This vegan buffalo chickpea pizza is the definitive vegan pizza recipe for spice lovers. It starts by smothering chickpeas with a spicy buffalo tomato sauce and baking them on your favourite pizza crust. Cool it down by drizzling over a homemade vegan yogurt-based ranch dressing.
Lately this vegan roasted cauliflower buffalo pizza recipe has been coming up a lot in my vegan Facebook groups. I gotta say, it looks super tasty but we’re in the middle of a heat wave and I don’t want to keep my oven on for that long!
Since I don’t use any vegan cheese products (too expensive), I also like my pizza to be extra saucy to compensate. So I mixed my buffalo sauce in with some regular tomato sauce and added a couple tablespoons of soy yogurt for a bit more tanginess and creaminess (idea adapted from this (non-vegan) recipe).
Slather a few tablespoons of this spicy tomato sauce over your favourite pizza crust then toss the chickpeas into the remaining sauce. Oh boy, the chickpeas swimming in this spicy vegan buffalo sauce looked so good I almost ate them all right out of the pan!
But I managed to restrain myself and spread them out over my pizza crust. For the crust I used this pizza dough recipe. You can make your favourite dough from scratch or use a store-bought one but I would recommend using a thin crust in order to add some texture since the chickpeas are soft.
While your vegan buffalo chickpea pizza is baking you can whip up a simple vegan ranch dressing. Since cashews are ridiculously expensive, my favourite way of making creamy sauces (like this vegan tzatziki) is to use soy yogurt.
For the vegan ranch dressing I combined some fresh herbs that I had leftover in my fridge (parsley and chives) with dried dill, garlic powder and onion flakes. It tasted just like ranch dressing! Of course you can use a store-bought vegan ranch dressing if you can’t be bothered to make your own.
Pizza out of the oven and sprinkled with some chopped cilantro and green onion (a la the buffalo cauliflower pizza recipe I linked to above). If you can afford an avocado it would be a good addition as well.
Also feel free to sprinkle over any of your favourite pizza toppings before baking: green pepper, sliced tomato, black olives, artichoke hearts, broccoli, whatever!
Wanna see how easy it is to make this vegan buffalo chickpea pizza with ranch? Watch the video:
Vegan Buffalo Chickpea Pizza with Ranch
Ingredients
For the buffalo chickpea pizza
- ¼ cup (60 ml plus 2 tablespoons) tomato sauce - $0.15
- ½ cup buffalo sauce Frank’s, or more to taste - $0.82
- 3 tablespoons soy yogurt - $0.38
- 1 pizza crust homemade or store bought - $0.44
- 1 ½ cups (255 grams) cooked chickpeas - $0.23
- ¼ small red onion thinly sliced - $0.09
- A small handful chopped cilantro - $0.10
- 1 green onion chopped - $0.07
For the vegan ranch (or use store bought)
- ½ cup (120 ml) soy yogurt - $1.00
- ½ teaspoon salt - $0.01
- ½ teaspoon chopped parsley - $0.01
- ½ teaspoon chopped chives - $0.03
- ½ teaspoon dried dill - $0.10
- ¾ teaspoon garlic powder - $0.08
- ¾ teaspoon onion flakes or powder - $0.08
- 1 - 2 teaspoons plant milk - $0.04
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 475°F (250°C)
- Combine the tomato sauce, buffalo sauce and soy yogurt in a small pan over medium-low heat. Simmer gently, stirring from time to time, until slightly thickened – about 10 minutes.
- Stretch your pizza dough out over a greased baking pan or pizza pan. I like a thinner crust in order to add some crispy texture as the chickpeas are soft but it’s up to you how you like your crust.
- Spoon 3 tablespoons of the buffalo tomato sauce over the pizza dough. Add the chickpeas to the remaining sauce in the pan and stir to coat.
- Spread the chickpeas out over the pizza crust and top with the sliced red onion (and any other veggies you like). Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until the crust is done.
- Meanwhile make the vegan ranch by combining all the ingredients. Add as much milk as necessary to make it a pourable consistency.
- Once the pizza is out of the oven sprinkle over the cilantro and green onion and drizzle over the ranch.
Notes
Nutrition
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Deirdre says
I made this, it was amazing. I can't get buffalo sauce here so added half the amount of sriracha and some vinegar instead and was all out of vegan yoghurt so used aquafaba and oil instead in the dressing. My meat-eating stepson also loved it, I was making a bunch of different pizzas on the fly for us and everyone had to vote on which pizza we'd like to repeat for the last one and this was the winner! Will definitely make this again and use vegan yoghurt next time (so much healthier)!
Taylor says
This was really really tasty and even better than I could've imagined! I kept eating after I was full 😂
The perfect balance of flavours. I added capsicum and tomatoes.
Kim says
Made this for lunch today. My husband and I both really liked it. We topped our pizza slices with shredded ice berg lettuce which helped cook things off a bit along with the yummy Ranch dressing.