Roasted Vegetable Pizza

This pizza is a tasty alternative to, well, any non vegan pizza. Roasting the vegetables before topping the pizza imparts a lot of sweet and meaty flavors.

I use the prepared pizza dough at Trader Joe's. It's $0.99 and turns out buttery and with a chiabatta-like texture. I'll also describe my iron skillet technique, it's my substitute for a pizza stone.

1.5 hr prep and cook time

1 onion
2 sweet red/orange peppers
10 stalks asparagus
1 tomato
1 pizza worth of prepared pizza dough, rolled out to the size of your pan
1 T minced garlic
about 1/4 olive oil
1 T salt
1/4 cup basil, chiffonade
Marinara sauce (Optional for crust-dipping)


Start by roasting the vegetables. Cut all the vegetables into quarters, except for the asparagus, just trim the stalks and leave them whole. Toss with about 2 T of olive oil and about 1 t of salt, and bake in a preheated oven at 450F.

The hard part about this is that the vegetables are going to be done at different times, so you'll want to pull out the vegetables when they're done cooking. The asparagus might only take 10 minutes, but the onions may take up to an hour to get good color. I also stir and flip the vegetables to make sure there aren't any really burnt spots, but keep in mind that a little is good, and will add to the flavor of the dish.

If you want to use the iron skillet method, start heating it up on the stove over a high flame. It needs about 10 minutes to get really hot. (You'll also want to make sure that your skillet is well-seasoned to prevent sticking).

When the vegetables are done, set them aside to cool, and carefully lay your dough in the heated skillet. When I did this, my dough was too wide, so I rolled it over to create a fat crust, but this may not happen you if you plan ahead. Coat the crust of the dough generously in olive oil, and let some fall over the edges of the crust, it will creep into the side of the pan and discourage sticking.

Sprinkle the top of the pizza, including the crust with the garlic and the veggies, either diced or whole (the tomatoes will be pretty decimated by this point, so I just used them as the "sauce"). Then sprinkle some salt on the pizza, focusing on the crust. (You may want to taste how salty the roasted vegetables are before determining how much to put on top.)

Bake for about 15 minutes at 350F, or until the crust is done. Finish by topping the top of the pizza with basil, and serve with marinara sauce if desired.