A spicy, vegan white pizza with creamy, dairy-free truffle cream. Topped with roasted broccoli rabe, sun dried tomatoes & shiitake mushrooms.
My favourite dinner night, when it’s just me and my partner staying in, is homemade pizza night. I don’t need to tell you that pizza is basically the world’s most perfect food. This vegan white pizza has been our go-to lately. When it’s warm enough outside, I usually place my pizza stone on the grates of our grill and blast the thing to high. In colder seasons though, we’re grateful for the residual heat beaming from the oven after the pizza has been long-devoured. See? The most perfect food.
The thing though: I find the process of stretching the dough, flouring the counter/my entire kitchen, and transferring the pre-baked pizza to be sorta stressful. I always wind up with way too much flour on the bottom of my pizza. The move from peel to stone makes a big, flour-y mess too. I solved this issue for myself recently though, and even though my tip is probably common sense to most, I felt pretty smart when it hit me.
I lay a sheet of parchment on the peel, carefully transfer my stretched dough to the parchment, re-stretch/shape it a bit, and THEN I cut a tiny parchment border around the dough circle with a little pull tab on one side for transferring to the peel. There isn’t enough parchment exposed that you’ll get burnt paper, and it makes the process so much cleaner. It’s made for a lot more pizza nights around here ;)
Our favourite pizza lately? It’s this incredible spicy and vegan white pizza with broccoli rabe. I make a creamy and lush sauce out of white beans, truffle oil, nutritional yeast and garlic—I swear it doesn’t taste bean-y at all once it’s all in the mix. Broccoli rabe is one of my favourite pizza toppings, and it vibes perfectly with shallots, lush shiitakes, pepperoncinis, oregano, sundried tomatoes, and the creamy sauce here. The pizza is so green and vibrant—basically the same as eating salad, ya know? After the Valentine’s Day party, it’s the pizza party. Who’s with me?
Spicy Vegan White Pizza with Broccoli Rabe & Truffle Cream
Ingredients
Truffle White Sauce
- ¾ cup cooked white beans like cannellini or navy beans
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled
- ¼ teaspoon white truffle oil
- sea salt & ground black pepper
Toppings & Assembly
- ½ bunch broccoli rabe, tough stems removed and chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra
- 6 oz/185 grams shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
- ¾ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 lb/454 grams pizza dough at room temperature
- flour of choice, for dusting
- 1 small shallot, thinly sliced
- 3-4 pickled pepperoncini peppers, drained and sliced
- ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced sliced
- 1 sprig oregano, leaves roughly chopped
Equipment
Notes
- If you don’t have a pizza stone/pizza peel, I would recommend preheating the oven to 450 degrees F instead and heating a half sheet pan in there for about 5 minutes. Carefully remove the sheet pan from the oven and pour a drizzle of olive oil into it. Move the oil around with a pastry brush or spatula, then quickly and carefully transfer your stretched out dough to the sheet pan. You should hear a sizzle. Top the pizza and proceed with baking, checking the pizza after 15 minutes and cooking it longer if necessary.
Instructions
- Lay a pizza stone on the bottom rack of a cold oven, ensuring that there’s enough clearance above to transfer the pizza. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
- Make the truffled white sauce: in an upright blender combine the white beans, water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, garlic, truffle oil, salt, and pepper. Blend the mixture on high until completely smooth. The consistency should be similar to that of a creamy salad dressing: thick, but drips off of a spoon. Set aside.
- Fill a large saucepan or deep skillet/braiser with water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Place the chopped broccoli rabe into the water and cook for 1 minute. Drain the broccoli rabe and run cold water over it to stop the cooking process. Dry the broccoli rabe with paper towels and set aside.
- Wipe out the saucepan/braiser and set it back over medium-high heat. Pour in the tablespoon of olive oil. Add the sliced shiitake mushrooms to the pan. Let them sear for 1 minute. Stir them up and add the paprika and garlic. Let the mushrooms sear for another full minute. Season with salt and pepper and stir. They should be glistening and soft. Take the mushrooms off the heat, scrape them into a bowl, and set aside.
- Dust your working surface and a pizza peel with flour OR line it with a piece of parchment paper. Start stretching out the dough until you have a 12-inch circle of even thickness. Carefully transfer the dough circle to the floured/papered peel. If you use the paper method, trim the paper so that you have a ½ inch border around the circle of dough.
- Top the pizza with the truffled white sauce, broccoli rabe, shiitake mushrooms, shallots, pepperoncini peppers, sundried tomatoes, and oregano.
- Jiggle the pizza peel to ensure that the pizza will come loose. If it’s sticking, carefully lift up the edges and toss in a bit more flour until it seems to loosen from the peel.
- Open the oven and with equal measures of care and efficiency, slide the pizza off of the peel and onto the hot stone with a few flicks of your wrist (or just pull a tab of the parchment paper). Close the oven immediately.
- Let the pizza cook for 7 minutes. Open the oven and, using the peel, rotate the pizza. Cook for an additional 5 minutes, or until the top crust is browning in spots and you can see some light char on the mushrooms.
- Remove the pizza from the oven. Give the pizza a light drizzle of olive oil before slicing and serving.
**This post was created in partnership with Andy Boy Broccoli Rabe. All opinions expressed are my own. Thanks for supporting!
Really a wonderful recipe! I’ve never made broccoli rabe before and this was my first time having it. It was more bitter than I was expecting but balanced well with the other toppings. The white bean truffle cream sauce was quite good. I think if I made the sauce again I would want it to be a little bit more of a dressing consistency – I think my batch was a little too thick. Next time I think I will add a bit more mushroom, chop the broccoli rabe a bit finer, add more banana pepper/red pepper flakes, add some buffalo mozzarella (or vegan mozzarella), and top it off with some good Brightland olive oil. Overall quite delicious and will be trying it again!
Loved this combo! I didn’t have truffle oil…so I subbed in freshly snipped rosemary for a stand-out flavor…it was so tasty with the mushrooms…also, added very thinly sliced and roasted butternut squash for a sweet note in lieu of the SD tomatoes. Perfect! Thank you!
Where did you find truffle oil? Does it taste the same as using truffles? I haven’t used either before. But this recipes sounds amazing!
This looks amazing! Your photography is awesome as well!!
http://www.clare-without-an-i.com
Laura, this is simply stunning. I am also so in love with your photography and recipes. I recon I make one of your dishes every week, thanks for all you do. C
This will be the next thing I will prepare for my husband :)
Mmm, Laura, I love rapini on pizza or off, but thanks especially for this gorgeous sauce idea! White beans: that’s perfect, and gosh you’re clever. I’m using roasted garlic in mine. Yes, I tend these days to make a no-knead pizza dough that is very wet, so much so that there’s no point trying to transfer it between peels and stones and whatever, so parchment has been the way to go: it works a treat! Super idea to trim the edges though, so you don’t get that burnt paper thing … thx again! xo
Your food just make so much sense to me, more than any other food blogger’s food. Made this tonight. It was inhaled by myself and my two meat-eating, 20-something guy friends. I have been cooking from your bonus recipes, too. The enchiladas were a HUGE hit, as was the kale pesto bowl. I can’t wait for your book to arrive. I pre-ordered it months ago. Thank you for your endless inspiration.
OMGGG I totally had the same parchment paper revelation! It made pizza night THAT much more appealing (if that’s even possible). I love this recipe, it looks amazing. Think I know what friday night is going to look like <3
This recipe is perfect! I made a few substitutions, and drizzled a honey/sambal sauce over the top, but loved the white sauce so much!
This is absolutely GORGEOUS, Laura! :D
What dough recipe did you use here?
This looks amazing! I have broccoli rabe in the fridge and love the idea of that white sauce :) Making ASAP
The truffled cream sauce really caught me attention. What a fabulous combination!
Haha! I too have SO much anxiety around pizza peel/stone transfer. This may just solve my problems! Thanks for the genius tip. Also, um, this recipe…major yum.
You had me at truffle cream and then you upped the ante with 3 of my favorite veggies (well to be honest, most veggies are my favorite!) broccoli rabe, shitakes and sun dried tomatoes. Your pictures are also so gorgeous, I wish I could just reach through my computer screen and pick up a slice of this right now! But, I do have to say I am most excited and intrigued by your sauce. I’ve been making a lot of cashew cream sauces lately so the white beans will be a nice switch up to my usual. Thanks for the inspiration and yumminess!
YES to pizza, always!! This pizza looks like the meal of my dreams, especially with that truffled cream sauce… YUM!!
I was expecting to see a pizza crust recipe too. Was is the crust recipe you used with this? It looks yummy!
Hi Laurie!
I actually bought the pizza dough for these photos. But I make this spelt-based recipe most of the time: http://baked-theblog.com/easy-grilled-spelt-flatbreads-recipe/
-L
Omg, I used to love white pizza when I was an omnivore and I miss it so much. Usually white vegan sauces are cashew or coconut based, making them too fat for my liking, but this one, with white beans and truffle oil, is just perfection. Thanks so much for sharing!
Recipe looks fantastic– nothing better than pizza!! Love Andy Boy Romaine — will have to give their rabe a try! Your kitch pics are always great — quick question: where did you get your dough board?
The dough board is a large cutting board by Zwilling J.A. Henckels! It’s the best cutting board/all purpose board I’ve ever had :)
-L
This pizza sounds delicious :) I love broccoli rabe on cauli pizza but this sounds much more fancy, especially with that sauce. Your event also sounds so dreamy!
Oh Laura, this looks beautiful :) Pizza is also a favorite in our household, and we made yesterday for Valentines just the two of us. There is nothing like homemade pizza! The parchment paper is something I’ve been doing for a while now and it does help with the flour mess!I will start to cut it like you suggested to avoid the burn (and save on the parchment paper!) Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe!
We did pizza for Valentine’s day too! Thanks so much, Lee.
-L
Pizza 4 LYFE. People are always so impressed when I make it, but literally it’s just dough, toppings and baking it, so easy! I mean, I’ll take it if they think I’m fancy :) Totally trying this white sauce on our next pizza! xo
Um yes to pizza ! And what a genius white sauce recipe. sticking this one in my back pocket for future pizza nights xx
I am literally salivating here! The sauce sounds very interesting and can’t wait to try it!Love your photos!
Do you have a favorite pizza dough recipe you can share?
I use this spelt-based one most of the time!: http://baked-theblog.com/easy-grilled-spelt-flatbreads-recipe/