you really don’t miss that egg!) and the flavor and creaminess of the cheese sauce complemented the pizza sauce and crust so well!
Add in a good dose of fresh basil and you have the perfect gluten free, paleo and vegan pizza that you could hope for.
What You Need to Make the Paleo Vegan Pizza Crust
I absolutely love that this crust is made all in one bowl, plus the dough is really easy to work with. Here’s what you’ll need to prepare the crust:
- Flaxseed meal
- Almond Flour
- Tapioca flour, or arrowroot
- Coconut flour
- Onion powder
- Garlic Powder
- Italian seasoning blend (optional)
- Sea salt
- Water
- Avocado oil or olive oil
- Apple cider vinegar
What You Need to Make Cashew Cheese Sauce
The cheese sauce is just like many of my other recipes – just a few ingredients and you get a totally dairy free “cheesy” treat! Here’s what you’ll need:
- Cashews
- Lemon juice
- Water or almond milk
- Avocado oil or olive oil
- Garlic powder
- Salt
- Nutritional yeast (for cheesy flavor)
In addition to the crust and cheese, you’ll need your favorite pizza sauce (I love Rao’s) and fresh basil. You can also top with onions, peppers, or anything else you want!
How to Make Paleo Vegan Pizza
Making this pizza is simple and straightforward. Prepare the crust first. Mix your flax egg and water right away and let it sit for 10 minutes before adding to the dough. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl (the flax egg last). Spread the dough out into a circle on a parchment lined pizza pan or baking sheet. You can use a bit more tapioca flour to help if the dough is sticky.
Bake the crust at 425° F for about 12-15 minutes or until set. Meanwhile, prepare the cheese sauce. I use a small blender like a Nutribullet when making cheese sauces because my vitamix is too large for the small amount I need to blend.
Blend all the ingredients until you have a very smooth creamy mixture. Once the crust is done, assemble the pizza. Spread the pizza sauce over the crust, and spoon the cheese mixture on top, using as much as desired.
Top with chopped fresh basil and return to the oven to bake another 10 minutes or so, until the crust is crisp on the edges and the cheese sauce is beginning to turn golden. Slice with a pizza cutter and serve with any additional toppings you like.
Tips for Paleo Vegan Pizza
- You can prepare the cheese sauce ahead of time if you prefer. Just cover and refrigerate up to 2 days in advance of making the pizza.
- The dough can also be made up to 2 days in advance. Wrap in plastic in a ball and keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use.
- I recommend reheating leftover pizza in the toaster oven for oven for best texture. You can reheat it at 375° F on a baking sheet until heated through.
- You cannot replace the cashews in this recipe unfortunately. The flours for the crust also cannot be subbed without significantly altering the texture of the crust.
- If the dough feels too sticky to work with, you can add a little bit more tapioca, but not almond or coconut flour. If it feels too dry, you can add drops of water until it’s the right consistency to spread out.
I hope you’re ready for a seriously delicious, dairy free, paleo and vegan pizza that you’ll want to make on repeat! Grab your ingredients and preheat the oven – it’s time for pizza!
The Best Paleo + Vegan Pizza {Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free}
Best Paleo + Vegan Pizza {Gluten Free, Dairy Free}
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 flax egg - 1 Tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 3 Tbsp warm water, allowed to sit for 10 minutes
- 3/4 cup blanched almond flour
- 3/4 cup tapioca flour or arrowroot starch plus more for spreading the dough, if needed
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning blend
- 3/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 1/3 cup avocado oil or light flavored olive oil
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
Cashew Cheese Sauce:
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 2 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 5 Tbsp warm water or almond milk
- 2 Tbsp avocado oil or light flavored olive oil
- 3/4 tsp garlic powder
- 3/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
Other toppings:
- 1/3 - 1/2 cup Roa’s Pizza Sauce
- Fresh basil
- Crushed red pepper
- Anything else you want! Sautéed onions and peppers would be great.
Instructions
Crust:
-
Preheat your oven to 425° F and line a pizza pan or baking sheet with parchment paper.
-
Prepare the flax egg - 1 Tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 3 Tbsp warm water, allowed to sit for 10 minutes
-
In a large mixing bowl, combine the almond flour, tapioca or arrowroot, coconut flour, onion and garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and salt. Stir well to fully combine.
-
In a measuring cup, combine the water, oil, and vinegar then pour into the dry mixture and stir to combine. Stir in the flax egg to form a dough.
-
Sprinkle extra tapioca or arrowroot on your parchment lined baking sheet, place dough on the sheet and sprinkle with more tapioca/arrowroot if it’s sticky.
-
Work the dough into a 10-12” circle depending on how thin you want the crust.
-
bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until set. I baked mine for about 13 minutes before adding my toppings. Bake time will depend on the toppings you plan to add, how crispy you want the crust, and how thin you spread it out.
Cheese Sauce:
-
While the crust bakes, prepare the cheese sauce. You can also make this ahead of time. Place all ingredients in a small-medium high speed blender and blend until very smooth and creamy.
Assemble and Bake Pizza:
-
Spread the pizza sauce or marinara sauce over the partially baked crust, then spoon the cheese sauce on top. Top with whole or chopped fresh basil. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 more minutes or until crust is golden brown and “cheese” is slightly golden. Cut into slices and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition is calculated per slice based on 8 slices.
Nutrition
Shop Products and Ingredients:
Want More Paleo + Vegan Recipes? Try One of These!
Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chewy “Oatmeal” Raisin Cookies
Spinach Artichoke Twice Baked Potatoes
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OMG! Thank you ??I can’t wait to make this!
Just made your cookie recipe!! I have ate 3 in a row….send help!!!
This pizza looks delicious and I must try it. Absolutely adore this blog, use it all the time. Thank you xxx
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Can you substitute an egg in this recipe?
I’d like to know this as well
Yes, just use an egg in place of the flax meal and water mixture.
I miss pizza! Can I use a real egg instead? If so, is it a 1:1 ratio, or would it be more/less than 1 egg?
She has a very similar recipe which uses egg! Try this one if you want to use egg:
https://www.paleorunningmomma.com/paleo-pizza-crust-grain-free-dairy-free/
WOW!! My boyfriend and I made the pizza crust tonight and it was AMAZING! The best paleo/vegan crust we’ve had so far!! Next time we will have to try making the pizza with the cashew cheese 🙂 Thank you so much!
1 flax egg????
I made the crust but used vegan cheese. It was sooo good. It was still really good the next day.
Thank you for sharing this information. Love the article on your page. Please keep updating, it is very helpful.
Favorite gluten free crust!
i’m so perplexed with this — mine was sooo sticky after adding the wet ingredients + flax egg. i had to add so much arrowroot, just to get it to ball up and then of course the texture of the finished crust was gummy. i honestly think it was still so delicious after all was said and done but i just don’t know enough about this type of crust, except for the principles of normal dough to help me (keeping ingredients cold, not over-mixing – neither of which i think i did) anyway, just unsure why i had to add so much starch.
one theory i had was that something went wrong with my flax egg. you wrote flaxseed meal (assuming ground flax seed?) but i’ve only ever made flax eggs with the whole seed. so that was a new thing to me…altho unsure it would cause the wetness of the dough.
any insight would be appreciated!
Hey Liz! I just tried the dough yesterday and also thought the dough seemed super wet. I even added a little bit of almond flour, but then decided to work with what I had. I piled it straight into the parchment paper and dipped a spatula in arrowroot starch and used it to spread it out and it ended up great! I think the wet texture is how it’s meant to be but it ends up perfectly fine after the baking process! 🙂
The “cheese” sauce! I’m waiting on a smaller blender to get here but took the risk and simply doubled the recipe (ninja professional 1000w I’ve had for a year now) and it turned out great! I might be pumping out flatbreads and pizzas like nobody’s business the next few days but I’m sure the family won’t complain. 😉 Thanks for the tasty paleo recipe!
This pizza is amazing! I am always a little leery when it comes to recipes like this, but this really was incredible! My husband (who doesn’t have to be gluten free) even loved it. This will be a Friday night is pizza night at our house, and I’m So glad I found something that I can have !
We’ve made this crust multiple times, so good and crisp. I just press it out on an oiled silicone baking mat. I’ve even used the recipe to make tostadas ??
Thank you!
Hi… I made this and it was so delicious! I’m wondering if I could freeze the crust? Thanks
Looks good!! No need to soak the raw cashews?
Can I use 1 egg instead of flaxmeal?
Hi, I know you said you can’t really sub the flours but would swapping almond flour for say hazelnut flour make a lot of difference? I can’t eat almonds 🙁
This cashew sauce is amazing!
Should the cashews be soaked first? I tried making the cheese sauce and it was a disaster. I did use raw cashews, but the cashew separated from the oil and juices. I don’t have a small blender so I used a food processor then switched it my Vitamix just to see if I blend it better. Then I tried mixed by hand. I am new to using cashews for cooking, but I made another of your recipes that called for soaked cashews and that turned out beautiful. This did not so I wonder if it was because they weren’t soaked.
I figured out my mistake. It helps to make sure you add the milk…..But it was delicious. I made this for the kids and made the spinach artichoke myself and my husband. All 6 of us really liked them and I definitely will be making them again.
I loved this recipe! The taste and texture were delicious!
This was SO good! Due to autoimmune conditions I eat nightshade-free paleo. I substituted a “no-mato” marinara sauce with additional pizza herbs. This is the first pizza I’ve had in 6 years! I’m going to make it again, soon! Thank you again!
So thrilled you enjoyed it!
Great recipe. I had a question… I want to double the recipe for the crust to make a bigger pizza. If I double the recipe, what would be the best cook time to get the crust set and then to cook with the toppings on?
My family and I will definitely make this again! We turned it into bbq chicken pizza and cooked the crust in my cast iron 10” skillet. We’ve enjoyed almost everything we’ve made thus far from your recipes. But there are plenty of new recipes to try. Thanks for all of your time and effort that goes into your recipes and your blog/emails!
Wow, this recipe looks so good I have to try it.
Thanks for sharing. Greetings
I make this crust recipe regularly for our family pizza nights and we love it! I personally like the taste and texture of this crust better than the one that calls for an egg, even though we are not vegan. Plus it allows me to reserve my eggs for my two growing kiddos 🙂
Can the cashews be substituted for almonds or cauliflower?
q
It’s amazing that you didn’t hesitate so share this recipe with everyone because the dish looks delectable and I adore it.
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The pizzas are so colorful
Thanks for your recipie.I have made it by own the taste was very delicious.
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