You will love this Veggie Pizza Recipe using our favorite whole wheat pizza dough recipe. It’s got pesto for the sauce, plenty of gooey mozzarella cheese, and lots of fresh, colorful veggies on top!
Looking for more super satisfying meatless options for your family? Be sure to try our Vegetarian Swiss Chard and Pinto Bean Burritos, Grilled Summer Vegetable Quesadillas, and Creamy Roasted Garlic & Mushroom Risotto!
Veggie Pizza Recipe
There is so much to love about a good veggie pizza! It’s easily customizable, you can load it with all your favorite healthy vegetable choices, and it’s meatless so it’s great if you vegetarians in your family!
It’s one of those pizzas where there are so many flavors and textures, that even people who typically eat meat don’t feel like they are missing anything.
I love changing up my veggie combinations for a new experience every time.
This particular pizza was made with pesto sauce (try my homemade pesto recipe!), sliced bell peppers, thinly sliced zucchini and tomatoes, and sliced onions.
Another one of my veggie pizzas is to use roasted red peppers with caramelized onions, fresh sliced mushrooms, and minced garlic with a classic tomato-based pizza sauce.
What is good on a veggie pizza?
These are our favorite veggie pizza toppings:
- roasted red peppers (so, so good)
- drained artichoke hearts
- roasted broccoli (raw broccoli doesn’t have enough time to cook and soften enough, so it needs to be at least partially roasted first)
- minced garlic
- sliced crimini or button mushrooms
- thinly sliced tomatoes
- sliced red, yellow, orange, or green peppers
- Chopped or sliced red, yellow, or green onions
- sliced olives
- sliced zucchini (a favorite that we came to love while traveling through Italy)
- fresh basil leaves
- fresh pesto sauce
- oregano
- spinach
- roasted eggplant
- roasted asparagus
- roasted garlic
- caramelized onions (also such a good topping with so much flavor!)
How do you make veggie pizza not soggy?
Par-bake the crust. If you have problems making pizza at home because the middle crust is always too soggy, chances are you are loading on too many toppings for the crust to cook all the way through before the edges are done.
You can solve this problem by baking the crust with nothing on it for 5 minutes. It won’t fully cook through, but this approach lets it get started enough so that it can finish cooking with the pizza toppings on it.
Roast some of the veggies before hand. Because pizza cooks so quickly in a very hot oven, many vegetable topping choices won’t have time to cook all the way through and would be too crunchy for our liking.
The fix is to roast the veggies beforehand, and then use the already roasted veggies to top the pizza. We love this approach with broccoli, asparagus, and eggplant.
It’s not necessary for red peppers, garlic, or onions, but roasting brings out a sweetness and caramelizes each of those options for a totally different experience that I recommend trying.
Brush the crust with a little olive oil. A third trick is to brush the crust with a little olive oil to create a protective barrier between the sauce and the crust. It also adds a wonderful dimension of flavor to the crust.
How to Make Whole Wheat Veggie Pizza
1. Make the dough. Proof yeast in warm water mixed with a little sugar. Add olive oil, salt, and flour and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth. Then cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in size (usually anywhere from 60-90 minutes). We almost always make this veggie pizza recipe with our favorite whole wheat pizza dough, but a classic pizza dough works just as well.
When the dough is partway through the rising process, I turn on the oven to 500 degrees F so it can get nice and hot. I recommend investing in a pizza stone and using it, but an upside down baking sheet will work in a pinch.
2. Stretch out the crust. I prefer to stretch my pizza crust rather than roll it. Start by patting the dough into a disc, then use your hands to gently press and stretch the pizza into a roughly circular shape. If it keeps wanting to shrink back on you, let the dough rest for 5 minutes before trying again.
Place the dough on a piece of parchment paper so it is easy to slide in and out of the oven.
3. Top with sauce. I have a pretty strong bias toward veggie pizza with pesto sauce (homemade pesto is great, but I also love the jars of pesto you can get at Costco), but you can use whatever sauce you like.
This no-cook homemade pizza sauce is our other favorite, or you could even use alfredo sauce. Typically we use anywhere from 1/4-½ cup of sauce, depending on how big the pizza is that we are making.
4. Add toppings. This is the fun part! I always start with a sprinkle of cheese first since I’ve found that little layer helps prevent both sogginess and it keeps the toppings from sliding right off when you take that first bite. Then I load up on the veggies. I start with the sturdier veggies like peppers, zucchini, and onions, and add the softer veggies like sliced tomatoes on top of those. Then sprinkle more cheese on top!
5. Bake. Slice the parchment paper holding the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone or overturned baking sheet in the screaming hot oven. Pizza does best when cooked quickly at higher temperatures so be sure you preheat your oven for at least 30 minutes first!
Bake for 10-15 minutes until the crust is brown around the edges and the cheese is melted on top.
How to reheat leftover pizza
I actually love eating cold veggie pizza that is leftover from the day before, but if you want to reheat leftover pizza, the best way to do that is in a very hot oven.
Oven method: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, then stick the leftover pizza in the oven on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil for easy cleanup and warm it for 8-10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and hot again.
Skillet method: You can also reheat individual slices in a skillet over medium heat, which can help keep the crust crispy on the bottom. Just add a slice or two to the skillet and let them warm for 2 minutes, then add a few drops of water to the side of the slices and cover the skillet with a lid. The steam from the water will get trapped in the lid and help melt the cheese on top in just another minute or two.
Microwave method: Reheating leftover pizza in the microwave is not our favorite method because the crust tends to get tough and the middle of the slice tends to be soggy. We don’t recommend it.
More Pizza Recipes You’ll Love
- The Best No-Cook Homemade Pizza Sauce
- The BEST Pizza Dough Recipe
- Grilled BBQ Chicken Pizza
- Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
- Four Cheese Pizza with Tomato Basil Arugula Salad
- Four Cheese Pizza with Tomato Basil Arugula Salad
- Chicken Tikka Masala Pizza
- Easy Stromboli Recipe
Did you make this recipe?
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
Whole Wheat Veggie Pizza
Ingredients
Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
- 1 1/4 cups warm water around 110 degrees F
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast or instant yeast
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
Toppings
- 1/2-1 cup pesto homemade or storebought
- 1/2 red bell pepper thinly sliced
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper thinly sliced
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- 1/2 zucchini thinly sliced
- 1 roma tomato thinly sliced
- 8 oz. crimini or button mushrooms sliced
- 1/2 cups freshly shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Combine the warm water, granulated sugar, honey, and yeast together in a large bowl. If using active dry yeast, let it proof for 5 minutes until foamy. If using instant yeast, proceed immediately to the next step.
- Add the olive oil, salt, and flour, and mix until combined either using a large wooden spoon or a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment.
- Knead for 5 minutes using the dough hook attachment on medium-low speed or by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic. If it is too sticky, you can add another ¼ cup of flour.
- Add a little olive oil to a large, clean bowl and transfer the ball of pizza dough to that bowl, turning to coat in the oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 60-90 minutes until doubled in size.
- While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (or as high as your oven will go). If you have a pizza stone, place that on the bottom rack of your oven before heating the oven so it can get really hot at the same time.
- When the dough has risen, divide it into two evenly-sized balls.
- Working with one ball of dough at a time, dust the dough with a little flour, then flatten it into a round disc. Use your hands to press and stretch the dough into a large, thin circle. If the dough keeps shrinking back, let it rest for 5 minutes before trying again. I like to do this on a sheet of parchment paper to make it easy to transfer my pizza to the oven.
- Spread 1/4-½ cup of pesto sauce on each circle of dough, depending on how much you like. Then sprinkle the pizzas with a little cheese and arrange the sliced veggies on top. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, then bake for 12-15 minutes until brown around the edges and cooked through.
- Slice and serve!
Notes
- If you plan to overload you pizza with lots of toppings, go ahead and bake it plain for 5 minutes first so the middle can cook through a bit.
- Leftover pizza can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Reheat in a 400 degrees F oven for 8-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and hot again.
