Cauliflower Crust Pizza
A few years ago I made cauliflower crust pizza, loved it, and completely forgot about it. About a month ago, Loren got an Adriatico’s pizza after work to take camping with him and his friends for the Mid-Ohio race because you can get a huge trunk-size pizza and it’s one of their favorites. Even though I didn’t like Adriatico’s much before I was gluten-free, it smelled SO good! When it came time to decide on dinner, all I wanted was pizza. We’d been busy around the house and Lo was getting packed for camping, so I didn’t want to make him make me a GF pizza (though he probably would have whether he wanted to or not).
I remembered I had a head of cauliflower in the fridge from the weekly pregnancy photos (I take a picture holding a fruit or veggie that corresponds with the baby size), so I decided to make a cauliflower crust pizza. Lo was super-skeptical, but he didn’t plan to eat it since he had “real” pizza.
This picture doesn’t do it justice because it was in terrible lighting, but I promise it’s amazing. I’ll make it again and get a better picture with our new Nikon D5100! (I finally got a big-girl camera!).
If it looks like pizza and taste like pizza, call it pizza! It’s naturally gluten-free, low-carb (if you’re into that), and you can make it healthy(ish) by choosing healthy toppings. Don’t overload the crust with sauce or toppings though because you may not be able to pick it up to eat it if you do. Or overload it and eat it with a fork…pizza crust is just a vehicle for the toppings anyway!
Cauliflower Crust Pizza
- 2 ½ cups fresh cauliflower florets (about ½ a large head)
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 cup shredded part skim mozzarella
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes if you like spicy
- Mozzarella cheese or your preferred, for topping
- Pepperoni (and/or you favorite toppings)
- Heat oven to 425 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Chop the cauliflower in batches in a food processor or blender until most of the pieces are about the size of rice grains (give or take). In the alternative, you can use a box grater to grate the cauliflower, but that sounds terrible to me.
- Place cauliflower pieces in a large bowl and microwave for 7-8 minutes, or until softened. Remove and let cool for about 5 minutes.
- Mix in the egg, 1 cup mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and crushed red pepper, if you want a little spice.
- Once combined, pat into a 10-inch round on the prepared pizza pan. Spray lightly with non-stick spray and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden.
- Top the pizza with the sauce, cheese, and other preferred toppings. Bake in the oven until melted and bubbly, another 10 minutes.
Lo tried it that night and was surprised that it tasted like pizza and wasn’t “weird”. Will he give up Adriatico’s for cauliflower crust pizza? Probably not….but I suspect he won’t turn it down when I make it again.
I actually ended up making the pizza again two days later. I had the other half of the cauliflower, sauce, and pepperoni, so I didn’t want it to go to waste! I made when a friend was visiting and she loved it. She had trouble wrapping her head around the fact that I was making a pizza crust from cauliflower, but she had complete faith in me.