A calzone is essentially a folded pizza – sealed like a half-moon and baked until golden. It’s traditionally stuffed with cheese, meats, and tomato sauce, but it’s incredibly easy to make plant-based. This vegan mushroom calzone – which comes from Natlicious Food – keeps all the cozy, cheesy flavor you’d expect, but uses mushrooms, herbs, and vegan cheese for a hearty, dairy-free alternative.

Sautéed mushrooms bring an earthy depth, balanced with garlic, oregano, and a splash of vegan white wine for extra richness. The filling is wrapped in soft pizza dough, then baked until crisp on the outside and warm and melty inside. Tomato passata adds a sweet tang, and a light dusting of semolina gives the base that perfect crunch.

Whether you’re cooking for a casual dinner, prepping a portable lunch, or feeding a crowd, this vegan mushroom calzone is a satisfying and simple recipe that proves comfort food can still be compassionate.

Plant-based comfort food

This vegan mushroom calzone is a comforting twist on classic Italian street food. Filled with garlicky mushrooms, herbs, and melty vegan cheese, it’s wrapped in pizza dough and baked until golden. Easy to prepare and perfect for lunch, dinner, or meal prep.

A vegan mushroom calzone made to a dairy-free recipe

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Ingredients

300 g mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
Fresh and dried oregano
A splash of vegan white wine
1 ball of pizza dough
4 tbsp tomato passata
A sprinkle of grated plant-based cheese
Semolina and flour for spreading

Instructions

Preheat your oven. If you are using a conventional home oven, bring it to the highest temperature (250°C – see notes for baking tray).
Slice the mushrooms and garlic cloves.
In a pan, over medium-high heat, add the oil and mushrooms, and sauté for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
Once they start getting a golden colour, add the garlic, some salt and pepper, and sauté for a couple of minutes.
Then deglaze with the wine, add the fresh oregano, and cook for 2 more minutes until the wine has evaporated.
Remove from the heat and let them cool down.
Carefully place the dough on a clean surface that you have sprinkled with some flour, and add some extra flour on top of the dough.
Gently press the dough from the centre outward with your fingers, rotating it as you go, until it forms a large rectangle or circle.
Unlike pizza, calzone requires a generally flat surface, so keep that in mind when rolling out the dough. You can even use a rolling pin.
Sprinkle a little flour or semolina on your pizza peel or a wooden chopping board, and lay the dough on it.
Before you start adding ingredients, shake the pizza peel/board back and forth to make sure that the dough moves. Then place the ingredients in half of the dough, starting with the mushrooms, half of the passata, and then the cheese.
Fold over and tightly crimp the edges. Cut air vents, add the remaining tomato passata on top, and a sprinkle of oregano.
Carefully slide the prepared calzone from the peel or board onto the preheated oven baking tray or preheated pizza stone.
In a home oven, bake it for 5-6 minutes or until golden. If you are using a pizza oven, it can take from 2-4 minutes.
If using the Piana gas pizza oven, use the wheel to rotate it.
Once baked, remove from the oven, cut, and enjoy!

Notes:

*When preheating the oven at home, add your oven baking tray to heat as well, but turned upside-down.

*Make sure that when you add the dough on the pizza peel/board, it moves. If it doesn’t, it will be hard to transfer it into the oven once it’s filled.

*Once you start adding ingredients to your dough, make sure to move fast. The longer it takes, the harder it will be to handle the dough.

This recipe was republished with permission from Natlicious Food. You can view the original recipe here.

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