Vegan Pizza Buns with Pepperoni

These vegan pepperoni pizza buns come with a bit of a back story. But before we jump into that, just know that whether you care for the back story or not, these vegan pepperoni, tomato sauce, and melty gooey vegan cheese stuffed high protein vegan pizza buns are incredible. They're part calzone, part pizza, part Sally Bun..

What's a Sally Bun you ask? If I were to tell you in one word I would say my childhood. But if I were to tell you in detail, I would say...

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Where It All Started For Me

Sally Bun was my parents cafe. It all began with their first restaurant, Sally. With it's years of success they eventually opened a second location (and then a 3rd, 4th, and 5th!), a smaller, more particular cafe: Sally Bun. It was named after well, the famous buns. Soft and fresh bread dough passed down from my grandma to my father, which he turned into stuffed buns of many varieties. Pepperoni pizza (like these vegan pizza buns) for instance, but some other favourites were tomato, bacon, cream cheese, spinach and feta, curry chicken, tomato artichoke feta, and the later additions - turkey havarti, roast beef pickle, and burgers. Yes, burgers wrapped and baked in dough. As you can imagine, they were magical. 

I grew up in a highchair in the back of the first Sally restaurant. As I got older I started my first job at the first Sally Bun Cafe, and when I graduated, I had my first full time position there, working next to my mom and dad every single day. My brother worked there too, but with 7 years ahead of me, he was travelling the world by the time I was old enough to work.

The Food That Made Me a Foodie

As for the buns - as you can probably tell, they weren't vegan. Not even a little. The dough had eggs and margarine in it, and the fillings were cheesy and meaty. I didn't go vegan until long after my parents sold their last location. 

I went vegan 8 years ago now, and since then I've thought about making my family recipes into vegan comfort meals. Today, I did that with these vegan pizza buns. And that feels really special. 

While these vegan pizza buns aren't the same, they're well.. vegan, but also whole wheat, and made with simpler ingredients like this 3 ingredient dough. They're healthier, and there's a place for that now, but I wouldn't change a damn thing about the originals.

I hope you give these a go and better yet that they offer you just a bit of the magic they do for me. I know it won't be quite the same experience for you, but maybe after sharing with you what they mean for me, you'll taste just a little extra love in the final product.

Why You'll Love These Vegan Pizza Buns

• Pizza meets calzone, meets family comfort recipe.
• Vegan pizza buns are perfect for kids and adults.
• Although they look unhealthy, we've made them with healthier, better-for-you ingredients. You'll be surprised at how healthy and balanced these vegan pizza buns actually are. 
• High in protein. 
• Easy to customize! As I mentioned above, the original buns came in a ton of different flavours. 

What You'll Need To Make these Vegan Pizza Buns 

• Vegan greek yogurt. I like the Maison Riviera Oat Milk Greek. 
• Whole wheat flour, or all purpose white flour if preferred.
• Vegan pepperoni, or another protein filling of choice.
• Tomato marinara sauce. Personally I think Raos Homemade is tough to beat for store bought, especially for these vegan pizza buns with only a few simple ingredients.
• Vegan cheese. I like the Daiya Foods cheese for any recipe I want it extra melty, like a vegan pizza bun.
• Coarse sea salt for the tops of the vegan pizza buns. While that's optional, it really adds that something extra.

Substitutions

While I wouldn't change the dough for these vegan pizza buns, you can change the filling ingredients as much as you want!

The Next Comfort Recipe You Should Make

Gluten Free Vegan Fudge Brownies pair perfectly with a pizza night.

Please note: all calories and macros have been calculated to the best of my ability but may vary slightly. 

 

Vegan Pizza Buns

Recipe makes 8 Sally Buns (you can half the recipe if desired)

Macros per bun:

322 cals - 10g fat - 37g carbs - 21g protein 

 

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, I used Anitas Sprouted Whole Wheat to up the nutrition!
• 2 cups vegan greek yogurt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 seitan sausages, chopped, I used Field Roast
• 1 cup tomato marinara sauce
• 1/2 cup vegan cheddar cheese shreds, I used Daiya Shreds (they melt the best!)
• 2 tsp coarse salt for the garnish, optional, but recommended!

 

Recipe instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and prepare a baking tray.
2. Chop each sausage in half, lengthwise, then chop them into 1/2 inch, 1/2 moons.
3. Add the chopped sausages to a mixing bowl with tomato marinara sauce, and vegan cheddar cheese shreds. Mix everything together well, then set aside.
4. To a large mixing bowl add: 2 cups whole wheat flour, greek yogurt, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
5. I like to get in there with my hands and mix everything together forming a dough. You can try to do this with a large spoon, but eventually you will have to get your hands in there to roll the dough.
6. Once you have a sticky dough, lightly flour a clean surface and add the sticky dough ball to it. Gently knead the dough, until you have a smooth dough ball.
7. Slice the dough ball into 8. 
8. Using the other 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, add just 1-2 tbsp onto the clean surface and roll a small dough into a flat circle. Pick up the dough circle and hold the centre in the palm of your hand. Using a big spoon, spoon the sausage/tomato/cheese mixture into the centre of the dough ball. Roughly 1/3 cup sausage mix. Now gently pull all the sides of the dough circle up, closing over the sausage mixture, pinching the seams so they stay closed.
9. Add the sealed dough ball back to the floured surface and gently rotate the stuffed bun around so it's a nice circle. 
10. Add the sealed bun to the prepared baking tray and repeat until you've used all the dough and sausage mixture.
11. Lightly oil the surface of each stuffed bun and top with coarse sea salt.
12. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until browned on the bottom and golden on top.
13. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before digging in.

 

Let us know in the comments if you made this recipe!

 

Looking for more high protein, easy, macro friendly recipes? Check out my weekly high protein vegan meal prep planner, here!