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This gluten-free and vegan Black Bean Crust Pizza is bursting with savory flavor, texture, and healthy goodness. It’s easy to make, and perfect for the whole family. Add all of your favorite vegan pizza toppings, and bake to perfection. Get ready to meet your new favorite recipe!
What to expect | Black Bean Crust Pizza
As you’ll see in the video below, this recipe takes a while to make (unless you buy the sauce pre-made, and the veggies pre-cooked––which I don’t recommend), but it is well worth every minute. This is the ultimate comfort food. Sure, it’s a vegan gluten-free pizza that happens to also be guilt-free and healthy, but it’s honestly delicious. I love topping it with vegan cheese, seasonal vegetables, greens, and marinara sauce. My favorite toppings: roasted butternut squash or sweet potato!
Black Bean Crust?
Totally! I know it sounds strange, but with a few ingredients beans become the best gluten-free pizza crust alternative.
Flax Seed: Though black beans are the star ingredient, this pizza crust won’t hold together without flax––ground flax seeds to be exact. Ground flax seeds mixed with water create a “flax egg”. Flax egg is as good a binder as any egg.
Nutritional Yeast: The best pizza has amazing crust ,and nutritional yeast adds amazing savory flavor to your pizza crust. This essential vegan spice is also high in protein and fortified with B12.
Food Processor: You’ll need a food processor for this recipe to make the bean crust. A blender will work, but it isn’t ideal because the crust mixture is very low in liquid––thus difficult for a blender to handle.
Tips for cooking
Watch the video to see step-by-step how this black bean crust pizza is made. It’s really easy, but you’ll want to take certain steps to make sure it hold together.
- Spread the batter about 1/3 thick. Use a spatula coated in oil or dipped in water to prevent excess sticking.
- Use parchment paper. Aluminum foil is not a suitable swap; the crust will stick. I haven’t tried it on a silicone baking mat.
- Bake until the crust dries out and easily peels off of the parchment paper.
- Flip the crust onto another baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Gently peel the first layer off the underside of the crust. It should come off easily.
- Don’t overload the center of the pizza with toppings.
- Allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting. The crust will firm as it cools.
- While this pizza crust won’t be as pliable as a wheat crust (sorry NYers, you can’t fold it), it should hold together pretty well.
Great for kids
This Black Bean Crust Pizza is included in my roundup of Vegan Recipes for Kids. It’s high in protein, fiber, and important vitamins and minerals like iron, magnesium, and b vitamins. Kids will have a great time topping this black bean crust pizza. Get them involved in the whole process, and they’ll enjoy it even more.
Perfect Recipe Pairings
Butternut Squash Black Bean Crust Pizza
Equipment
- 1 food processor
Ingredients
- 2 cans black beans, rinsed & drained well
- 3 tbsp flax seed +⅓ cup water, mix the two together to create flax “egg”
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 ½ tsp sea salt, only 1 tsp if your beans had salt in the can
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 cups butternut squash, thinly sliced & roasted
- 2 cups shiitake mushrooms, sliced
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 3 cups kale, spinach, or arugula, chopped
- ½ cup tomato pizza sauce
- 1 cup vegan mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° and line a baking sheet or cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Place beans, flax egg, nutritional yeast, garlic, salt and cayenne in the food processor. Blend until smooth.
- Spread the mixture onto the parchment paper in the shape of a pizza crust, about 1/3 inch thick. You’ll fill most of the width of the baking sheet.
- Bake for 20 minutes, then carefully flip the crust to bake on the other side 15-20 minutes. NOTE: To flip, I place another sheet of parchment and another baking sheet over the one the crust has been on, and using oven mitts I flip the sheets together. Then the crust will be on the new baking sheet. Slowly and carefully peel the original parchment off of the crust. Careful not to break 🙂 Bake 5-10 minutes longer.
- While the crust bakes, sauté the shiitake mushrooms and onions in a bit of olive oil. If you haven’t already, you can roast the squash now (toss with olive oil, and roast slices for 30 minutes at 350°F)
- When the crust is finished, top with the tomato sauce, vegan cheese, greens, squash, mushrooms and onions. Bake for 10 more minutes then serve.
Video
Yum! Can’t wait to try this tonight… I’ve got lots of black beans to use up and I’m headed to an omni pizza party this evening so I’m bringing my own- thanks for sharing!!
Fabulous! How did it go?
Hello, this looks beautiful. I have one simple question, when you say tomato sauce, is just plain store bought tomato sauce?
Thank you so much for the crust recipe. I tried black bean crust before but it was with flour and didn’t make sense why I would just add black beans to a typical pizza dough recipe when I really wanted a replacement. I was afraid to use just black beans because I thought it would dry out and be flat and too crunchy, but this actually puffed a bit with the flax. so awesome! And I don’t know if you use oil in cooking or avoid it (this is the first video I watched of you – will be watching more) but I used a little oil on the parchment paper and it did not stick at all. So works for me wonderfully.
Making it now, personal size, and should of sprayed the parchment because it was hard to peel off once I flipped
Enjoy! I know, it can be difficult to flip. In the future (if you don’t spray first) you can wait for it to dry out a little longer in the oven before flipping.
Amen! Great tip 🙂
Hi – does this dish hold well after refrigerated?
Great question! Yes, it holds well. Just reheat in the oven. Enjoy!
Aqua faba is all over the internet now as egg replacement. Have you tried it in your recipe instead of the flax? Check out Vegan Meringue on Facebook if you haven’t heard of this yet. Some interesting ideas!
Yes I saw that on FB. Does it work as an actual binder, or as an egg white for vegan meringue?
Hello and thank you for sharing this! I made the crust and the first one was too thin so I made the next one thicker but even the thicker one just kind of fell apart. Any tips? It was still delicious by the way. My husband said he could just sit there and eat the crust alone, lol.
Hi Kelsey!!
Maybe you need to use more flax seed? Perhaps its the type you are using. I’m not totally sure because I’ve made it with home ground flax and store bought ground flax. Still, try adding more to your flax egg.
Glad you enjoyed the taste though 🙂
I wasn’t sure that the crust would turn out, but it did and was fabulous! This is going to be a go-to recipe for me from now on. I have made a gluten-free crust before from yellow-green plantains, water, flax, baking soda, and salt, but I like this one even better. Your topping suggestions were amazing as well. I think that olives would be a great addition or sweet potatoes would be yummy instead of butternut squash. Also, the sauce and toppings would make a great filling for your savory chickpea flour crepes!
Hey Elisabeth! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. I like your topping suggestions of olives and sweet potato too. I made it the other day with my arugula pesto 🙂
I totally agree with those toppings for chickpea crepes too. You’ve got me craving!
Hi Jenne! I love all the recipes that you make-the one thing that daunts me is all the fiber in these yummy fruits and veggies. How are you able to eat like this for every meal and not suffer an upset stomach (sometimes this happens to me). On a better note, do you work with purple sweet potatoes? I love them!
Hi! Thank you very much. I have zero problem digesting tons of fiber, but I know this is an issue for some people. Here’s a video I made with tips to address this problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9yUWbcr7OQ
Fiber is so great for your overall health, so it’s worth helping your body to digest them better. Some foods are just going to be terribly difficult and uncomfortable to digest, so those may need to be avoided. Still, there are plenty of other veggies that will be easier for you to break down, especially once you’ve got your digestive system on point.
Yes, I love purple sweet potatoes. The only thing I have on the blog with them is this old falafel recipe https://sweetpotatosoul.com/2010/05/may-7-2010.html
xo
hello, i tried the crust, but it was very moist in the inside. Like hummus. after a long time in the oven. and the size of the pizza has shrunk to 9 inch. Can you pleas help, what is my fault? it tastes delicious, so i want to make it again.
thank you.
Michaela
You may need to spread the batter thinner so it will try out in the center. Thanks!
Can the crust be made without the nutritional yeast or is there a good substitute. I’ve tried and just don’t like the taste…..Thanks Jenne.
Yes Donna,you can skip that 🙂 Enjoy!