Moving from the pasta to the freezer aisle, Banza continues to disrupt the comfort food category with a better-for-you pizza that delivers on nutrition, taste, and texture
October 19th, 2020 (New York, NY): Banza, the company that’s elevated the pasta, rice, and mac & cheese categories with its chickpea-based options, today announced its largest category expansion to date with the introduction of the first-ever frozen pizza made with a chickpea crust. The new product reinforces Banza’s commitment to making nutritious foods more accessible, by upgrading America’s favorite foods traditionally made with wheat, corn, or rice, by using chickpeas.
Banza’s new pizzas have more protein and fiber, and fewer net carbs and sodium, than the leading traditional (wheat-based) and better-for-you (cauliflower-based) frozen pizzas currently sold in the market. With a high-quality and minimal ingredient list, Banza relies on whole ingredients like chickpeas, olive oil, yeast, and oregano to deliver on the taste and texture consumers crave when eating pizza – a crispy crust with a doughy center that doesn’t flop over when you pick up a slice.
“Chickpeas are one of the most nutrient-dense and environmentally-friendly foods available, yet we consume far less of them than we should” says Brian Rudolph, CEO & Co-Founder of Banza. “At Banza, we’re demonstrating the versatility of the ingredient and increasing consumption by using them to upgrade some of America’s favorite foods – pasta, rice and now, pizza”.
The new line is available in three ready-to-eat varieties including Four Cheese, Roasted Veggie and Margherita, and a two-pack, build-your-own Plain crust option. Each pie cooks in the oven for less than 15 minutes and provides either 8 servings (for Plain Crust, which comes with two crusts per package) or 2 servings (for others).
“My family and I have been having so much fun with Banza’s new chickpea-based pizzas – they’re delicious and strike the right balance of chewy and crispy. The plain crust pizzas provide a delicious blank slate to build our own pies, and it’s clear the product will find a home in freezers nationwide,” says Danny Meyer, CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group.
Since launching five years ago, Banza has become the fastest-growing pasta brand in the U.S. and is currently sold in more than 13,500 stores. The company now offers sixteen different pasta shapes, four varieties of chickpea rice, and six varieties of mac & cheese.
We had a chance to dive into the creation of these new chickpea crusts with the Brian Rudolph, the co-founder of Banza.
It’s hard to find a vegan, gluten-free pizza crust on the shelves these days. Usually, they contain a binder like eggs or cheese. Could you explain how you created the new crust without these non-vegan binders?
It was important to us to make our crusts vegan. Unlike other alternative flours, chickpeas are capable of creating a cohesive, workable dough. As a result, we didn’t need to rely on eggs or cheese to bind the crust together. The end result is a crispy, yet doughy crust we are proud to put on store shelves.
Could you explain the science behind chickpea crust pizza?
We started our pizza journey by listening to our customers and learning what they wanted. Based on their feedback, we got to work. We created hundreds of formulation iterations before landing on the right one. The end result delivers on the taste and texture expectations for pizza, while being made primarily from chickpeas.
Once we felt great about the crust, we moved on to creating our topped pizzas. It was fun to see how the pizza came to life over the course of the year (and we got to eat a lot of chickpea pizza during the process!).
Why chickpeas? Tell us about the nutritional value and overall best qualities of the magical beans!
Banza’s mission is to increase the consumption of legumes. Legumes are one of the best foods for human and environmental health.
From a nutrition standpoint, consumption of beans is correlated with longevity, and a reduction in risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
They’re also great for the environment. Legumes are often cited as the most efficient form of protein per greenhouse gas emissions and water usage. They also fix nitrogen into the soil, making them an important and valuable rotation crop. Nitrogen fixation improves soil fertility, allowing farmers to rely less on resource intensive synthetic fertilizers.
Despite all of these benefits, we don’t eat enough of them. So, we turn chickpeas into delicious comfort foods, like pasta, mac & cheese, rice, and now — pizza.
Banza Pizza is now available nationwide at Target, Whole Foods Market, Wegmans, and Heinen’s, as well as online at Amazon and EatBanza.com, with an MSRP of $8.99.
For more information about Banza, please visit eatbanza.com.
ABOUT BANZA Banza, founded by brothers Brian and Scott Rudolph, is on a mission to increase the consumption of legumes. Legumes, like chickpeas, are one of the healthiest foods for both people and the planet, yet we don’t eat enough of them. Banza does this by transforming legumes into the foods we know and love, like pasta, mac and cheese, rice, and now pizza.
Banza’s chickpea pasta has nearly double the protein, three times the fiber, and one-third fewer net carbs than traditional pasta. Since launching in retail in 2014, Banza pasta has expanded to over 13,500 stores nationwide and is the fastest-growing pasta brand in the country. For more information about Banza, please visit www.eatbanza.com.
