Grilled Vegan Pizza Recipe

Don’t have an authentic wood-fired pizza oven? No problem—you can get the same charred flavor by grilling your pies. Here, we’ve topped a simple dough with olive oil, tapenade, and fresh vegetables for a light summertime meal that just so happens to be vegan.

Grilled Vegan Pizza

Yield: 8 servings
Active Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

For the crust:
1 2/3 cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for grilling
5 cups white wheat flour
2 teaspoons sea salt

For the toppings:
3 zucchini, sliced into long ribbons
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt
1 1/2 cups black olive tapenade
4 beefsteak tomatoes, sliced
2 cups arugula
1 to 2 avocados, sliced
2 to 3 lemons

Instructions

Make the dough
Combine water and yeast in a large bowl. Let sit 5 minutes, then stir in olive oil. Stir in flour and salt and mix together to form a dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly-floured surface and knead 10 minutes, adding more flour when necessary to prevent sticking. Place dough in a well-oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let dough rise until double in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Prepare the toppings
In a medium-sized bowl, toss zucchini ribbons with 2 tablespoons olive oil and a small pinch of salt.

Grill the pizzas
Heat grill to medium.

Divide dough into 8 balls and roll out to about 1/4-inch thick. Working in batches, place dough on grill, close the top, and cook 1 to 3 minutes, until pizza has char marks. Brush top with olive oil, flip over, and spread on olive tapenade. Top with tomatoes and zucchini. Close the grill and cook about 3 minutes more. Keep an eye on it, as cooking times will vary.

Add final toppings and serve
Off the grill, top pizzas with arugula, avocado, a sprinkle of salt, and a squeeze of lemon.

Photo credit: Paul Delmont