Cauliflower Crust Pizza
As if making zoodles instead of pasta didn't make my Italian grandmother roll in her grave... I give you... Cauliflower crust pizza!
I will warn you up front, if you are thinking this is going to taste just like, or even slightly similar to pizza dough crust, you will be sadly mistaken. It is, however, REALLY yummy!
Give yourself some time to make it, as it isn't just a grab and go kind of dinner. And prepare to make a mess... I had chopped up cauliflower EVERYWHERE! When did I become such a messy cook? Eek, at least I had my boys to help me. They were super excited about this project. So let's start at the beginning.
Grab your food processor, or maybe even a blender will do... and your head of cauliflower.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
You will start by cutting your cauliflower into manageable pieces, and pulsing in your processor 15-20 times until you get it to the consistency of rice.
Put your processed cauliflower on a parchment lined baking sheet in an even layer and put in the oven for about 25 minutes, stirring often. This is to help soften the cauliflower and to remove some of it's moisture.
Once it has baked for 25 minutes, you will take your cauliflower and place it in a clean dishtowel (cheese cloth would be best here but I had to work with what I had!) and wring out any more excess water.
** Now, seeing as this is my first time even making this, and I was in a hurry because we had soccer practice, I wish I had spent more time wringing it out. While I got MOST of the water out of the cauliflower, I didn't get it all... you will want it as dry as you can get it, so take some extra time here... and you get a bonus arm workout in!! **
In a bowl, mix together your cauliflower, olive oil, eggs whites, black pepper, sea salt, parmesan cheese, garlic and basil. And to be honest, any other flavors you like... you really can experiment with different flavored crusts here.. imagine the possibilities!!
I used my pizza stone, and pressed my "dough" out in a circle on my stone and back in the oven it went at 400 degrees for 25 minutes... I think... I never time anything, I just eye-ball it. But it seemed like a good 25 minutes... but it was starting to get nice and crispy around the edges.
Once you have your nice golden brown tasty crust, you will take it out of the oven and top with whatever you want!
For our pizza, I used an organic store bought sauce, fresh mozzarella (cause it's da bomb), sliced green peppers, and sliced tomatoes. And put it BACK in the oven once more. No time contraint here, just watch it and when your cheese starts to get bubbly, it's TIME!
Slice and enjoy!
Now, clearly... I made some mistakes here and honestly, I don't like blogging about recipes that I haven't perfected.. but you were asking for it and I really feel like you can learn from my mistakes here! This recipes will be made again and again in our house, because despite not being able pick it up and eat it like a slice of pizza (it was falling apart because there was too much moisture in the crust still) it was SO DELICIOUS! And clean eating too!
So, give it a go, and let me know how it works out for you! Looking forward to hearing about your cauliflower pizza experience, come back and comment below!!
Ingredients for crust
I will warn you up front, if you are thinking this is going to taste just like, or even slightly similar to pizza dough crust, you will be sadly mistaken. It is, however, REALLY yummy!
Give yourself some time to make it, as it isn't just a grab and go kind of dinner. And prepare to make a mess... I had chopped up cauliflower EVERYWHERE! When did I become such a messy cook? Eek, at least I had my boys to help me. They were super excited about this project. So let's start at the beginning.
Grab your food processor, or maybe even a blender will do... and your head of cauliflower.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
You will start by cutting your cauliflower into manageable pieces, and pulsing in your processor 15-20 times until you get it to the consistency of rice.
Put your processed cauliflower on a parchment lined baking sheet in an even layer and put in the oven for about 25 minutes, stirring often. This is to help soften the cauliflower and to remove some of it's moisture.
Once it has baked for 25 minutes, you will take your cauliflower and place it in a clean dishtowel (cheese cloth would be best here but I had to work with what I had!) and wring out any more excess water.
** Now, seeing as this is my first time even making this, and I was in a hurry because we had soccer practice, I wish I had spent more time wringing it out. While I got MOST of the water out of the cauliflower, I didn't get it all... you will want it as dry as you can get it, so take some extra time here... and you get a bonus arm workout in!! **
In a bowl, mix together your cauliflower, olive oil, eggs whites, black pepper, sea salt, parmesan cheese, garlic and basil. And to be honest, any other flavors you like... you really can experiment with different flavored crusts here.. imagine the possibilities!!
I used my pizza stone, and pressed my "dough" out in a circle on my stone and back in the oven it went at 400 degrees for 25 minutes... I think... I never time anything, I just eye-ball it. But it seemed like a good 25 minutes... but it was starting to get nice and crispy around the edges.
** Second disclaimer - again, rushing for soccer practice, I really should have left it in the oven a little longer to bake off the excess moisture I didn't get in out the previous step **
Once you have your nice golden brown tasty crust, you will take it out of the oven and top with whatever you want!
For our pizza, I used an organic store bought sauce, fresh mozzarella (cause it's da bomb), sliced green peppers, and sliced tomatoes. And put it BACK in the oven once more. No time contraint here, just watch it and when your cheese starts to get bubbly, it's TIME!
Slice and enjoy!
Now, clearly... I made some mistakes here and honestly, I don't like blogging about recipes that I haven't perfected.. but you were asking for it and I really feel like you can learn from my mistakes here! This recipes will be made again and again in our house, because despite not being able pick it up and eat it like a slice of pizza (it was falling apart because there was too much moisture in the crust still) it was SO DELICIOUS! And clean eating too!
So, give it a go, and let me know how it works out for you! Looking forward to hearing about your cauliflower pizza experience, come back and comment below!!
Ingredients for crust
- 1 head of cauliflower
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/4 c parmesan cheese
- 2 large egg whites
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