If you love vegetables, you are going to love this pizza. This is one LOADED veggie pizza. It is packed with flavor and deliciousness. Plus, you’ll feel like you are eating something healthy. Which, you are… I mean, it’s a whole lot of vegetables. And now you can say to your doctor, “I eat healthy food.” And you can thank me for that 😉
What You’ll need:
- 1 Green pepper sliced into thin strips and halved
- 1 medium onion, julienned
- 1 medium roma tomato or any low liquid tomato, sliced in half and then julienned into almost crescent shapes
- 1 to 2 cups sliced mushrooms (depending on how much you like mushrooms)
- 1/3 cup pitted olives
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, and extra for oiling the rolling pin
- Pizza, or pasta sauce (I like to use Prego Traditional Italian Sauce for this style pizza)
- Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- Sliced Pepperoni
- Salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon dry oregano, or to taste
- 1 to 2 teaspoons garlic powder, or to taste
Utensils
- Silicone mat
- Rolling pin
- Pizza pan
- Sharp knife
- Cutting board
You have the ingredients, now what do you do?
This Pizza is my absolute most favorite pizza. I love vegetables. I am crazy about vegetables, and if they go on my pizza, that makes them even better.
What better to eat for a super comforting easy weeknight meal, or even weekend. This is better than takeout. Believe me, you are not going to find a gluten free pizza that is this satisfying, and this delicious at a store. They might come close, but not nearly as good.
The secret here to this pizza is of course, the dough. You have to use my Fluffy Crunchy Pizza Dough Or Almost Anything Dough if you want an absolutely amazing pizza. Why settle for the ordinary? This dough will change your world once you try it!
The second most absolutely important part is the sauce. You really can’t just use any old sauce. My most favorite sauce to use is the Prego traditional Italian pasta sauce. I am by no means associated with them or gain anything from sharing this information with you. I am simply sharing it because I do love their sauces.
For the sauce, you want to use something that is light, slightly tangy, with the fresh traditional Italian flavors such as basil, oregano, and garlic.
You can chose to make your own sauce, just make sure it is not sweet. I really believe that a sweet sauce in here will ruin the pizza. And yes, I am very particular about the sauce. I believe that it is a vital element to making an amazing pizza.
The third most important part is the seasoning. You cannot skip on the seasoning or the olive oil. They are a game changer for this pizza.
Sure you can have all your veggies, and love them, but the pizza will not taste the same without the seasonings. Remember that you are putting unseasoned veggies onto your pizza. You are literally loading your pizza with those vegetables, and they need some additional flavor too, no matter how delicious they are on their own.
Using the correct spices is also very important. You probably could add some cayenne pepper for a slight kick, but for a traditional loaded veggie pizza, you will want to use the spices that I mentioned.
To begin, Have all your veggies, and your dough prepped, and preheat your oven to 400 F.
The charm about this pizza, is that you can make it your own. Especially when you are the one that’s making it!
If I included a type of vegetable that you are not particularly fond of, you can take that out; or if there is a type of vegetable that you think would go well with this pizza that you absolutely adore, you could try to add it too. Just let me know what it is, and how it turned out so that I can try it as well!
You will need to use a silicone mat that fits the shape and size of your pizza pan. I like to use a rectangular silicone mat. This way I can differentiate between the wheat pizza, and the gluten free pizza.
Not all of our household is gluten free. So normally, I make a wheat version pizza, and a gluten free version pizza. I use a round pan for the wheat pizza just because it is easier to stretch it into a circle rather than a rectangle, and it is easier to roll a rectangular shape rather than a circle.
Place the required amount of pizza dough onto the silicone mat. If you like the pizza dough to be thick, use more dough. If you like it to be thin, use less pizza dough. It is simple.
You can spread the pizza dough by either your oiled hands, or an oiled rolling pin, but why use your hands when you can use a rolling pin?
Make sure your rolling pin is well oiled so that the dough does not stick to it. apply even pressure onto the dough, but do not push hard. This dough is pretty soft and forgiving, so you just need to gently roll it. Roll it into the shape of the mat.
I like my pizza dough to be about a 1/4 inch in thickness. I find this thickness to be ideal for allowing you to hold the pizza, and still get a nice crunchy crust around the edges. It is not too thick, and not too thin. Just right.
If you are like me, after rolling the dough, you’ll want to take a sharp knife and run it along the edges of the dough to cut out any imperfections.
You could also cut out the dough in places that you don’t need it, and use it to patch in any spaces that are missing some pizza dough.
After you have shaped the pizza dough to the desired shape and thickness that you like, place the silicone mat with the pizza dough on it onto the pizza pan.
Place the pan into the preheated oven on the lower rack, and bake for 10 minutes.
After the pizza dough is done baking, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool slightly.
While it is cooling, you can preheat the oven to 450 F. You will need the oven to be this hot to cook the pizza and the vegetable toppings to perfection. If it was not that hot, things would not turn out right. You well end up needing to cook it longer. The pizza dough might get burn or become soggy because the vegetables are being slow cooked.
You do not want to put sauce onto a hot pizza dough. If you place the sauce directly on it while it is still hot, the dough will begin to absorb the sauce, and you will end up with a dry pizza.
Just be patient, and wait a few minutes. It is key. Once the pizza dough is cool enough to place the sauce on it, begin by spreading the sauce onto the pizza dough.
You can use as much or as little sauce as you like. Just keep in mind that we are using fresh vegetables that will render their liquid onto the dough. So do not use an excessive amount of sauce, otherwise you will end up with a super soggy pizza.
Sprinkle some cheese on top, pepperoni, onions, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, and olives. Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper, dried oregano, and garlic powder.
Generously drizzle the olive oil all over the pizza, including the crust, and bake at 450 F for 12 minutes.
It really does need that long for the second bake. We still want that fresh vegetable taste. Overcooking the pizza will take that away from us. 12 minutes are sufficient enough to cook the vegetables and the dough, but not overcook anything.
Allow the pizza to cool slightly before slicing.
What I like to do for slicing the pizza is to use my kitchen scissors. I find that they make the job much easier especially when you have so many layers to cut through. No more scratched pans, and you do not risk accidentally cutting your silicone mat.
Enjoy! Now you have a salad and a pizza all in one!
If you find that this technique gives you a soft or soggy pizza, you can always choose to cook your vegetables in some olive oil before adding them to the pizza. I personally am willing to sacrifice the crusty pizza dough for the delicious vegetables.
I find that precooking the vegetables takes away that fresh taste that I am looking for. It makes them taste sweet, and oily. I don’t like my pizza to be sweet or oily, but to each their own.
Try it out, and let me know what you think in the comments down below!
Gluten Free Loaded Veggie Pizza
Equipment
- Silicone mat
- Rolling Pin
- Pizza pan
- Sharp knife
- Cutting board
Ingredients
- My Fluffy Crunchy Pizza Dough Or Almost Anything Dough
- 1 Green pepper sliced into thin strips and halved
- 1 medium onion julienned
- 1 medium roma tomato or any low liquid tomato sliced in half and then julienned into almost crescent shapes
- 1 to 2 cups sliced mushrooms depending on how much you like mushrooms
- 1/3 cup pitted olives
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil and extra for oiling the rolling pin
- Pizza or pasta sauce I like to use Prego Traditional Italian Sauce for this style pizza
- Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- Sliced Pepperoni
- Salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon dry oregano or to taste
- 1 to 2 teaspoons garlic powder or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F
- Have your pizza dough ready
- This dough makes a 16 – 18 inch round pizza. So take as much dough as you need to roll it to the shape and size of your pan.
- You will need a silicone mat that fits the shape of the pan. Oil the rolling pin. Place the dough onto the silicone mat. Oil your palms, and gently press the dough with your palms to slightly shape it into the shape of the silicone mat. Use the rolling pin to roll the dough into the shape of the mat. Ideally, you’ll want the pizza dough to be about a ¼ inch in thickness. If you like it thicker, you can make it thicker by adding some dough, and if you like it thinner, just remove some dough, or roll it onto a larger silicone mat.
- Place the silicone mat with the rolled dough on it, onto the pizza pan. Place the pan into the oven on the bottom rack. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove the pizza dough from the oven, and set aside to cool slightly.
- Preheat the oven to 450 F
- Spread some pizza, or pasta sauce on top of the pizza dough, and leave some crust peeking through around the edges of the dough. This part is all up to you. If you like a lot of sauce, you can put as much as you like. Just keep in mind that we are using tomatoes on the pizza, and they will render their juices onto the dough. So, if you do not want a soggy pizza, try to not put an excessive amount of sauce.
- Spread some cheese on top of the sauce, and some pepperoni slices
- Spread the onion slices on top, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, and olives.
- Sprinkle some salt all over the pizza, ground black pepper, oregano, and garlic powder. This will help to give great flavor to the vegetables that we are topping the pizza with
- Drizzle the ¼ cup of olive oil all over the pizza, even on the crust.
- Place the pizza back into the oven, on the bottom rack, and bake at 450 F for 12 minutes.
- Remove the pizza from the oven, and allow to cool slightly. You can slice it using a kitchen scissor to prevent from cutting the mat. Serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
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