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What if your next pizza night started with sweet potatoes? In a recent video, Mark Thompson – better known as Sauce Stache – shows us how to turn this super healthy root vegetable into a chewy, golden pizza base.
Thompson is a popular vegan creator known for experimenting with plant-based food science. In this video, he explains how to use sweet potatoes to make pizza dough from scratch, showing every step of the process – from boiling and mashing the potatoes to letting the dough ferment overnight.
Read more: 8 Vegan Pizza Recipes
The result, tested and approved by his partner Monica, is a surprisingly light, fluffy crust with a subtle sweetness that might just convert even the most traditional pizza fans.
Here’s how Sauce Stache pulls off his sweet potato pizza trick.
Making the base
Thompson starts by peeling and cubing sweet potatoes, boiling them in salted water until soft. The starchy water isn’t wasted; it becomes part of the dough base. Once the potatoes are mashed and cooled, he whisks some of the reserved water with flour until it reaches “pancake dough consistency.” Then comes a spoonful of mashed sweet potato, yeast, and a touch of maple syrup to feed the fermentation.
He lets the mixture rest until it gets foamy. “Ok, this has gotten nice and bubbly,” he says, as the yeast comes alive. Flour, salt, and olive oil follow, creating a soft, slightly sticky dough. Thompson admits it’s wetter than a classic pizza base but insists the texture will pay off.
After a brief knead, the dough goes back into the bowl for its first rise – about an hour. He punches it down, divides it into two, and places the portions in the fridge overnight. That’s where the magic happens. “You don’t have to do that,” he notes, “but if you do, you’ll get a punchier taste.”
Building flavor overnight
While the dough rests, Thompson makes a simple cashew topping. Soaked cashews, lemon juice, salt, and nutritional yeast blend into a rich, creamy sauce. “It’s the saltiness and the sourness that make this kind of like a cheesy topping,” he explains. Like the dough, it can sit overnight, developing flavor and smoothness by the next day.
By morning, both elements are ready. “These have overproofed,” he jokes, showing the puffed dough. But instead of starting over, he embraces the texture, pressing it gently into two pans – a deep square and a thinner quarter sheet – to test which version works best.
Assembling and baking
Thompson spreads a quick tomato sauce made from crushed tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and salt. Over that goes the cashew “cheese,” drizzled in ribbons across the dough. Half of each pizza gets canned mushrooms, and everything bakes at 450°F for about 20 minutes. “If you don’t like canned mushrooms and you think this was a bad idea, then you don’t do it,” Thompson says.
The result? Golden edges, crisp bottoms, and a tender crumb that defies its vegetable origins. “This is really like airy and fluffy,” Monica says between bites, admitting that she had no idea it was sweet potato. Thompson smiles: mission accomplished.
Between the deep-dish and thinner versions, both win. One is fluffier and breadier, the other crisp and light. “They’re both really good,” Monica says. “I don’t know that I like one better than the other. It’s just like whatever I’m in the mood for that day.”
Thompson agrees. “The sweet potato just adds such a cool element to this,” he says. “Way better than your normal homemade.”
Sweet potatoes might not replace traditional pizza dough for purists – but in Thompson’s kitchen, they definitely change the game.
Find more plant-based recipes and science content on the Sauce Stache YouTube channel.
Read more: Pizza Gets A Healthy Makeover With This Viral Oatmeal Recipe
