With veganism on the rise, it’s not usually hard to find vegan pizza options. It’s harder to find vegan and gluten free options though, especially ones that are actually good–gluten free pizza is trickier to make, and many that I’ve tried have been mediocre, with crusts that are either under-cooked or too dry and taste like eating a big cracker.
So of course I was so excited to try the all vegan pizza place Purezza when I saw that they have a house made gluten free sourdough option! Lucas and I split the Parmigiana Party with smoked mozzarella, fried aubergine parmigiana (aubergine is eggplant–aubergine sounds so much fancier though, doesn’t it?), sliced tofu sausages, and basil, and a Cheesus with nutty almond, brown rice mozzarella, melty coconut, and silken ricotta cheeses, both gluten free. While they were both good, the Parmigiana Party was the star–the eggplant Parmesan and sausage were a delicious pair.
The gluten free crust was very good, but not as good as the regular. And the reason I know that is that we ate at Purezza twice, and on the first visit I accidentally had the regular crust (we ordered a gluten free Parmigiana, but they brought us a regular)… and the regular was so much better.
I broke out into hives after, and my reaction wasn’t terrible (at least they weren’t on my face like they are sometimes), but what was worse was remembering how amazing regular pizza is. Being gluten free isn’t generally a big deal for me, but some things, like pizza, are never quite the same–even if it’s good, it’s not that same fluffy, amazing, deliciousness that is a homemade gluten-ful crust. I wouldn’t have realized what I was missing if they hadn’t brought out the wrong pizza, I would’ve just told you the gluten free crust was good, because it was. Just not as good.
Regardless of our gluten free mix up, I still recommend checking out Purezza–both the regular and gluten free pizzas were really good, especially the Parmigiana Party. I love that they make their own crusts and cheeses and think it’s awesome that it’s a sit-down pizza place that’s all vegan. Just make sure you get the right one if you’re gluten free since they don’t label the pizzas. (You may also be wondering how I couldn’t tell…and yes, I probably should’ve verified before eating it, but I had read up on their pizza ahead of time and the gluten free was described as just as good as the regular, so I thought they’d just done a really good job on the dough.)
Have you been to Purezza? Do you have a favorite spot for vegan pizza? Let me know in the comments!