Looking for Papa Murphys vegetarian options? Here’s the short answer: Papa Murphy’s is one of the easiest pizza chains in the country for plant-based eaters. The crusts are vegan. The cheese is made without animal rennet. And because every pizza is built to order, you control exactly what goes on top. So what about the vegetarians? You’ve got a lot of room here, from ready-made veggie pizzas to a full dairy-free cheese menu most chains don’t bother with.
A Quick Look at Papa Murphy’s
Papa Murphy’s came together in 1995, when Terry Collins merged two Pacific Northwest chains: Papa Aldo’s Pizza (started in 1981) and Murphy’s Pizza (started in 1984). Both were built on the same take-and-bake idea, and the merged company kept it. The store assembles your pizza fresh, then you bake it in your own oven at home.
The chain is headquartered in Vancouver, Washington. It’s been part of the Canadian conglomerate MTY Food Group since 2019. With more than 1,000 stores across the United States, it’s the largest take-and-bake pizza chain in the country. That build-to-order model is the whole reason it works so well for plant-based diners. Chains with fixed recipes lock you into whatever the kitchen makes. Here, you start with a blank crust and decide what belongs on it.
Papa Murphys vegetarian options: What to Order
You have three easy paths to a vegetarian pizza at Papa Murphy’s: grab a pre-built veggie pizza, order off the dedicated dairy-free cheese menu, or build your own from a vegan crust up. The table below sorts the main options by whether they work for vegetarians, vegans, or both.
Papa Murphy’s Vegetarian and Vegan Options
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Original, Thin, Pan & Stuffed Crusts | ✅ | ✅ |
| Gluten-Free Crust | ✅ | ❌ (contains egg) |
| Cheese Pizza (regular mozzarella) | ✅ | ❌ (dairy cheese) |
| Garden Veggie Pizza | ✅ | ⚠️ (sub dairy-free cheese) |
| Gourmet Vegetarian Pizza | ✅ | ⚠️ (sub dairy-free cheese + vegan sauce) |
| Dairy-Free Cheese menu pizzas | ✅ | ✅ |
| Build Your Own (veggie toppings) | ✅ | ✅ (dairy-free cheese or no cheese) |
| Crustless Keto (Gourmet Vegetarian or build-your-own) | ✅ | ⚠️ (built with dairy cheese, ask about no-cheese) |
| Traditional Red Sauce, BBQ, Olive Oil Blend, Sweet Chili | ✅ | ✅ |
| Creamy Garlic, Gourmet White, Pesto, Herb Garlic Spread | ✅ | ❌ (dairy and/or egg) |
| Regular Mozzarella (non-animal rennet) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Violife Dairy-Free Cheese | ✅ | ✅ |
| Garden & Mediterranean Salad (no meat) | ✅ | ⚠️ (no cheese, check dressing) |
| Cookie Dough & Cinnamon Wheel | ✅ | ❌ (dairy & egg) |
| Meat pizzas (Cowboy, All Meat, pepperoni, etc.) | ❌ | ❌ |
Vegetarian Pizzas at Papa Murphy’s
Two pizzas on the regular menu are vegetarian as built, and a custom order gives you full control:
- Garden Veggie: The classic. It comes loaded with mushrooms, black olives, mixed onions, green peppers, and roma tomatoes over traditional red sauce and mozzarella.
- Gourmet Vegetarian: A step up, with a mix of vegetables, herbs, and the gourmet cheese blend. It’s vegetarian as built. The standard version uses a creamy sauce, so swap to red sauce if you want to make it vegan later.
- Build Your Own: Start with any vegan crust and red sauce, then pile on vegetable toppings. This is the most flexible route and the surest way to know exactly what’s on your pizza.
Here’s a reassuring detail for the cheese lovers: Papa Murphy’s says the rennet in its mozzarella comes from a non-animal source. That makes the standard cheese and veggie pizzas vegetarian-friendly, no special order required.
The Dairy-Free Cheese Menu
This is where Papa Murphy’s pulls ahead of every other big pizza chain. It runs a dedicated dairy-free cheese menu built around Violife mozzarella-style shreds, the only full plant-based cheese lineup at a major take-and-bake chain. You’re not stuck cobbling together a workaround. You can order these straight off the board:
- Dairy-Free Cheese Pizza: A plain cheese pizza made with Violife instead of mozzarella.
- Dairy-Free Cheese Garden Veggie: The Garden Veggie with mushrooms, black olives, onions, green peppers, and roma tomatoes, topped with dairy-free shreds.
- Dairy-Free Cheese Gourmet Vegetarian: The Gourmet Vegetarian with Violife (ask for red sauce to keep it fully vegan).
- Dairy-Free Cheese Mini Murph: A kid-sized make-your-own option with dairy-free cheese, handy if you’re feeding a mixed table.
One caveat keeps this from being a sure thing. Violife rolled out chain-wide in 2022, but a handful of stores quietly stopped carrying it through 2025. A quick call to your location before you drive over saves a wasted trip.
Crustless Keto Pizzas at Papa Murphy’s
Watching carbs? Papa Murphy’s bakes a line of crustless keto pizzas in a tray instead of on a crust, and the Crustless Gourmet Vegetarian is the one to know. It piles spinach, sliced zucchini, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, roma tomatoes, and mixed onions over creamy garlic sauce and whole-milk mozzarella. No meat goes on it, so it’s vegetarian as built. Creamy sauce and dairy cheese keep this pie off the vegan list, but it’s a strong low-carb pick.
Prefer to drive the order yourself? Create your own crustless pizza instead. Pick a sauce or skip it, then add up to five toppings, where the keto-friendly ones carry a “KF” tag on the menu board. Ask the counter whether they’ll build it without cheese if you want to push it toward vegan, since the standard crustless trays lean on dairy.
What’s Vegan at Papa Murphy’s?
Papa Murphy’s is more vegan-friendly than almost any pizza chain. The original, thin, pan, and stuffed crusts are all vegan, and so are several sauces. To build a vegan pizza, start with one of those crusts and pick a vegan sauce. Pile on vegetables, then either add Violife dairy-free cheese or skip the cheese entirely.
Vegan sauces: traditional red sauce, BBQ sauce, olive oil blend, and sweet chili sauce are all plant-based. Skip the creamy garlic, gourmet white, pesto, ranch, and herb garlic spread, which all contain dairy or egg.
Vegan toppings: every vegetable topping is fair game. That includes artichoke hearts, black olives, banana peppers, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, green chili peppers, roasted garlic, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, roma tomatoes, pineapple, pickles, zucchini, and the zesty herb blend. Load up.
The two things to keep off a vegan order are the regular mozzarella and the gluten-free crust, which contains egg. Desserts are out too, since they all contain dairy.
Sides, Salads, and Desserts
Papa Murphy’s is mostly a pizza shop, but it does carry a few salads and sweets. The Garden Salad and Mediterranean Salad are both vegetarian once you leave off any meat. To make them vegan, drop the cheese or swap in Violife. Dressings are the sticking point. A vinaigrette is usually the safest bet, but reports differ on which ones are fully plant-based, so ask before you pour or bring your own.
For dessert, the cookie dough and cinnamon wheel are vegetarian, but both contain dairy and egg, so neither is vegan. If you want a plant-based sweet, your best move is to bake something at home alongside the pizza.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Baking at home gives you more control than a typical pizza place, but a few allergens still need watching. The standard crusts contain wheat, so they aren’t gluten-free. The chain does sell a separate gluten-free crust, but it contains egg, which means it’s vegetarian but not vegan.
Dairy shows up in the regular mozzarella and in the creamy garlic, gourmet white, pesto, ranch, and herb garlic sauces. Violife dairy-free cheese is the vegan workaround, though availability varies by store after some locations dropped it in 2025. Meat toppings get prepped in the same kitchen, so flag cross-contact if that matters to you. Papa Murphy’s posts a full nutrition and allergen guide on its website. It’s worth a look before you order.
Tips for Vegetarians at Papa Murphy’s
- Build your own on a vegan crust with red sauce for full control over the toppings.
- The regular cheese is fine for vegetarians, since the rennet is non-animal.
- Going vegan? Order straight off the dairy-free cheese menu, and call ahead to confirm your store still carries Violife.
- Stick with red, BBQ, olive oil, or sweet chili sauce. The creamy and pesto sauces contain dairy or egg.
- Pile on the veggies. Mushrooms, peppers, onions, olives, spinach, and artichoke hearts are all plant-based.
- Double-check that no meat toppings landed on a customized pizza before you leave the counter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion: What’s Vegetarian at Papa Murphy’s?
Papa Murphys vegetarian options are some of the best in the pizza business. Vegan crusts, non-animal rennet, a full dairy-free cheese menu, total build-your-own control: it’s a rare chain where plant-based eaters get more than an afterthought. Stick with the veggie pizzas or a custom build, choose a vegan sauce, and call ahead about dairy-free cheese if you’re vegan. For more help eating out, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, browse the full restaurants category, or check what’s vegetarian at Domino’s, Papa John’s, and Little Caesars.
