Sweet Earth Veggie Lover’s Pizza (New Formula) Review
The Sweet Earth Veggie Lover’s Pizza (the original formula) was my go-to vegan store-bought pizza for two reasons.
The vegan cheese is not slimy (I find most popular vegan cheeses too slimy for my liking).
It is more accessible than other vegan pizzas and can be found at Stater Bros, Sprouts, and Clark’s (Stater Bros is a 5-min drive for me, versus a 20-min drive to any health food store I need to go to find other vegan pizzas).
The original formula was unique: A crust made from cornmeal, carrots, and chia; and topped with broccoli, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, corn, marinara, and a vegan cauliflower herb sauce.
Flavor wise, I can’t say that it was anything extraordinary. It was mainly, finally a vegan pizza that tasted decent and didn’t gross me out with slimy cheese (though it did have a strong cheese scent that I didn’t love). The crust was on the thin side and more crunchy than doughy. Another reason I bought it was that it was healthier than your average pizza, loaded with veggies and chia seeds (added Omega-3s are always a plus in this vegan’s book).
I don’t mean to make the old formula sound underwhelming, because it was a good pizza that I had more often than I should have. Also, everyone I made try this pizza, loved it. Even two hard-core carnivores liked it! It’s just when I really think about it, this was a good pizza and I loved it, but it didn’t make me miss DiGiorno any less. Mostly because I crave thick crusted pizzas.
When I saw “New Improved Recipe!” on the box, I worried. This was my go-to pizza they were messing with and the only one decent enough to stop me from ordering less healthy pizza for delivery.
But change can be a good thing, folks. I loved it, and think it is now extraordinary.
Changes made to the formula:
No more corn or chia. The corn was definitely unique but I don’t think the pizza suffers from not having it. The omission of chia is a little bit of a bummer, but I’ll get them into my diet in other ways. Again, the flavor doesn’t suffer without chia.
No more stinky cheese. While it doesn’t state this on the box, I found the cheese scent to be less offensive than in the old formula.
More cauliflower herb sauce? The cauliflower herb sauce is not a new addition to the pizza, but I found the flavors to come through better with the new formula. The pizza was herby, zesty deliciousness.
New whole wheat crust. This new crust won me over for two reasons. First, the change made the crust thicker and more doughy, which made my deep-dish-pizza-loving heart happy. It’s fluffy, and reminiscent to a traditional hand-tossed pizza. Second, the flavor of the crust didn’t suffer as a result of using a healthier flour alternative. I wouldn’t be able to distinguish the wheat flour crust from a white flour one.
Overall, the Sweet Earth Veggie Lover’s Pizza is worth a try whether you’re vegan or not. While the crust may not be as healthy as it was before the formula change, it is definitely still healthier than other store-bought vegan pizzas and a worthy challenge to them in the flavor department. It satisfies my pizza craving better than the old formula, and I hope it does yours too.