Vegan Margherita Pizza
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.
Homemade Vegan Moxarella, without any artificial anything. It browns and stretches.
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
Method: 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. agave
- sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
Method: 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.
Note: This recipe is one of the most popular recipes on my site and is therefore one of the most copied/imitated. If you make this cheese and like it enough to blog about it, please have the ethics to respect me, my creativity and the weeks that I spent developing this recipe by simply linking to this post rather than sharing the recipe on your own site. ❤️ -Somer
- 1/4 cup raw cashews (soaked in water for several hours and then drained IF you don’t have a high powered blender)
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon tapioca starch
- 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Method: 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. 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 below. 
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. 
I won’t take any responsibility for anyone burning their mouth on hot cheese.
Vedged Out 
Reblogged this on WTFAW and commented:
I have been looking for a cheese substitute for my wife who cant eat Pizza without cheese, I will try this and report back 🙂
Get a copy of the book called Artisan Vegan cheese by Miyoko Schinner. She also has a website but the book will work for you. Loads of vegan cheese recipes. She’s even got a great video on youtube where she makes vegan buffalo mozzarella.
Can this be used to top a lasagna please
Of course! It can be used for filling layers too. Just make a double or triple batch.
the hardest part of this recipe was trying to put the cheese on the pizza! Other than that, it was absolutely delicious. Such a great texture.
Does it need to have tapioca starch? I don’t have any, but I do have corn starch
and some kind of gum… I don’t remember which haha
Rebecca, you can use cornstarch, but the cheese won’t stretch.
This looks so good! Can I replace cornstarch for the tapioca flour?? And if so, how much should I use? TIA!! 🙂
Hi Kelly, you can use cornstarch in the equal amount listed as the tapioca starch. It just won’t have the stretch factor.
Do you think agar flakes would work instead of tapioca starch?
No
Would you say this or the solid moxarella has more of a regular cheese texture? I made this with coconut milk since we have nut allergies in my family and it had a pretty slimy texture. Does the original recipe share that characteristic? I’ve thought about using butternut squash seeds instead of the cashews to see if that changed things.
Sarah, it has the consistency of melted cheese. It is not solid. Once it is baked, it firms up and the top develops a “crust”. I’m not sure if butternut squash seeds would work very well, but you could try very well soaked sunflower seeds.
Hello Somer
I’m french and I don’t know about C, t, T… can you explain? I have all the ingredients to make it ans I’m very impatient!
Thanks!
C is cup, T is tablespoon, t is teaspoon
C = tasse (250 mL), t = c. à thé ou c. à café (5 mL), T = c. à soupe (15 mL)
Hi, I have been using the moxarella on pizza and love it!
I am wondering how it would do in a soup… Have you ever tried that?
I have a recipe for a lasagna soup, and am wondering how this would hold up while floating around in the broth.… Wondering if it would have the same stringiness/stretch texture that regular cheese has when added to soup.
For health reasons, our entire family is probably going to need to go gluten and dairy free soon. Several will be very resistant to this. I am trying to sneak in alternatives before we make the leap, so that I can tell them they’ve been eating that way and just didn’t know it…. Trying to find ways to make the transition a tiny bit easier on them. 😉
I’m really not sure it would hold up in a soup, I think it would be best to blend it up, then cook it directly in the soup, for a thicker, cheesy soup consistency. I do not think it will remain whole. However, you could top the soup with dollops of it and that might work.
Hey 🙂
Do you think this work without juice? I’m allergic to lemon juice, and to other juices which are similar to it
It won’t have any sharpness, but the recipe should work fine. You could also try 1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar.
Do you think a different nut (maybe blanched almonds) might work? I’m allergic to cashews…
blanched almonds should work, but try increasing the tapioca starch a smidge. Blanced almond flour will give you an even smoother blend.
Hi & Greetings from the UK. Can you help please. Do you know if tapiaco starch is the same as tapiaco flour? Here in the UK we have tapiaco flour. We also have cornflour which I think you might call cornstarch. But it sounds like you need the tapiaco to get the stretch consistency. Many thanks. NM.
It’s the very same! Best of luck
I have been using this recipe for over a year and decided it is about time I tell you how much we love it! It is such an awesome treat! I use almonds since my son is allergic to all tree nuts except almonds. They work very well, I let them soak for about 20-30 minutes before making the cheese. Thanks for the recipe!
I’ve tried this twice and both times the mixture just didn’t thicken or stretch even when I added extra tapioca starch…ended up with about a spoonful of liquid 😦 any ideas why?
Hey! I’m not sure what’s going on since thousands upon thousands of people have made this recipe with success. However, the cashews help to thicken the cheese, so if you don’t have a high speed blender than you may want to soak the cashews prior to blending for 4-6 hours. Use the soak water as your blending water so that you’re not adding additional water to the mix.
Just a thought, but how long are you cooking the mixture for? and at what temperature? It seems that area might be the downfall…
Mine was a little runny too at first. I made it exactly as suggested. Then I just left it on the stove a lot longer and it finally started thickening and then came out great. I use a nonstick pan, so maybe that’s the problem. But I basically needed to double maybe even triple the cooking and stirring time. Then voila. I stirred constantly to keep it from burning.
Can i use almond instead of cashews,
Other people have tried that. I don’t know if it will be thick enough, I would recommend almond flour or blanched almonds if you decide to try.
Hi, is there anything I could use instead of tapioca starch? I live in Tanzania so very limited… what about millet flour, or chickpea flour?
Hannah, try cornstarch, arrowroot or potato starch. The cheese won’t stretch as much, but will still be delicious. I would not recommend millet or chickpea.
I have been to africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Zambia and they have plenty of Cassava root or yucca root, this is what tapioca starch is made from so if you look for cassava flour, yucca flour that is the same thing. I have seen Brazilians make ‘cheese’ sauce with cooked fresh hot cassava root, blend with cashews and season the same way, pour on a quiche or pizza! Yum!
I cannot find the temperature to bake the pizza!!
500 degrees. The temperature is listed for preheating in the assembly paragraph.
I could only find tapioca pearls. How would i use them?
We had this for dinner tonight!! Delicious!! Glad I made a double batch of the cheese. I’m looking forward to using it for sandwiches tomorrow!! Great recipe!
So I tried these tonight and it’s the best pizza!!!! I even made some pizza sticks as the dough is just so delicious. Thank you!!!