According to one recent Pizza Hut survey, the average American eats around eight slices of pizza every month—that’s nearly 100 slices every year. In 2022, another survey by Swns Digital found that people in the US love pizza so much that more than 30 percent of them would text their ex to get an unlimited supply, while nearly 40 percent would allow every single movie they watched for a year to be spoiled for an endless amount of slices. Pizza is, without a doubt, a big deal in the US.
Another survey, this time conducted by YouGov in 2022, found that while 47 percent of Americans prefer a thin-crusted pizza, and 17 percent were happy with any type of pizza, for more than 30 percent of people, deep-dish is always the winner. With a thick, buttery pie crust, and inverted layers of cheese, fillings, and tomato, deep-dish pizza is hearty, filling, comforting, and delicious. It’s traditionally made with dairy cheese and meat, but it’s just as tasty when it’s plant-based. For further proof, check out some of our favorite vegan deep-dish pizza recipes below.
Connoiseurus Veg
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Where was deep-dish pizza invented?
Naples, Italy is widely considered to be the birthplace of pizza. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, street vendors used to sell flatbreads topped with tomatoes and other ingredients to the city’s poorer populations.
Deep-dish pizza is a descendant of the traditional Italian recipe. According to BBC, when immigrants from Naples landed in the US, many of them headed to the city of Chicago in the Midwest, which was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at the time, to find work. And with them, they brought pizza, the traditional thin, tomato- and cheese-topped variety.
But one Italian immigrant named Ric Riccardo wanted to create something a little different. He teamed up with Texas businessman Ike Sewell to create a new, innovative, recipe, and the Chicago-style deep-dish pizza—with a pie crust, cheese on the bottom, toppings in the middle, and tomato on the top—was born.
Now, this indulgent and distinctly Italian-American dish is one of many reasons why millions of tourists flock to Chicago each year.
What makes a pizza deep-dish?
A deep-dish pizza is different from a traditional thin-crust pizza because of its layering.
While Italian pizzas feature dough topped with tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings, a deep dish pizza coats a thick base with cheese first, before adding the toppings, and then the tomato sauce goes on top. This gives the pizza more of a pie-like appearance and changes the texture significantly.
In fact, deep-dish pizza has even been described as a casserole on more than one occasion (most famously by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show in 2013), and in 2014, Chicago-based chef Graham Elliot told Eater that it was like “a lasagna with a crust.”
Deep-dish pizza certainly has its haters (Elliot called it “an abomination), but it has plenty of fans, too. Minneapolis chef Andrew Zimmern, for example, admitted to Eater he would call the dish more of a pie, but added that it’s “fantastic food. It’s unbelievably delicious.”
How to make vegan deep-dish pizza: 7 recipes
Whether you call it lasagna with a crust, a pie, a savory cake, a casserole, or a pizza, there’s no denying that deep-dish pizza is popular not just in Chicago, but all over the world. If you can’t find anywhere near you that makes an authentic plant-based version, or you just feel like cooking from scratch, keep reading to find out how to make delicious vegan deep-dish pizza at home.
Seitan Beats Your Meat
1 Vegan Chicago Deep Dish Pizza With Italian Sausage
This deliciously indulgent deep-dish pizza recipe from Seitan Beats Your Meat combines vegan Italian-style sausage (which you can buy from the store or make from scratch, using ingredients like tofu or seitan) with thick marinara sauce, vegan mozzarella, green peppers, onions, garlic, and dairy-free parmesan. It’s hearty, filling, and guaranteed to please the whole family.
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The Whole Food Plant-Based Cooking Show
2 Vegan Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza With Homemade Pepperoni
The Whole Food Plant-Based Cooking Show’s version of deep-dish pizza is made entirely with whole foods, including cashew-based cheese and pepperoni made from buckwheat and quinoa. The result is a dish that is hearty and comforting, but packed with nutrition, too. “Picture the thick, chewy crust cradling a creamy, gooey cheese sauce, homemade pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, and spinach, all topped with a scrumptious deep red pizza sauce,” writes recipe developer Jill Dalton. “It just doesn’t get any better than this.”
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Vegan Richa
3 Deep Dish Cheese Pizza with Pretzel Crust
If you love cheesy pizza and you love pretzels, you are going to adore this recipe from Vegan Richa. It combines a cheese deep-dish pizza recipe with a tasty, crispy pretzel crust, with “unreal” results, says recipe developer Richa Hingle. “Saucy, melty, gooey, and easy to make—this vegan pretzel crust pizza is utterly delicious,” she says.
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Carrots and Flowers
4 Vegan Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza With Spicy Sauce
This tasty rendition of Chicago-style deep dish pizza has quite the kick thanks to the chunky, spicy, red pepper sauce topping. Of course, it’s also complete with gooey vegan cheese, which is homemade with a blend of plant-based ingredients like cashews, nutritional yeast, and lemon juice. “It is everything a pizza should be, you won’t even be able to tell it’s vegan,” notes Carrots and Flowers founder Megan. “Use this pizza to convince all your friends to give up cheese.”
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Vegan Yack Attack
5 Mozzarella Mac Deep Dish Pizza
Vegan Yack Attack’s deep dish pizza combines two hearty American favorites, pizza and macaroni and cheese for a match made in food heaven. “When I was thinking about the execution, look, and recipe of this dish I knew that it’d be crazy, and probably pretty tasty. But I had no idea how much I was going to love it,” says recipe developer Jackie Sobon.
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Connoiseurus Veg
6 Loaded Vegan Deep Dish Pizza
Deep-dish pizza is all about indulgence, so why skimp on the toppings? This delicious recipe from Connoiseurus Veg packs plenty of tasty plant-based ingredients into the mix, including homemade vegan mozzarella cheese, white button mushrooms, onions, and green peppers, but you can add whatever you like. Go big or go home.
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Elavegan
7 Gluten-Free Vegan Deep Dish Pizza
According to Elavegan, this dish “is the perfect comfort food on the weekends.” It’s packed with spinach, mushrooms, onions, and corn for extra flavor and nutrition, alongside vegan cheese and marinara sauce. But one of the best things about this recipe is that it’s gluten-free, so everyone can enjoy it.
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Charlotte is a VegNews editor and writer based in sunny Southsea on England’s southern coast.
