Hands up if you are a pizza lover! If your hands are up, you must make this flavorful Buffalo Chickpea Pizza. A fluffy homemade crust topped with mozzarella cheese, chickpeas, buffalo wing sauce, and drizzled with vegan ranch.
TIPS WHEN MAKING YOUR PIZZA DOUGH
- To make this pizza dough you only need 6 ingredients, flour, water, oil, yeast, salt and sugar. However, you can add additional seasoning to flavor your dough. Some of my favorites include dried herbs like oregano, basil, thyme and garlic powder.
- In a small bowl mix the warm water and yeast and set aside. The yeast should start to foam after 2-3 minutes. Be careful not to make your water too warm or you can damage (kill) the yeast. If your yeast doesn’t foam it might not be bad. I recommend dumping it out and trying again.
- You do not need to use a stand mixer to make this dough. You just need your good ole hands to knead the dough into a ball. This dough does not require a ton of kneading but just enough to make sure the dough forms into a large ball around 3-5 minutes.
- After kneading the dough you will place it in an oiled bowl and cover it with a linen towel. Place the bowl in a dark and warm area for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. I usually place it in my microwave or pantry where there is minimal light. The yeast in the dough will rise, almost doubling in size of the dough.
- If for some reason your dough doesn’t rise, there was something wrong with your yeast. But no worries, the pizza will still taste wonderful. You just won’t have as much dough and it might not be as fluffy after baking.
- Rolling out your dough is so much fun! You can make one giant pizza with the dough. Separate your dough in half and make two large pizzas or separate into fours and make four mini pizzas. I just recommend placing parchment paper under the dough so it doesn’t stick to the surface.
- I rolled the dough so that it makes a thick pizza. You don’t need a rolling pin to roll the dough out but if you have one I recommend using it. If you want to use a rolling pin but don’t have one use a glass cup on its side instead.
- Make sure to leave the edges of your dough thick and only roll or stretch the middle of the dough. It is up to you on how thick or thin you will want your pizza.
After you let your dough rise you will notice that it has doubled in size. You can either make one giant pizza or seperate the dough making two smaller pizzas. Or if you have little ones you can even separate the dough into fours making mini pizzas. You can get as creative as you want during this process.
After you have rolled out your crust you are going to spread the pizza, spread the mozzarella cheese and chickpeas tossed with buffalo wing sauce. Bake pizza at 500 degrees fahrenheit (218 C) for 7- 8 minutes. Since the oven is super hot, you do not have to bake it for a long period of time.
After you have baked the pizza I personally like the crust to be golden brown. One way to make sure to get a golden brown color is by spreading melted butter on the edge of the crust. Then place the pizza back in the oven on broil for an additional 2 minutes. I literally turn on the oven light during this process and watch the pizza for those 2 minutes. When your oven is that hot it can burn easily, trust me when I say this. I might have accidentally gotten distracted with the time once and let it burn.
Once the crust has been baked to a golden brown color take the pizza out and add the thinly sliced fresh spinach and green onion. Then drizzle additional buffalo wing sauce to the top of your pizza. You will notice that the buffalo wing sauce will slightly dry up in the oven so drizzling additional sauce gives your pizza that extra flavor.
Lastly, add the vegan ranch to the top of the pizza. If you don’t have ranch, substitute it with vegan sour cream instead. You will just need to slightly thin the sour cream to your desired consistency with dairy-free milk.
This Buffalo Chickpea Pizza is:
Spicy
Saucy
Fun to make
Family Friendly
Packed with Flavorful
When you make this Buffalo Chickpea Pizza I would love it if you would snap a photo of your food and share it with me on instagram @itsallgoodvegan.com. I can’t wait to see how you like it!
Buffalo Chickpea Pizza
Hands up if you are a pizza lover! If your hands are up, you must make this fluffy and flavorful Buffalo Chickpea Pizza. A homemade crust topped with chickpeas, buffalo wing sauce, fresh spinach, green onion, cilantro and drizzled with vegan ranch.
Dough
- 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour substitute with whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp sugar, I used cane sugar
- 1 tsp of active dry yeast or 1/2 packet of yeast
- ½ cup of warm water 105° -110° fahrenheit.
- ½ Tbsp of olive oil
- ½ tsp of salt
- 1 Tbsp olive oil (for the dough) + 1 tsp (to grease bowl)
Toppings
- 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce, I used Sweet Baby Ray’s Buffalo Wing Wing Sauce. *Add more sauce for an extra saucy pizza.
- 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas or garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese, I used vegan cheese.
- ¼ cup vegan ranch substitute with sour cream, thinned.
- 1/2 cup of fresh spinach, chopped thinly
- 2 Tbsp green onion, chopped
- 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro (optional)
- 2 Tbsp butter, I used dairy-free (optional) for the crust
Directions
- In a small bowl mix the warm water and yeast and set aside. The yeast should start to foam after 2-3 minutes. Be careful not to make your water too warm or you can damage (kill) the yeast. * If your yeast doesn’t foam it might not be bad. I recommend dumping it out and trying again.
- In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, and salt together. Slowly pour the yeast water and 1 Tbsp olive oil with the dry ingredients and mix until a soft dough has formed.
- Knead dough for 3-5 minutes forming it into a ball. Add an additional tablespoon of water if your dough is too dry.
- Place the dough in an oiled glass bowl. Cover the dough with a kitchen linen and place in a dark and warm place for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Allowing the dough to rise almost doubling in size.
- Meanwhile, prep your pizza toppings. Combine the chickpeas and buffalo wing sauce in a medium bowl and mix. Chop your fresh spinach and green onion. Set toppings aside.
- Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F (260 C). Once the dough has risen, punch the dough. Prep your counter for rolling your dough. You can do this by cleaning it or laying a large piece of parchment paper down.
- Roll out the dough using a rolling pin. If you notice the dough sticking add 1 tsp of flour to the surface. You want to leave the edges of the dough thicker than the middle of the pizza.*see the tip section for more details.
- Place the rolled out dough with the parchment paper directly on a large baking pan. If you do not have parchment paper spray your pan with oil. Using a fork lightly poke the middle of the dough. This will make sure the dough does not form air bubbles.
- Top your pizza evenly with mozzarella cheese and chickpeas tossed with buffalo wing sauce. Bake for 7-8 minutes.
- Take pizza out and add the melted butter on the crust (optional) and bake for an additional 2 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. *You can also turn your oven on broil, watching it very carefully. The pizza can burn very easily with the oven on a broil.
- Sprinkle with fresh spinach, green onion, and fresh cilantro. Drizzle with vegan ranch and additional buffalo wing sauce.
- Slice, eat, and enjoy! Leftovers will last in the refrigerator for 3 days wrapped up.
- Substitute unbleached all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour .
- Don’t have a round pan? Make a rectangle size pizza, it still is pretty and taste as yummy as the round pizzas.
- Add additional veggies to your pizza. Some other great veggies to use are sliced celery, white or red onions, and cauliflower.