The best tomato-free pizza sauce

Pizza is the quintessential comfort food, and it’s all too easy to binge on one or several slices. You can find hundreds of different styles of pizzas all over the world.

With all the new twists on toppings and toppings coming along, one of the most common ingredients to make a pizza remains: tomato sauce. But what if you are allergic or if tomatoes are not your thing?

What are the best tomato-free pizza sauces? The best tomato-free pizza sauces are barbecue sauce, pesto, caramelized onion, béchamel, hummus, ranch dressing, and even garlicky olive oil.

It really all comes down to the tastes you enjoy and the toppings you like. Stay with us to learn more about these sauces and how you can use them the next time you want to spice up your pizza.

The best tomato-free pizza sauces

To help you decide which tomato-free sauces to try next, here’s a breakdown of the best ones to try!

1. Pesto

Pesto is a classic option for those who want something different and a little more fresh flavor on their pizza. It is especially good for vegetarian pizzas with mozzarella, as the flavors blend perfectly.

The most popular pesto to use on a pizza is basil pesto. It can be easily purchased at most stores, but it always tastes so much fresher if you make it yourself.

Basil pesto recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of fresh basil leaves
• ½ cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup of pine nuts or walnuts
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Method:

1. Place the basil and the type of dried fruit you have chosen in a food processor and pulse.
2. Add the garlic and Parmesan cheese and pulse several times, scraping the side of the food processor between pulses.
3. Slowly pour in the olive oil while the food processor is running. Add it slowly to prevent it from separating.
4. Add the salt and black pepper.

This classic pesto recipe is easy to make, and you can spread it on a prepared pizza crust and top it with your favorite toppings for an amazingly fresh-tasting pizza.

The most popular toppings for a pesto pizza are mozzarella, feta cheese, peppers, and olives. There are a few pesto options other than basil that are also worth trying.

Among them are the dried tomato pesto, the walnut pesto, the pistachio pesto and the parsley and anchovy pesto. You can experiment with different variants of pesto to see which one you like best on pizza. Most of them can be done at home.

2. Caramelized onions

Using caramelized onions as a pizza sauce is really thinking of something else. It doesn’t have the same saucey consistency as tomato sauce or even pesto, but it’s a great option to use in place of tomatoes.

When onions are slowly cooked, they start to caramelize. This results in a sweet yet savory flavor and soft, melt-in-your-mouth onions.

Knowing how to caramelize onions is a great skill to have in the kitchen, and helps provide an alternative pizza topping when you want something a little different.

You really don’t need much to make caramelized onions, and the process is pretty easy to follow.

Caramelized Onions Recipe

Ingredients:

• Butter
• Canola oil
• Onion
• Salt
• white balsamic vinegar

Method:

1. Cut the onions into slices or cubes.
2. Heat the oil and butter in a skillet and add the onion slices. You will need 1 tablespoon of the oil and butter mixture for each onion.
3. Spread the onions and allow them to coat with the oil evenly.
4. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the onions don’t burn.
5. Let them simmer for ten minutes and then add the salt.
6. Let them cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want to let them cook long enough for them to brown, but not long enough for them to stick to the pan. Add more oil and butter if necessary.

Continue cooking the onions until they turn a deep brown color. You can then add a bit of balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pan and add some more flavor.

These caramelized onions are lightly sauced and add some moisture and amazing flavor to the pizza base.

3. Béchamel or Alfredo sauce

For a simple pizza sauce option, bechamel, or white sauce, is a good choice. For all those who like to spend time in the kitchen, making a béchamel sauce is a skill that should be part of your toolbox.

Béchamel can be used to make more complex sauces or added to different dishes, such as lasagna with béchamel and cottage cheese.

However, when making a béchamel sauce for a pizza, you can keep it simple and just add a few different flavors that you like or experiment and create something tasty and unique.

To make the béchamel, all you need is to make a roux with flour and butter, then gradually add the milk while whisking.

It will cook to the right consistency, and you can add cheese, salt, pepper, and other seasonings to make the perfect white sauce to top a pizza.

Another very popular option is to use alfredo sauce, especially if you prepare a pizza with chicken, bacon, spinach or cream cheese. Not only does it taste fantastic on pasta, it gives pizza an extra creamy consistency with a tasty touch of garlic.

4. Hummus

It makes sense that since hummus is so delicious on pita bread, it would be so delicious on pizza as well. Hummus can be purchased at the store, or you can easily make it at home.

Hummus is a great option for adding protein and nutrients to pizza, and it’s especially delicious when the pizza is topped with olives, onions, peppers, and feta cheese.

hummus recipe

Ingredients:

• • 1 can of chickpeas
  • ¼ cup fresh lemon juice or 1 large lemon
  • ¼ cup tahini
  • 1 minced garlic clove
  • 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 3 tablespoons of water

Method:

1. Add the tahini and lemon juice to a food processor and process for one minute.
2. Add the olive oil, garlic, cumin and salt. Process for 30 seconds.
3. Drain the chickpeas. Add half to the food processor and process for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides, add the remaining chickpeas and process until thick and smooth.
4. If the hummus is too thick, add a bit of water until it’s the right consistency.

It’s best if the hummus is slightly thick when used for the pizza, so it doesn’t soak the pizza crust and makes it easier to spread. You can also add a bit of paprika if you want to give the pizza a smokier flavor.

5. Ranch dressing

In North America, ranch dressing has long been the perfect pizza dipping sauce, so it’s not hard to imagine that it would also make a great substitute for ketchup.

The ranch dressing adds a delicious creaminess to the pizza with a tangy touch that elevates the other flavors present and creates a unique experience.

However, you don’t have to stop there. While regular pizza with ranch will certainly be enough to satisfy your pizza craving, there are many other ranch flavors you can try on your pizza for an extra burst of flavor.

Here are some ranch flavors that work great on pizza:

• chipotle
• habanero
• Buffalo
• Jalapeno
• Bacon
• Garlic

Ranch sauce is often used as a pizza sauce, so you can skip the middleman and spread ranch sauce directly on the crust.

Other creamy dressings, though less popular, also work as dips and substitutes, such as Creamy Italian Dressing, Southwestern, Green Goddess, and Caesar.

You can opt to make your own ranch sauce, but it definitely helps to have a bottle or two stowed away in the fridge for when you need a no-fuss sauce for a pizza.

6. Garlic and olive oil

If you are looking for a subtle and light pizza sauce, we recommend a simple combination of garlic and olive oil.

You can drizzle some golden olive oil over the pizza and sprinkle some fresh minced garlic on top. It’s best to keep it simple, so top it off with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegar.

This works best with light-flavored ingredients like mozzarella, chicken, arugula, and tomatoes (if you’re okay with the tomatoes being on top of the pizza instead of hidden underneath).

If you want more substance, you can add some caramelized onions to the pizza. This is an amazing combination, which is completely tomato-free.

You can use many different ingredients, since the garlic and olive oil are not excessive and go well with many flavors.

Honorable Mention - Barbecue Sauce

Barbecue sauce contains tomato paste , and those avoiding tomatoes due to food sensitivities should steer clear of this option.

However, we cannot end this article without mentioning this delicious tomato sauce substitute. If you don’t like the taste of tomato, you don’t have to worry because the ingredients in the barbecue sauce completely mask it.

It is both sweet and spicy and brings a great smoky flavor and a bit of heat to the rest of the pizza.

Tomato paste is also not the same as tomato sauce, and there will be no tomato chunks in your barbecue sauce.

If you want to go further, you can make your own barbecue sauce. The good thing is that you can play around with the ingredients and the proportions to make a barbecue sauce that suits your personal tastes.

The basic ingredients of a barbecue sauce are

• Onions
• Garlic
• red pepper flakes
• Brown sugar
• Tomato paste
• Honey

These ingredients can be mixed together and even cooked with a little olive oil to make a rich, smoky sauce, but once again you can play around with the ingredients.

For those who do not want to make their own barbecue sauce, you can buy a bottle of barbecue sauce to keep in the fridge and easily prepare a delicious pizza.

Related questions

Pizza sauce and pasta sauce: what’s the difference?

Pizza sauce is an uncooked tomato sauce, while pasta sauce is cooked. Pasta sauce is usually simmered and contains more herbs, such as basil.

Pasta sauce is also sweeter, richer, and has a deeper flavor than pizza sauce. It is there to flavor the pasta, while the pizza sauce only serves as a base for the other ingredients, which end up stealing the limelight.

Pizza sauce is faster and easier to make than pasta sauce.

Can I use ketchup instead of pizza sauce?

Although it pains us to say it, yes, you can technically use ketchup as an alternative to pizza sauce. However, just because you can use ketchup instead of pizza sauce doesn’t mean you should.

Ketchup is too sweet and lacks robust, garlicky, and herbal flavors, so it should only be used on pizza when you’re completely out of options and have no other pizza sauce substitutes.

In that case, we recommend adding additional ingredients, such as Italian seasoning and oregano, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic, to make it a bit more like pizza sauce.

Can homemade pizza sauce be frozen?

Yes, you can freeze pizza sauce. It’s a good idea to make a big batch of pizza sauce at home and then freeze individual portions for later use.

This saves you having to make the pizza sauce from scratch later, and gives you easy access to amazing, ready-to-use pizza sauce in no time.

It’s best to leave the frozen pizza sauce in the fridge overnight to thaw, but if you don’t have time to do so, you can put it in hot water to thaw quickly.