A few months ago, Pizza Express had a campaign on their facebook page where they asked those in facebookland for suggestions for new pizza toppings. The overwhelming response was “vegan cheese”.
Their pizza bases are vegan, so there has always been the option to ask for any pizza without cheese but asking for a pizza “without” feels like you’re compromising or missing out, especially since cheese is the main feature of many vegetarian pizzas. Yet from the pizza chain’s point of view, stocking vegan cheese for the minority of diners who will order it in each restaurant, may be a big expense.
So Pizza Express has met vegans and vegan-dabblers (like myself) in the middle. They have introduced the new vegan-friendly Pianta pizza. Made with a spicy Arrabbiata sauce and topped with spinach, mushrooms, artichokes, pine nuts and fresh rocket, it is a cheeseless pizza that it is designed to be cheeseless, so it’s flavoursome enough without it. The spinach adds the creaminess you may otherwise miss and the rocket and the sauce added a nice peppery, spicy element. I also highly recommend drizzling a little balsamic over the top.
However, if pizza just isn’t pizza without cheese (or ‘cheeze’) to you, you can take your own vegan cheese for the chefs to use!
So, vegan cheese may not be on the menu (yet) but I think Pizza Express has reached a pretty good compromise and I applaud them for actually listening to what the people wanted.
The new Pianta pizza is delicious, I certainly didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything, and I hope by voting with my Pound, it contributes to the success of a pizza that may inspire more chain restaurants to offer vegan-friendly options on their menus.
I am so excited to get back to England and try this, pizza express has always been such an easy vegan friendly restaurant to go to, I really hope they soon go as far as using vegan cheese on their pizzas too! Thanks for this post!
You’re most welcome! I think it’s a great addition to their menu and maybe if it’s really successful, they’ll introduce vegan cheese. At least they let you bring your own for now! 🙂
I love cheeseless pizza! I don’t quit trust vegan cheese, but I don’t miss the mozz when I have pizza.
I find vegan cheese quite hit and miss. I’ve never had proper cheeseless pizza before but I really didn’t miss mozzarella on this pizza at all!
Excellent news! Let’s hope other restaurants follow suit!
I think it’s a great starting point! I’m actually quite impressed that they listened to the public, especially for something not considered ‘mainstream’. And it was delicious too, so that’s a bonus! 😉
Yum!!!
Definitely one to have again! 🙂
Gosh, that looks amazingly good and I am starving. Raw chocolate can only take me so far today.
Haha, hope you got by on the chocolate yesterday! 😉 I may have to try to create this pizza at home one time. Yum!
Had one of these on Thursday (am veggie but not vegan). Was really nice! A lot of my favourite veg on there and the pine nuts add something extra in texture too. Yummy!
I’m a veggie too but like opting for vegan when I can. I was really impressed with this pizza and pine nuts are definitely one of my favourite toppings!
Yum!!!! I am a sucker for pizza and love when places start incorporating a vegan cheese! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! 🙂 I think it’s a great move by Pizza Express and deliciously successful! 😉
I’m going to try this today – I agree, asking to omit the cheese AND this and that feels bleh. I mean I do it. Of course, but it’s a welcome change to have something DESIGNED to be vegan at a chain.
I’m a dabbler too, but trying very hard to avoid diary, so I hope this is tasty. Also, vegan cheese is evil. 😉
Love the post!
Thanks! 🙂
How did your taste-test go?
I really liked the pizza and didn’t miss the cheese at all. I’m just pretty impressed that a chain actually listened to what it’s consumers wanted and designed a pizza especially.
I’m not entirely on board with vegan cheese yet – need to keep sampling. I made some delicious cashew ‘ricotta’-stuffed pasta not long ago but the stuff you buy in blocks just doesn’t quite cut it for me…
Was REALLY good!
The only thing, I had a mishap about the gluten free base, I’ll write about it in my next post, but the Pianta tastes great!
Hooray! So glad you liked it (aside from the mishap) and look forward to your post! 🙂
totally agree with you… and that the new cheese-less pizza is delicious in the interim!
I think it’s about time I went back for another one, to be honest… 😉