Two years ago I had a great time participating in the Paulie Gee’s Dough Down Throw Down IV Vegan Edition. I made FOUR GALLONS of vegan nacho cheese for my entry, Nachos Rule, and ended the night in the best way possible – tying for the win against my friend.
Outside of the occasional series of Instagram Stories, I never make cooking videos. I just don’t have a good set up for it in my apartment, and I kind of started recipe blogging in a pre-YouTube age so I just kinda never got into it and let the world pass me by. But, everyone is cooking at home these days and Nacho Pizza is a fun project so I figured I’d go for it. You could do this 100% from scratch and really make a day of it, or take some short cuts. I’m going to provide recipe links and shortcut suggestions here, and you can watch me put this whole thing together on my IGTV @bakeanddestroy.
Vegan Pizza Crust
Make your own with The Vegan Roadie’s simple Pizza Crust Recipe, or go store-bought. You can also see if your favorite pizza place will sell you dough, I was surprised to find out my local joint sold two balls of dough for a couple dollars.
Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce
You can make my Nacho Chee-Zee Sauce recipe, which calls for soaked cashews, or my nut-free/no-soak Nut-Free Nacho Chee-Zee Sauce recipe.
For a shortcut, use your favorite store-bought vegan queso. I don’t recommend using vegan cheese shreds as a base here – but if you want to skip the base layer of cheese I recommend using a restaurant-style salsa as your base.
Hot Toppings
These are the ingredients that you want to bake in the oven – so hold your fresh greens and extra sauces until the end. I like chopped onion, tomato, and olives.
Protein
You could use cooked black beans here, but my personal preference is Upton’s Naturals Chorizo Seitan because its already seasoned and ready to use out of the package.
Fresh Ingredients & Finishing Touches
After the pizza has been removed from the oven you can add any fresh ingredients that you didn’t want to bake – some nice touches for Nacho Pizza are fresh cilantro or shredded lettuce.
I also finish mine with crushed tortilla chips, and a drizzle of more Nacho Chee-Zee Sauce and Vegan Sour Cream. You can use your favorite store bought like Follow Your Heart or Tofutti, or make your own. I like this Cashew Sour Cream, and this Sunflower Seed Sour Cream.
For one last nacho-y touch, I add chunks of ripe avocado.
Assembly
To assemble, smooth a layer of Nacho Chee-Zee sauce on your unbaked pizza crust. Sprinkle on whatever toppings you intent to bake, and bake! When the pizza comes out of the oven, add your fresh ingredients and final touches. Then eat. Pretty easy, right?
Make mini pizzas and let everyone in the family choose their own toppings!
