This comforting pizza focaccia bread is a delicious alternative to unhealthy appetizers, and it makes a great light meal. It’s topped with mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, olives and onion and spiked with herbs and seasonings for pizza-esque flavor without the need for cheese.
Veggie Pizza Focaccia that’s Homemade, Plant-Based, and Cheese-Free
Yes, this recipe really has no need for cheese – dairy or vegan! It’s loaded with spices and toppings for a satisfying hand-held appetizer or main. And here are a few quick tips:
- Flour – The recipe uses part white and part wheat for added nutrition without affecting the texture too much. If you only have all-purpose flour on hand, you can use it for all of the flour. But if you opt to use all wheat, it won’t rise as much and won’t be as tender.
- Herbs – You can use fresh herbs, if preferred, but you might want to add them later in the cooking process. You can use about 1 teaspoon fresh herb in place of the dried herb.
- Oil – Olive oil is the classic oil for focaccia bread, but in a pinch, you can use your favorite baking oil.
- Toppings – No need to feel married to these toppings. We also like sun-dried tomatoes (chopped), roasted red peppers, and spinach on our veggie pizza focaccia.
This pizza focaccia bread recipe with photo was shared with us by Culinary.net and AICR.org.
Special Diet Notes: Veggie Pizza Focaccia Bread
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, plant-based, and vegetarian.
Veggie Pizza Focaccia Bread
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This flavorful flatbread is pizza-esque, but doesn't require any cheese! If you have salt-free Italian seasoning on hand, you can use ¾ teaspoon in place of the oregano, thyme, and basil.
Author: American Institute for Cancer Research
Serves: 12 servings
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, divided
- 1 package (1/4 ounce) quick-rise yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup warm water (about 125 to 130°F)
- 1 tablespoon non-GMO canola oil or olive oil
Topping
- 7 medium fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 3 plum tomatoes, chopped
- 1 small green bell pepper, slivered
- ½ cup sliced black olives
- ¼ cup chopped red onion
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons cornmeal
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 475°F.
- To make the dough, in a mixing bowl, whisk together the whole-wheat flour, ½ cup all-purpose flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and oil. Beat with a mixer until smooth.
- Stir in the remaining all-purpose flour to form soft dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead by hand until consistent and elastic, about 4 minutes. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes.
- To make the topping, in a large bowl, stir together the mushrooms, tomatoes, green bell pepper, olives, onion, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, basil and garlic powder.
- Grease a 15x10x1-inch jelly roll baking pan. Sprinkle the bottom with the cornmeal.
- Gently press the dough evenly into the pan. Generously prick the dough with a fork.
- Bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- Evenly spread the topping mixture over the dough.
- Bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.
Key Pantry Supplies: Veggie Pizza Focaccia Bread
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2 Comments
Yummy! I’d want to make a meal of this!
This sounds so flavorful with all the toppings! Proves you don’t need cheese to make a good pie!