This is the gluten-free caprese pizza recipe that we’ve been making week after week. It’s the combination of a perfect gluten-free pizza crust which holds up well, is crusty on the outside and chewy inside, and topped with simple ingredients that carry big, bold flavors. This pizza is dairy-free and vegan too.
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What is Caprese Pizza?
For those of you who don’t know what caprese pizza is, or what toppings go on a caprese pizza, it’s time to correct that, because this is about to become one of your favorite pizzas, if not your favorite (because it certainly is ours)!
A traditional caprese pizza is a pizza crust that has been spread with tomato sauce and is then topped with mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, and fresh basil leaves. It is also drizzled in olive oil and sprinkled with fresh herbs.
No more pizza delivery!
Before learning how to make our own pizza – and I’m talking about pizza from scratch, which involves making the gluten-free crust as well – we used to order gluten-free pizza every once in a long while.
Even then, we only ordered when pizza cravings struck badly, but it always resulted in the same situation – we’d regret ordering because the pizza usually had a hard and dense crust that made the whole pizza night a big fail.
The last few months however, with we’ve been making our favorite house special -caprese pizza- and honestly speaking, it’s been glorious pizza heaven. I’m not celiac (but Juan is so we eat gluten-free at home), and I can vouch that this pizza feels like the real thing.
The Best Gluten-Free Pizza Crust
In my opinion, a pizza is only as good as its crust – and our gluten-free pizza crust has been a huge success. Readers and other fellow gluten-free celiacs have made it with amazing results.
It’s crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside, and while it does require yeast, there’s no rise time required, which means you can get a homemade pizza ready in less time than it takes to order one! So that’s a double whammy in my book! Get our gluten-free pizza crust recipe to make your pizza today!
Use the Freshest Ingredients You Can Get
Now that we’ve got an amazing pizza crust, it’s time to prepare the topping ingredients, which include mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, and olive oil.
In our version, since Juan is lactose-intolerant, we like to use a dairy-free mozzarella cheese made from almonds that yields an uncannily similar texture to normal mozzarella made from dairy. I also like to add some fresh minced garlic for an extra kick of flavor and a sprinkle of red chili flakes for a little bit of heat.
Preparing This Delicious Caprese Pizza
To get this pizza party started, you’ll first have preheat the oven to 450F. Next, place the crust on a baking sheet and then spread out the tomato sauce all over the pre-baked pizza crust (I like to use a silicon brush to do that).
Place the baking sheet in the oven for around 10 minutes so the tomato sauce dries slightly, and then distribute the dairy-free mozzarella cheese evenly over the crust and place the cherry tomato halves over the cheese.
Return the pizza to the oven for 15 minutes until the cheese has melted and the crust is golden brown and crusty on the edges.
Finally sprinkle the minced garlic over the pizza and let it cook for 5 minutes in the oven until fragrant.
All that’s left to do is distribute the basil leaves over, drizzle some olive oil and add a sprinkle of red chili flakes (highly recommended!). Now time to tuck in and eat!
If you enjoyed this caprese pizza, you’ll also love these recipes:
- Easy Gluten-Free Pizza Crust (Dairy-Free)
- Rosemary Focaccia Bread (Gluten-Free, Vegan)
- Easy Gluten-Free Naan Bread (Dairy-Free)
- Easy Gluten-Free No Knead Bread (Dairy-Free)
- Gluten-Free Flaxseed Coconut Bread (Paleo)
- Easy Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread (Vegan)
- 10 Easy Gluten-Free Bread Recipes to Make on Repeat
Easy Caprese Pizza (Gluten-Free, Vegan)
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This is the gluten-free caprese pizza recipe that we’ve been making week after week. It’s the combination of a perfect gluten-free pizza crust which holds up well, is crusty on the outside and chewy inside, and topped with simple ingredients that carry big, bold flavors. This pizza is dairy-free and vegan too.
Ingredients
- A 12-inch pre-baked gluten-free pizza crust
- 3 tablespoons tomato sauce
- 4 ounces fresh dairy-free mozzarella cheese
- 3/4 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic, optional
- 3/4 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes, optional
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450F.
- Place the pre-baked gluten-free pizza crust on a baking sheet or pizza stone. Use a silicon brush to spread the tomato sauce evenly all over the crust and place the crust in the oven for 10 minutes until the sauce has dried slightly.
- Distribute the dairy-free mozzarella cheese evenly over the crust and spread out the halved cherry tomatoes evenly over the cheese.
- Place pizza on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 15 minutes until the cheese is nicely melted and gooey and the crust is golden brown and crusty.
- Sprinkle the minced garlic evenly over the pizza and return it to the oven for 5 minutes to cook the garlic very slightly until fragrant.
- Remove the pizza from the oven and distribute the fresh basil leaves evenly over the pizza. Drizzle the olive oil over and sprinkle red chili flakes and salt to taste.
- Slice and serve hot.
Notes
Pizza Crust: As I mentioned earlier, a pizza is only as good as the crust. If you prefer to save time, you can definitely use a store-bought crust, but I highly recommend our perfect gluten-free pizza crust, (which is super easy and quick to make and guarantees you a crust with a crusty outside and a chewy interior, you know, the stuff of pizza dreams!) Our foolproof pizza crust recipe can also be easily made vegan.
Mozzarella Cheese: We use a dairy-free mozzarella cheese that is made from almonds, but if you are not lactose-intolerant, you can use normal mozzarella cheese instead.
Garlic: Adding garlic is optional, but if you love the taste and fragrance of garlic, then I strongly recommend adding it because it will take your pizza to a whole new level.
Red Chili Flakes: I love adding a bit of heat to everything savory, but if you can’t take heat, you can either leave it out completely or reduce the amount slightly.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Pizza
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Italian
Amber says
What brand of mozzarella did you use? It looks really delicious and I’m looking forward to making it!
Felicia Lim says
Hi Amber! I live in Argentina and used the brand “Felices Las Vacas” which literally means “happy cows”, but that’s probably only found in Argentina. If you live in the US, I know people have said good things about the brand Violife!
Amberlii says
Thank you so much!
Felicia Lim says
You are most welcome! Happy 2022!
Grace Lim says
Well done Felicia !
It is always good to enjoy homemade food because you know exactly what ingredients went into the food. This is super important to prepare food for people with special conditions of intolerance of certain food.
Continue this good work that you have embarked on to bless your beloved Juan and many other people who have special diet conditions.
May you always be so blessed by God with creative ideas and wisdom as you work on each of your recipes to share generously with your readers in this food blog of yours!
I love and bless you!
Mum
felicia | Dish by Dish says
Thank you for your unconditional support mummy! I love you too 🙂
My goal for the blog is to help as many people eat healthy food that still taste delicious, so hopefully I can do that one recipe at a time 🙂