Pepperoni is perhaps the most iconic flavor of pizza, yet it’s one that vegetarians have to pass by.
Well, that’s how it used to be, anyway. Now, with Amy’s Meatless Pepperoni Pizza, even your vegetarian friends can get in on this essential pizza style. Amy’s Kitchen makes a mean pizza, so we had nothing but high hopes for this one.
Unlike some frozen pizzas, this one is not designed for microwaves. Instead, you’ll have to preheat your oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit, then put this on a baking sheet or pizza pan and cook it for about 13 minutes. We actually like to pull ours out just a tad bit early to keep the crust nice and soft.
This is one of those rare frozen foods that comes out of the oven looking just as delicious as the picture on the box — it’s a truly wonderful-looking pizza. It smells fantastic too.
The organic flour crust is as delicious as always. Amy’s Kitchen really knows how to make a great pizza crust, and this pizza doesn’t buck the trend. The back of the box claims that all their pizza crust is made by hand, and we believe it — it always tastes great.
We have no complaints about the sauce or the cheese here, either — which doesn’t surprise us one bit.
So the real question — the question you’ve probably been waiting for — is how does this vegetarian pepperoni compare to the real thing?
Well, first of all we should point out that this tofu-based pepperoni is cut thicker than your traditional pepperoni slice. And that alone really changes the texture — this is definitely softer than a meat-based pepperoni, and it’s even a tad bit rubbery. It also has less flavor. Now, the flavor is surprisingly authentic; it’s just a bit muted. There’s a little bit of a bite to it, but it’s even more subtle than it would be in a true pepperoni. Carnivores aren’t likely to be fooled by this meatless pepperoni, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. We’d say it’s just a discernible step below a real pepperoni.
We’re always a little surprised to see how many frozen-pizza-makers out there like to consider 1/3 of a pizza to be a serving. That’s a bit of an awkward number of ways to split a pizza, and we typically feel like a pizza should be split in halves or quarters rather than thirds. This pizza is no exception; the nutrition info on the box separates this into three servings.
One serving has 340 calories (140 from fat) and 680 mg of sodium. We decided to do a little math and see how this works out for a full pizza and a half pizza. The full pizza has 1,020 calories (420 from fat) and 2,040 mg of sodium. That means a half pizza contains 510 calories (210 from fat) and 1,020 mg of sodium. So a half pizza is a bit high in calories and very high in sodium. We definitely don’t recommend eating the whole thing in one sitting. Share this with a friend or save some leftovers for the next day.
Amy’s Meatless Pepperoni Pizza is another winner from Amy’s Kitchen. Of course, meat-eaters might want to pass this over for something with authentic pepperoni on it, but this is currently the best vegetarian pepperoni substitute we’ve tried.
If you want to learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this frozen pizza, check out our package scans below.
