Recipe: Individual Vegan Margherita Pizzas with Homemade Fresh Moxarella Cheese

If you don’t want to make a pizza from scratch, then use bottled pizza sauce, and a pre-bought crust, but whatever you do, Please make the fresh Moxarella Cheese. It’s nearly instant. Individual Pizzas Make Everyone Happy!

Vegan Margherita Pizzas 

This Recipe Makes 4 individual pizzas. Don’t forget to have fresh tomatoes and basil on hand. First, start the dough.

Pizza Dough

This crust contains gluten, for several gluten free crust options, click here.

• 2 C. organic all purpose flour
• 1 C. organic whole wheat flour
• 2 1/4 t. active dry yeast (1 packet)
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 t. sea salt
• 1 t. agave
• 1 T. extra virgin olive oil (optional)

Preparation

Combine all ingredients and knead for 10 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 60 minutes until doubled. While the dough is rising, make the pizza sauce and the fresh moxarella cheese.

 

The Pizza Sauce

• one 14 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1/2 t. dried thyme
• 1/2 t. dried oregano
• 1/2 t. dried basil
• 1 T. extra virgin olive oil (optional)
• 1 t. agave
• sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

Preparation

Saute the garlic in a little vegetable broth or the olive oil in a small saucepan for a minute or two on medium heat. Add all the other ingredients. Reduce heat to low and let simmer while you make the Moxarella Cheese.

 

Fresh Moxarella Cheese

I wanted to call this “Foxy Moxy,” but that name has been taken by some unsavory characters on the web….

This cheese stays in a “melted” type form until baked, and then it forms a nice crust, like dairy cheese does. It’s not intended to be eaten plain (like real dairy fresh mozzarella can). It’s also fairly salty to make it stand out in your recipes, if you prefer less salt, please feel free to reduce to 1/2 teaspoon, or less, but the flavor won’t be as pronounced.

• 1/4 C. raw cashews (soaked in water for several hours and then drained IF you don’t have a high powered blender)
• 1 C. hot water
• 2  T. + 1 t. tapioca starch
• 1 T. extra virgin olive oil (optional)
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 3/4  t. sea salt
• 1 t. fresh lemon juice

Preparation

Blend all ingredients together in a high speed blender until completely smooth, about 1 minute. Pour into a small saucepan and cook, stirring constantly over medium high heat. After a couple of minutes the mixture will start to look weird, like it’s curdling or separating. This is totally normal, reduce heat to medium and KEEP stirring so you don’t burn the cheese to the bottom of the pot. Keep cooking and stirring til really thick (about 2-3 more minutes) and the mixture becomes like a cohesive mass of melted dairy cheese and stretches like in the photo below. Remove from heat and let cool a bit while you assemble the pizzas.

p.s. Moxarella stores well in a sealed container in the fridge for a few days and can be used to make excellent grilled cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese, etc….

 

Assembly

Your dough should be nearly ready now, so when it hits 60 minutes or is doubled, punch it down and divide it into four pieces. Preheat the oven to 500°. Roll out the dough on a floured surface as thin or thick as you like. We opted for thicker pizzas this round. Spread each pizza with 1/4 of the pizza sauce. Top with fresh tomato slices, dollops of the fresh moxarella cheese and fresh basil leaves like shown in the photo.

Bake individual pizzas for 10-12 minutes on a baking sheet until cheese and the crusts are nicely browned. Note: there is a very fine line between nicely browned and burnt here, so please, watch your pizzas carefully. Sprinkle pizzas with a bit of additional chopped fresh basil once out of the oven if desired.