This tasty vegan easy white bean sauce pizza features a tangy garlic white bean sauce, baked until smooth underneath and crumbly on top, with rich roasted tomato slices and a thin crispy base.
Simple ingredients mean no trips to specialist shops and you probably already have most of the items needed in your kitchen cupboards and fridge.
Hummus will always be my one true love, but I also adore white bean dip with lots of lemon and garlic. Of course, at some point, that meant I had to try uniting white bean dip with my other true love: pizza.
Boy was it a success. After baking, the flavors of the sauce intensify, and the top has a light crumbly texture similar to baked feta.
Although this is a pretty healthy pizza, if you’re looking for something even lighter and quicker, but with similar flavors, you can check out my Tortilla Pizza with White Bean Purée, Tomatoes & Rocket.
This pizza is dead easy to make and easy to customize – I often make it alongside my potato pizza and my spicy pizza when I have the time. Yes, I know, potato on pizza, carb on carb. Trust me, it works (even more so if you hide caramelized onions under the potato slices….)
If you’re like me and like to make a few different types of pizza at once and are looking for some inspiration, you could always check out the best 20 vegan pizzas.
How to make the white bean sauce
Super easy! Just chuck the white beans, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and blitz to a creamy dreamy sauce. Stir in the salt, black pepper, and chopped rosemary. Ready.
If you have the time, the sauce could definitely benefit from an hour in the fridge to develop the flavors more, and as such could be a great make-ahead option, but it’s not essential.
To get the sauce really creamy and smooth your best bet is definitely a food processor. In a pinch, you can use a high-powered blender, but do NOT add any extra water or oil unless absolutely unavoidably necessary.
Just be patient and push the ingredients towards the middle of the blender with a spoon (not while the blender is running obviously….).
As this is basically one of my favorite dips on pizza, if you have any left over, then yup, feel free to use it as a dip or vegan spread, but leave it in the fridge for an hour as I mentioned before. I like it with thin and soft socca, on soda bread, or with some raw carrots and sliced peppers to dip in it.
The perfect thin and crispy pizza crust
This is pretty much the way I cook every pizza base that I’m using fresh dough with, and it never fails me.
Basically, roll out your dough thinly, transfer to a large tray lined with baking paper (none too gently, I like stretched out uneven pizza dough as it gets bubbly and thin in places like the pizza from high-quality Italian restaurants).
Then lash on your sauce and toppings. In this case the white bean sauce and sliced tomatoes.
Place the tray on the bottom of an oven that has been preheated to the highest temperature with the convection setting turned off. Note that on the bottom of the oven means sitting on the actual base of the oven, not on a lower shelf. Allow to bake for four minutes.
Open the oven quickly and transfer the tray to the middle of the oven. Let bake for 11 more minutes. Remove from the oven. Done! This method yields a thin but crispy crust, no soggy limp bits.
Alternative toppings
I’ve kept things really simple with this recipe as I love the tangy white bean sauce and really want its flavoring to shine through, but you can, of course, add extra toppings.
I recommend spinach, rocket, fresh basil, olives, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced onion, sliced pepperoncini, or another mildly spiced pepper… The only limit is your imagination.
Well, your imagination and good taste. Do let me know in the comments if you try out this easy white bean sauce and what toppings you put on it, or tag me on Instagram (@the_fiery_vegetarian) if you make it!
If you liked this recipe (admit it: you loved it!) then check out some of my more recent creations:
📖 Recipe
Easy White Bean Sauce Pizza (Vegan)
Ingredients
- Fresh pizza dough from 350g dry ingredients enough for two pizzas
- 400 g cooked white beans cannellini or butter beans
- 30 ml lemon juice about half a lemon
- 60 ml olive oil 1/4 cup
- 2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 1/2 tsp chopped dried rosemary
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 150 g ripe large cherry tomatoes on the vine
Instructions
- Mix up your pizza dough according to the package’s instructions, or use your favorite fresh pizza dough recipe, and preheat the oven to its highest temperature with the convection fan option turned off.
- Put the beans, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic in a food processor and process until smooth and creamy with no lumps.
- Mix in the salt, black pepper and dried rosemary.
- Slice the tomatoes.
- Divide the dough in two and roll out thinly on a lightly floured surface. Place on separate baking paper-lined trays.
- Divide the white bean sauce between the two pizzas and spread with the back of a spoon. Place the sliced tomatoes on top. Sprinkle more black pepper over the top if desired.
- Bake each pizza at the bottom of the oven for four minutes and near the middle for 11, e.g. put one on the bottom for four minutes, then swap to the middle and place the second pizza on the bottom for four minutes. Then move the second pizza to near the middle of the oven after four minutes. The first pizza will then be done seven minutes later, and the second 11 minutes later.
Sara Clark
This looks so good! I am trying it tonight as my pizza sauce, leave it in fridge then head to store to pick up some fresh toppings. Love that it is so simple and fresh! I’ll be using peanut oil with mine, as that’s what I’ve got.
Thanks for the alternative pizza inspiration.
Deirdre Gilna
Hope you love it Sara! Let me know how it turns out with the peanut oil, it’s not an ingredient I’m super familiar with
Cole Parsons
It ends up tasting a bit pasty to me. This is my first time trying a bean mix on pizza, is this normal? Or is there something I can do to avoid this and make it a bit more saucy like traditional pizza? Thanks. I’m new to vegetarian cooking
The Fiery Vegetarian
Hi Cole. As it says in the description, the sauce should be creamy with a crumbly outer layer when baked, anything else most likely due to diverging from the recipe. You cannot make it “saucy” any more than hummus would be saucy so if that’s your preference I think you might prefer a nice tomato-based sauce or perhaps a pizza bianca? Thanks for stopping by