I’ve always liked the concept of the cauliflower crust. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the OG pizza crust—especially if it’s a fresh dough out of a wood fire stove. But when it comes to frozen pizza, I like enjoying something that won’t sit so heavy in my stomach, and for a while, the cauliflower pizza crust was basically the only alternative. Until Banza decided to come along and completely annihilate the competition. I mean, this chickpea pizza crust is so good, I refuse to eat cauliflower pizza crust ever again. I’ll even make the claim that this is by far my favorite frozen pizza crust. Yep, I said it.
I was fortunate enough to try the new crust during a pizza cooking class a few weeks ago. During the class, we learned how to make two different pizzas—a vegetarian and a vegan pizza—with James Beard Award-winning Chef Michael Anthony from Gramercy Tavern, and Holistic Health Coach & Author Koya Webb.
Besides the fact that this crust is delicious—more on that in a minute—can I detour for a second and tell you how easy it is to make a cashew pizza sauce? Like, I always thought cashew cheese was something impossible to make, but it’s simply cashews blended up in water. Seriously. That’s it. Sprinkle in a little salt and it’s somehow the best creamy, nutty sauce you’ve ever had in your entire life. Koya taught us during the class. Simply blend up 1 cup of cashews with 1/2 cup of water, then add any flavoring like garlic cloves, basil, salt, pepper, paprika, etc. We topped the pizza with spinach and cherry tomatoes and popped it in the oven. Still in shock by the simplicity of it.
The secret trick to cooking the best frozen pizza? Bake it right on the rack! Those cardboard circles in the pizza box are actually meant for you to slide the pizza in and out of the oven. Sure, you could put it on a pizza stone. But it gets really crispy if you just put the pizza right on the rack. Trust me on this one.
Alright, onto the pizza crust! Banza is selling the pizza crust by itself so you can make your own pizza creations (for inspiration, try this butternut squash kale pizza or the classic Margherita), but they’re also selling a few assembled frozen pizzas of their own. They have a Roasted Veggie, a Four-Cheese, and a Margherita as well.
The plain pizza crust is only 150 calories a slice (1/4 of the pizza), and each box comes with two crusts. Which feels like a steal to me, to be quite honest. The other pizzas average about 400 calories for a serving, and each serving is half the pizza. HELLO. I’ll take half a pizza any day.
Currently, you can buy the pizzas in cases of 4 boxes online for around $50. Or, you can even snag a variety pack like this one on Amazon. Remember, if you buy the case of plain pizza crusts, you’re actually getting eight crusts in that box! You’ll want to make room in your freezer for these, I promise.
You can also buy boxes of Banza pizza at Whole Foods, Target, Wegmans, and Heinen’s if you want to sample a pizza before committing to a whole case.
I could go on-and-on about how great this crust is—really. But I’ll just let you go ahead and try it for yourself. Then comment below and let me know how much you loved it.
Product Praise is a review series on KierstenHickman.com that is not sponsored. The products may have the occasional affiliate link, where I can earn some commission. All in all, the series is purely focused on personal praises of products that I love without paid advertisements.
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