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Crispy chewy crust filled with gooey vegan cheese, savory sauce, and tasty toppings, these homemade vegan pizza pockets are pure comfort in every bite.

Table of Contents

(click the links below to skip to the section you’re looking for)

• Pizza Dough Recipe
• Pizza Sauce Recipe
• Pizza Pocket Recipe
• Tips and FAQ
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Nutritional Information
• Contact Me with Questions
• Similar Recipes

I feel like this is sort of like a hot pocket, but I make that statement with zero knowledge or background with hot pockets. Hot pockets were one of those foods my parents would never buy, which made me want them even more.

Then I wonder if it’s more of a mini calzone. But from what I remember of calzones, they’re filled with ricotta instead of mozzarella. I’m not a fan of ricotta. So, let’s call this little masterpiece a stuffed vegan pizza pocket.

I somehow managed to make this mostly out of ingredients I bought from Costco (except for the yeast, which I always have at home because it stays good in the fridge for like ever and takes up a teeny tiny amount of room). If you’re into meal prepping, you can make a bunch of these and freeze them for future lunches. Reheat them in an oven, toaster oven, or an air fryer.

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Ingredients for a Vegan Pizza Dough Recipe

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• 5 cups (650g) all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling)
• 2 cups (450g) warm water (between 95-110 degrees)
• 2 teaspoons (8g) organic, vegan, or raw sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons (18g) active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons (11g) salt
• 1 teaspoon (3g) garlic powder (optional)
• 3 tablespoons (32g) nutritional yeast (optional)

How to Make Pizza Dough for Vegan Pizza Pockets

prep time: 15 min | rise time: 45-90 min

Whisk the 1 ½ tablespoons (18g) yeast, 2 cups (450g) warm water, and 2 teaspoons (8g) sugar in large bowl. I use the bowl of my stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.

Add 3 cups (390g) of the flour. Mix well to blend.

Add 2 teaspoons (11g) of salt, 1 teaspoon (3g) of optional garlic powder, 3 tablespoons (32g) of optional nutritional yeast (sometimes called nooch), and the remaining 2 cups (260g) of flour.

Knead the dough for 5 minutes, either using your stand mixer or your hands on a flour covered surface. Add a teaspoon of flour if it gets too sticky (you’ll know if it’s too sticky because it won’t come off the sides of the mixing bowl).

Roll dough into a ball and place into a large lightly oiled bowl.

Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel, tea towel, or cling wrap and set in a warm place for 45-90 minutes to rise. The long time window range is because it depends on the temp of your kitchen. In the winter, I used to set it on top of my clothes dryer when I was doing laundry to speed up the rising process. Basically, you just want the dough to at least double in size (tripling is even better).

Ingredients for a Vegan Pizza Sauce Recipe

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• 1 (15oz/425g) can tomato sauce
• 1 (6oz/170g) can tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon (1g) basil
• 1 teaspoon (1g) oregano
• ½ teaspoon thyme
• ½ teaspoon (1-2g) garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon (1g) onion powder
• ½ teaspoon (1g) ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon (3g) salt

How to Make Pizza Sauce for Vegan Pizza Pockets

prep time: 5 min

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. They are: a (15oz/425g) can of tomato sauce, a (6oz/170g) can of tomato paste, a teaspoon (1g) of basil, a teaspoon (1g) of oregano, ½ teaspoon of thyme, ½ teaspoon (1-2g) of garlic powder, ½ teaspoon (1g) of onion powder, ½ teaspoon (1g) of pepper, and ½ teaspoon (3g) of salt.

Ingredients for a Vegan Pizza Pockets

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• 8 ounces (227g) sliced mushrooms
• 5 ounces (142g) kale
• 5 ounces (142g) spinach
• 8 ounces (227g) vegan mozzarella cheese
• 16 (60g) kalamata olives, sliced

How to Assemble and Bake Vegan Pizza Pockets

prep time: 40 min | sauté time: 10 min | bake time: 12 min

Prepare your toppings (or I guess they’re technically fillings). So, slice anything that needs to be sliced. Sauté the greens with the mushrooms. Grate your vegan cheese if you didn’t buy it pre-grated.

Divide the risen dough in half and roll half into a thin crust. I use a rolling mat that I have lightly dusted with flour to keep the dough from sticking. I also flour my rolling pin.

Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter, jar lid, kitchen scissors, or knife.

Top with sauce and toppings. I used this handy pocket pie maker that I got during valentine’s day a few years ago because I wanted heart shaped vegan pizza pockets.

Place an identical shape of pizza dough on top and press edges with a fork or your fingers. Press hard enough to close the edges so your filling doesn’t leak out when it bakes.

Place as many vegan pizza hearts as you can fit on a baking stone or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 12-15 minutes at 450ºF (232ºC) or 475ºF (246ºC).

Remove them from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before eating them.

Tips and Frequently Asked Questions

Make Overnight Pizza Dough to Save Time

You might want to make your dough the night before for the following reasons.

• you’re hungry the second you get off work and don’t have a lot of time to make dinner
• you’re running low on yeast and don’t have 2 tablespoons to spare
• you don’t keep sugar in the house because you’re healthy (I have no idea how you found this blog…are you lost? haha)

To make pizza dough the night before, follow these steps.

Whisk the teaspoon of yeast, tablespoon of salt, and 4 cups of flour in large bowl.

Mix in 2 cups of water until you can longer see any flour.

Cover the bowl and set on the counter over night.

Add the last cup and a half of flour into the dough when you’re ready to start making your pizza dough the next day, as well as any optional ingredients.

Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes, either using your stand mixer or by hand.

Can I use other ingredients?

Fill these pizza pockets with any vegan ingredients you prefer. You can make your own homemade vegan pepperoni. If you don’t have time for that, buy vegan pepperoni like Field Roast Pepperoni or Trader Joe’s vegan pepperoni (whick I think are actually the same pepperoni, but TJ just has it white labeled).

Ingredient Details and Substitutions

• Flour: I’ve used unbleached all-purpose flour, 00 flour, and bread flour for this recipe. It turns out great every time. If you’re trying to make this recipe entirely out of ingredients you acquired at Costco, use the unbleached organic all-purpose flour. If you have a different flour that you try, let me know how it goes.
• Vegan Sugar: For the sugar in this recipe, you can use any number of sugars, as long as they’re vegan: sucanat, coconut sugar, raw sugar, organic sugar, evaporated cane juice, or vegan sugar. You just need it to activate the yeast. If you’re not sure if your sugar is vegan, you can contact the company and ask, but basically, just avoid conventional white sugar or granulated sugar, and you should be ok. The vegan sugar I buy from Costco is the organic sugar, and it is very cost-friendly.
• Yeast: I wrote this recipe for active dry yeast because that yeast takes more effort. That way, you can substitute instant yeast easily without any modifications.
• Salt: I use pink sea salt because it has minerals and nutrients in it, but you can use any salt you have. You can also reduce the salt if you’re on a low-sodium diet. Costco sells pink salt as well.
• Garlic Powder: Garlic powder is optional, but I like the flavor it gives the pizza dough.
• Nooch: Nooch is what vegans call nutritional yeast. You can omit the nutritional yeast if you’re running low, but it does add vitamins that our bodies need. It also gives the dough a buttery flavor.
• Tomato Sauce and Tomato Paste: I use organic tomato products because in the U.S., tomatoes are frequently genetically modiefied. You can replace all the sauce ingredients with a jar of pizza sauce to save time. Costco sells cases of organic tomato sauce and organic tomato paste for a great deal.
• Spices: All of the spices I use to make my homemade pizza sauce are optional and interchangeable. If you keep garlic in the house, you can replace the ½ teaspoon garlic powder with 2 cloves, minced. If you grow herbs at your house, you can replace the dried spices with freshly chopped herbs, using a 1:2 ratio. (Example: 1 teaspoon of dried basil equals 2 teaspoons of fresh chopped basil.)
• Mushrooms: I like the baby portabellas from Costco. I buy them every week. They have vitamin D, which is great, because the majority of humans are deficient in vitamin D. If you’re one of those, you can try this vegan vitamin D as well.
• Kale and Spinach: When I wrote this recipe back in 2013, Costco sold bags of organic baby kale. They no longer do, but now you can buy bags of organic power greens to use in place of the kale and the spinach. So instead of 5 ounces (142g) kale and 5 ounces (142g) spinach, you would use 10 ounces (284g) of power greens.
• Vegan Mozzarella: When I wrote this recipe back in 2013, Costco sold bags of Daiya grated mozz. Now they sell bags of Violife grated vegan mozzarella cheese.
• Kalamata Olives: I know traditionally people use black olives on pizza, but they’re made with lye. Lye is essentially rat poison. Ew. Costco has organic kalamata olives.

Nutrition Facts

I calculated the nutrition information with the optional ingredients (nutritional yeast and garlic powder) included.

• Servings: 16
• Calories per serving: 237
• Calcium per serving: 43mg
• Cholesterol per serving: 0mg
• Dietary Fiber per serving: 4g
• Folate per serving: 220mcg
• Iron per serving: 3mg
• Potassium per serving: 471mg
• Protein per serving: 7g
• Total Carbohydrate per serving: 40g
• Total Fat per serving: 5g
• Total Sugars per serving: 3g
• Sodium per serving: 632mg
• Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) per serving: 2mg
• Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) per serving: 2mg
• Vitamin B3 (Niacin) per serving: 10mg
• Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) per serving: 2mg
• Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin) per serving: 3mg
• Vitamin K per serving: 79mg

Comments or Questions?

If you make this recipe, I would love it if you’d snap a pic, post to instagram, and tag me @vegandollhouse. It seriously makes my day/week/month!

Please message me (instagram or email) if you have any questions or feedback about the recipe.

Similar Recipes

If you are a pizza fan, you might also like my other cute vegan pizza recipes. I have some pizza rolls that are like a cinnamon roll but a pizza dinner instead of a dessert. Then there are pizza lollipops which are bite sized little pizza appetizers or snacks. And one of my favorites is my pizza donuts which is basically pizza baked in a donut pan.

But if all of that seems a little much, and you like your pizza unadulterated, I have a vegan pizza recipe that makes 2 large regular crust pizzas. And I also have a recipe for vegan detroit style pizza. If you like deep dish pizza, you’ll LOVE detroit style pizza.

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