Vegan margherita pizza with melting cashew mozzarella

A margherita is the simplest pizza there is: a thin, chewy crust, tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil, nothing else to hide behind. This vegan version keeps all four parts and makes each one work in a home oven. The dough is a plain yeast dough that needs no special flour. The tomato sauce is simmered briefly until thick, so it does not soak the crust. And the mozzarella is made from cashews and tapioca starch, cooked on the stove before it goes on the pizza, so it softens, melts and browns in spots instead of drying out.

What makes a margherita vegan

Of the four parts, only one is a problem in a regular margherita: the mozzarella, which is a dairy cheese. A classic margherita is meatless, so it is usually counted as vegetarian, but it is not vegan, and strict vegetarians also check the cheese, because some mozzarella is made with animal rennet.

The other three parts are normally plant-based already. Basic pizza dough is flour, water, yeast, salt and often olive oil. Store-bought doughs and frozen crusts vary, though, and some contain milk, butter, whey or honey, so read the ingredient list. Plain tomato sauce is vegan; some jarred pizza sauces add cheese, so check those too. Basil is basil.

The traditional Neapolitan pizza with no cheese at all is the marinara: tomato, garlic, oregano and olive oil. The margherita on the card keeps the cheese and makes it from cashews instead.

Dough timing: same day or overnight

The dough on the card is flour, water, yeast, salt and olive oil, kneaded until smooth and risen at room temperature for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Doubled in size is the cue that matters, more than the clock: a warm kitchen gets there sooner, a cool one takes longer.

If you can plan ahead, refrigerate the kneaded dough overnight instead of rising it on the counter. The cold slows the yeast right down, and over the longer rest the dough develops more flavor and a slightly crisper, more blistered crust. Take it out about an hour before shaping, because cold dough fights back when you stretch it.

A few points that make the dough easier to handle:

• Measure the flour by spooning it into the cup and leveling it. Scooping straight from the bag packs it down and makes a stiff, dry dough.
• Water should feel warm, not hot. Yeast is killed by water that is too hot to hold a finger in comfortably.
• Let the dough balls rest for 10 minutes before stretching. Gluten tightens when the dough is handled and relaxes as it sits; dough that keeps shrinking back simply needs a few more minutes.

All-purpose flour gives a tender, chewy crust. Bread flour, which has more protein, gives a chewier crust with more structure. Use the same amount, but it absorbs a little more water, so add a tablespoon or two of extra lukewarm water if the dough feels stiff.

Getting the oven hot enough

Pizza ovens run far hotter than any home oven, so the job at home is to get as close as possible. Set the oven to 500°F (260°C), or its highest setting if that is lower, and heat a pizza stone, baking steel or upside-down heavy baking sheet on the middle rack for about 45 minutes. The oven’s thermostat says it is ready long before the stone is: the stone needs the extra time to soak up heat, and it is that stored heat that cooks the base quickly and puffs the rim.

A steel conducts heat faster than a stone and browns the underside more; a baking sheet browns it least. All three work.

Assembling so the center is not soggy

A soggy center has a few causes, and the recipe deals with each:

1. Watery sauce. Canned tomatoes are mostly liquid. Simmering them for 10 to 15 minutes, until a spoon dragged across the pan leaves a clear trail, drives off that water before it can reach the dough.
2. Too much topping. Half the sauce per pizza, spread thinly, and the cheese dotted in small spoonfuls rather than spread in a layer. Gaps let steam escape.
3. Waiting too long. Once sauce touches raw dough, the dough starts absorbing it. Top the pizza on the peel and get it into the oven straight away.
4. A center stretched too thin. Stretch from the rim outward and keep the middle about as thick as the rest of the base, not paper-thin.

Shake the peel gently before sliding. If the dough sticks, lift the edge and toss a little more flour underneath. Bake until the rim is puffed and deep golden and the underside is browned, 10 to 12 minutes.

If the crust is done but the cheese has not browned, switch the oven to broil for the last 1 to 2 minutes and watch it the whole time: under a broiler the rim and cheese go from golden to scorched very quickly. Plain-white cheese is not a sign of a failed recipe, though; the cashew mozzarella melts into soft pools whether or not it colors.

The cashew mozzarella

Raw cashews blend into a smooth, neutral cream, which is why they are the usual base for dairy-free cheeses. A 15-minute soak in boiling water softens them enough for any blender; a high-speed blender gives the silkiest result, and a regular blender needs longer, with stops to scrape down the sides. If the mixture feels gritty between your fingers, keep blending.

The tapioca starch is what turns that cream into something mozzarella-like. When it is heated with the cashew mixture, the starch swells and gels, and the result goes from lumpy to thick, glossy and stretchy in a few minutes of stirring. Tapioca starch is light and fluffy, and cup and spoon measures of it vary a lot, so the card gives it by weight; weigh it.

Cooking the cheese before it goes on the pizza is the step that matters most. Uncooked cashew cream dotted on a pizza tends to crust over and stay pasty inside. Pre-cooked, it softens into creamy pools in the oven and browns in spots.

For a more savory, cheesier taste, blend a tablespoon of nutritional yeast in with the cashews. Harvard Health Publishing describes nutritional yeast as an inactivated yeast that processors kill with heat, so that the cells “release glutamic acid, a savory flavor”. It is left out of the card because it is optional; see what nutritional yeast is and how to use it.

Basil goes on last

Fresh basil scorches and turns black in a 500°F oven within minutes. Scatter it over the pizza as soon as it comes out, tearing large leaves, and the heat of the pizza releases its scent without cooking it to nothing. A drizzle of olive oil over the top at the same time is traditional, but optional.

Shortcuts with store-bought parts

Each of the three components can be swapped for a ready-made one, and the method stays the same:

A store-bought par-baked crust also works: top it the same way and bake on the hot stone until the cheese is melted and the edges are crisp, following the package time as a guide, because crusts differ.

Substitutions and variations

• Store-bought vegan mozzarella works in place of the cashew cheese. Check the label if you need to avoid coconut or nuts, since many are made from coconut oil or cashews.
• Whole wheat flour: replacing up to a third of the flour gives a nuttier crust; more than that makes the dough dense and harder to stretch unless you add more water.
• Gluten-free flour does not work in this dough. Gluten is what lets it stretch and hold gas; a gluten-free crust needs its own recipe. For a gluten-free margherita, use a store-bought gluten-free crust with the sauce, cashew mozzarella and basil on the card, which are made with gluten-free ingredients; check labels for cross-contact.
• Fresh tomatoes instead of sauce: thin slices of ripe tomato can replace the sauce in summer. Salt them lightly and lay them on paper towels for 10 minutes to draw out water before they go on the dough, or they flood the center.
• Toppings: thinly sliced mushrooms, red onion, olives or roasted peppers all work, but keep them light, for the same reason as the sauce. Wet vegetables such as raw zucchini add water to the center.
• Spicy: add a pinch of red pepper flakes to the sauce as it simmers.

If you have sauce left over, it is also good spooned over pasta, and the same thick-sauce principle shows up in chickpea ratatouille, another dish that relies on cooking tomatoes down rather than thickening them.

Making parts ahead and storing leftovers

The dough can rise overnight in the refrigerator. The sauce and cashew mozzarella can be made a day ahead and refrigerated, covered; the cheese firms up when cold, but it melts again in the oven, so dot it on cold.

Refrigerate leftover pizza within 2 hours of baking, at 40°F or below. FoodSafety.gov lists 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator for pizza and 1 to 2 months in the freezer, and notes that its freezer times are “for quality only”. To reheat, warm slices in a covered skillet over medium heat, which crisps the base again, or in a hot oven, until they reach 165°F, the reheating temperature USDA gives for leftovers.

Allergy and ingredient notes

The cashew mozzarella contains tree nuts (cashews), and the dough contains wheat and gluten. There is no soy, peanut, sesame or coconut in the recipe as written. For a nut-free pizza, leave off the cashew cheese and add more toppings to make a marinara-style pizza, or use a nut-free vegan mozzarella and check its label. Swapping in gluten-free flour needs a different dough recipe, as noted above.

The nutrition on the card is for half a pizza, without the optional nutritional yeast. Most of its energy comes from the flour in the crust, followed by the cashews and the olive oil; the sauce and basil add very little. Extra toppings, or a store-bought dough or cheese in place of the homemade ones, change the figures.

For a bigger meal, serve the pizza with a green salad. For another plant-based main that keeps and reheats well, see the vegan chili.