Vegan Pizza Rolls

Vegan pizza rolls are savory finger food made with fluffy yeast dough, flavorful tomato sauce, and a delicious savory filling. They’re easy to prepare ahead of time, taste just as good warm as they do cold, and make a perfect vegan snack for parties, buffets, or on the go. For this recipe, I prefer to make both the dough and tomato sauce from scratch – but when you’re short on time, store-bought pizza dough and sauce work wonderfully too, leaving you with just the filling to take care of.

Why Pizza Rolls Are the Perfect Vegan Finger Food

Pizza rolls are easy to make, easy to eat, and great for preparing ahead of time. You can serve them warm straight from the oven, but they taste just as good cold – perfect for parties, buffets, picnics, or as a savory snack on the go.

The best part: You can customize the filling to your heart’s content. The basic recipe consists of three components: yeast dough, tomato sauce, and filling.

The Three Components of Vegan Pizza Rolls

1. Yeast Dough

I prefer to make the yeast dough for my pizza rolls from scratch. Don’t worry, it really isn’t complicated. All you need is:

• flour
• salt
• warm water
• yeast (fresh or dry)
• a little sugar
• olive oil

That’s it.

2. Tomato Sauce

I usually make the tomato sauce myself as well. You only need a few ingredients:

• tomato paste
• water
• olive oil
• sugar
• oregano
• garlic, salt, and pepper

3. The Filling

And now for the part where you can get creative. Basically, you can use anything you enjoy on a pizza – just don’t go overboard with the amount. Too much filling makes rolling up the dough unnecessarily tricky.

These ingredients have worked particularly well for me:

• red onion (finely chopped)
• corn
• basil
• olives (sliced into rings)
• vegan cheese (grated)

If you’re looking for more ideas for filling your vegan pizza rolls, hopefully this list will give you some inspiration:

• sun-dried tomatoes (thinly sliced)
• zucchini (finely diced or thinly sliced with a vegetable peeler)
• bell pepper (finely diced)
• pepperoncini (sliced)
• wild garlic (cut into strips)
• spinach (remove the stems if necessary and cut the leaves into strips)
• fried eggplant (thinly sliced or finely diced)
• capers (the small ones)
• green onions (thinly sliced)
• smoked tofu (finely diced)
• vegan feta (ideally homemade almond feta)

Serving Size: How Many Pizza Rolls per Person?

This recipe makes about 12 vegan pizza rolls.

If you’re serving them as finger food or alongside other snacks, plan on about two pizza rolls per person. If the pizza rolls are meant to be more of a main meal, allow around four per person – roughly the equivalent of one pizza.

Of course, it also depends on what else you’re serving and just how hungry your guests are. Better to have a few pizza rolls too many than throw a party where, of all things, the pizza rolls are the first to disappear.

How to Make Vegan Pizza Rolls: Step by Step

Yes, there are three components: dough, sauce, and filling. But all three are easy to prepare, and it basically comes down to the steps below. As always, you’ll find the detailed recipe at the end of the post.

1. Prepare the Yeast Dough

Combine the ingredients and knead the dough thoroughly until smooth and elastic. Bless my stand mixer – it does the kneading for me. Of course, you can just as well knead the dough by hand.

Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place until it has noticeably increased in volume. Unlike classic pizza dough, we don’t let the dough for these pizza rolls rest overnight for a second rise – after all, we’re not trying to create the perfect pizza here.

While the yeast dough is happily rising, you can take care of the tomato sauce and filling.

2. Prepare the Tomato Sauce

Prepare the tomato sauce and make sure it isn’t too runny – otherwise, rolling everything up later can turn into quite a slippery affair.

Then set the sauce aside while you prepare the ingredients for the filling.

3. Prepare the Filling

Cut your chosen ingredients into fairly small pieces. Most importantly, avoid using too many vegetables with a high water content. Otherwise, the rolls may not hold together well and might spit out half their filling while you’re trying to roll them up.

4. Shape the Pizza Rolls

Now for the pizza rolls themselves.

To turn everything into your vegan finger food, roll the risen yeast dough into a rectangle. Not paper-thin, but not unnecessarily thick either – we want pizza rolls in the end, not dough rolls with a hint of filling.

Spread the tomato sauce over the dough, followed by your filling. Leave a little space around the edges so everything doesn’t come spilling out when you roll it up.

Starting from one of the long sides, roll up the dough as evenly as possible. Cut the roll into roughly equal pieces and place them slightly apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

And if one of them looks a little wonky: stay deeply relaxed. Pizza rolls have a remarkable tendency to look much prettier once they come out of the oven.

Bake until nicely golden brown.

Variations and Quick Alternatives

Want to make your vegan pizza rolls a little faster or simply try something different? The dough, tomato sauce, and filling can all be easily adapted.

You can swap whichever component you like – or use store-bought dough and sauce and leave yourself with nothing more than the filling, rolling, slicing, and baking.

Can I Use Store-Bought Pizza Dough?

Yes. When you’re short on time, simply replace the homemade yeast dough with store-bought pizza dough. This saves you both the kneading and the rising time.

Can I Make Pizza Rolls with Puff Pastry?

Yes, that works too. Since a package of puff pastry is generally smaller and thinner than the yeast dough in this recipe, either use two packages or reduce the filling to about one-half to two-thirds of the original amount.

Follow the baking time stated on the package. Also, take the puff pastry out of the refrigerator about 10 minutes before using it so it doesn’t crack when you roll it up.

Can I Use Store-Bought Pizza Sauce?

Of course. You can simply use store-bought pizza sauce instead of making your own. Passata works well too, although I would season it to taste first.

What Can I Use Instead of Tomato Sauce?

If you feel like trying something different, you can spread pesto or olive tapenade over the dough instead. When it comes to the filling, there are almost no limits to what you can come up with.

Make-Ahead Pizza Rolls and Serving Them Cold

Vegan pizza rolls are wonderfully practical finger food because you don’t have to prepare everything right before your party.

Can I Make Pizza Rolls the Day Before?

Yes. You can bake the pizza rolls the day before and store them in an airtight container once they have cooled.

If you prefer to bake them fresh, you can prepare the yeast dough ahead of time and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, all that’s left to do is roll it out, add the sauce and filling, roll it up, slice, and bake.

Do Vegan Pizza Rolls Taste Good Cold?

Oh yes. That’s exactly why they work so well for buffets, parties, picnics, or as a snack to take with you.

Of course, you can also pop them back into the oven for a few minutes if you prefer to serve them warm.

Can I Freeze Pizza Rolls?

Yes. Let the baked pizza rolls cool completely, then freeze them well wrapped.

When you’re ready to eat them, let them thaw and reheat them briefly in the oven – or on the bread warming rack of your toaster, which is what I like to do. That way, they taste almost freshly baked again.

In theory – I haven’t actually tried this myself – you can also freeze the pizza rolls unbaked. Just make sure they don’t stick together, or you’ll end up with one giant pizza-roll lump. Freeze them spaced apart first, then transfer them to a freezer bag or another suitable container once frozen.