When I started seeing pictures of cauliflower pizza crust showing up on Pinterest (follow me here), I was intrigued. But after clicking through to the recipes, I was disappointed to see that the 2 actual recipes I found included instructions to microwave the cauliflower. (Many pics were linked to spam sites. Always check your pin links!) Since microwave radiation denatures food and is linked to cancer, I don’t use microwaves unless absolutely necessary. So I decided to play around with the recipe and see if I could come up with a healthier method. This does contain eggs and cheese, so is not vegan. It would probably work just as well with a cheese substitute, but I’m not sure what you would use as a binding agent in place of the egg.
Cauliflower pizza crust
Ingredients:
- 1 large head cauliflower, leaves and stems removed
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsps dried oregano
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp salt
- olive oil
- pizza sauce
- shredded cheese
- your choice of toppings
- olive oil spray
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Chop the cauliflower florets into chunks and steam them in a steamer or on the stove until slightly soft. Do not fully cook or it will become mushy. I started with a very large head of cauliflower; it was so big it wouldn’t all fit into my steamer, so I used as much of it as I could. Because the steamer was so full, it took about 15 minutes for the cauliflower to get soft enough. I waited just until it had lost the opaque white coloring.
Transfer cauliflower to a food processor and pulse until it looks like rice or couscous. Do not overprocess. My large head of cauli yielded about 6 cups of the cauliflower “rice.”
Yep, that’s cauliflower
Mix the cauliflower rice with the mozzarella, oregano, garlic, and salt. Mix until everything is well blended, then add the eggs and continue mixing. Spray a cookie sheet with the olive oil spray and transfer the cauli mixture to the cookie sheet. Spread the mixture evenly to cover the sheet. I used a 12×15 baking stone; my 6 cups of cauli mixture filled up the stone nicely. Optional: brush olive oil on the top to help with browning. Cook at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
Crust before baking
While crust is baking, pre-cook your toppings. (The actual pizza is under the broiler for just 5 minutes.) I used onion, mushroom, and green pepper, and sauteed them on the stove with some olive oil and garlic. When crust is browned, remove and turn oven to broil.
Crust after baking
Add sauce, toppings, and cheese and return pizza to oven. (I also added a layer of fresh spinach.)
Broil for 3-4 minutes, just until cheese is melted.
The verdict
Delicious, just as a pizza should be. You would never guess the crust was made of cauliflower. (My husband did, but only because I told him it was completely grain-free, and he is used to me doing weird things with food.) The crust is soft, so it’s not the kind of pizza you can pick up and eat with your hands — it’s definitely a fork meal. Between the two of us, we devoured almost the entire thing. I had one piece leftover for lunch the next day. The leftovers resembled more of a veggie hash than pizza, but they still tasted fabulous. This one is definitely going into regular rotation. Easy, clean, guilt-free pizza … what’s not to love??
