This recipe for green pizza with herbed vegan cashew cheese is a fresh and refreshing way to eat your greens. This vegan pizza recipe is packed with flavour but without the grease and looks beautiful on the plate with fresh baby greens, steamed asparagus, creamy avocado all sitting atop a delicious cashew cheese flavoured with cilantro, mint and lime. Best of all it comes together in just 20 minutes!
While vegan and vegetarian options in most restaurants in my city are pretty much non-existent, there do seem to be more and more vegetarian-only restaurants popping up in recent years. We’ve given quite a few of them a try and have been for the most part disappointed.
Most are what I call “vegetarian 101”, meaning that hummus, falafel and veggie burgers feature heavily on the menu – pretty basic stuff and not very imaginative.
I had high hopes for a new vegetarian restaurant we decided to try a couple of weeks ago; the menu seemed like it had a good mix of dishes but, oh man, was it ever bland! We ordered a green pizza with cashew cheese and hemp seeds but all it tasted of was salt. I thought: this sucks, I can do it better!
And so here is my green pizza with herbed vegan cashew cheese and, oh man, does it ever not suck! I built layers of flavour into this pizza by starting with a killer cashew cheese with punchy garlic, cilantro and mint. A bit of nutritional yeast adds a somewhat cheesy flavour but to be honest you can totally leave it out and it’s still super flavourful.
A bit of red onion sprinkled over the cheese for a slight pungency, asparagus for bite and avocado for creaminess (and because everything is better with avocado) all help to build up the flavours and textures.
A nice mix of baby greens for colour, including rocket leaves for a bit of bitterness, and a drizzle of a sweet balsamic reduction pulls it all together.
Pizza has always been one of our go-to weeknight recipes when we’re feeling too lazy to cook anything elaborate. Just pick up a ready-made pizza crust and your toppings from the grocery store and it’ll be ready in 20 minutes.
If I happen to think about it an hour and a half before dinner, I’ll make my own crust as it’s way cheaper than store-bought. I always use this pizza dough recipe as it’s easy and has never failed me.
Got leftovers? Use them in these recipes:
Asparagus, salad greens, avocado, cashews: Baked beet falafel vegan quinoa bowl
Asparagus: Spring vegetable zoodle pasta
Cashews: Vegan potato leek soup
Green Pizza with Herbed Vegan Cashew Cheese
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (115 grams) raw cashews soaked overnight or in hot water for 10 minutes - $1.73
- 1 clove of garlic roughly chopped - $0.08
- 1 ¼ packed cups (65 grams) cilantro leaves and stems - $0.50
- ½ packed cup (13 grams) mint leaves only - $0.35
- 1 teaspoon sea salt - $0.03
- Juice of 1 lime - $0.19
- 1 ½ tablespoons nutritional yeast optional - $0.04
- 3/ 4 cup (175 ml) water - $0.00
- 1 pizza crust store-bought or homemade - $0.33
- 6 asparagus cut into bite-sized pieces - $1.49
- ¼ cup (60 ml) balsamic vinegar - $0.80
- ½ a small red onion - $0.08
- A small bag of mixed baby greens - $0.99
- ½ an avocado diced - $0.49
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients from the cashews to the water in a blender or food processor and blitz into a paste.
- Bake the pizza crust according to the package (or your recipe) directions half-way through until the crust is just beginning to turn brown. Take it out of the oven and spread the cashew cheese on top. You may not have to use all the cashew cheese now, reserve any leftovers to dollop on top of the baked crust. Continue baking the crust until is golden brown.
- Meanwhile, make the balsamic reduction by heating the vinegar in a small pot over medium-low heat. Reduce until the vinegar can coat the back of a spoon and is reduced by about half.
- Heat a small pan over medium heat and add a couple tablespoons of water and the asparagus. Cover and cook until tender, then remove the asparagus from the pan and reserve.
- When the crust is baked, dollop over any remaining cashew cheese, sprinkle with red onion and top with the greens, diced avocado and asparagus. Drizzle over the balsamic reduction and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
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