Gluten Free Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza
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Mmmm pizza. Soft crust with crispy edges, hot bubbling cheese, crispy pepperoni and cauliflower.
Did you catch that last one? There’s a vegetable hiding in here somewhere! Do you see it?
Probably not. It’s the crust. Notice I didn’t say it’s IN the crust….It is the crust.
Like I mentioned, I’ve been eliminating wheat out of my diet. It’s actually been not as hard as I have thought especially since I am now able to cook things in the kitchen! As fun as baking is I didn’t think I would be eating pizza anytime soon (sadly). And then I started seeing some interesting trends on Pinterest. Pictures of breads, pizzas, rice, mashed potatoes and desserts…all made out of cauliflower? What?
I am telling you all. If you have boo’d my friend cauliflower in the past…please, please, please give him another try. In fact, do it tonight. He is warm, buttery, comforting and is any gluten/wheat avoiders VBFF (Veggie Best Friend Forever). In the past 2 weeks, I think I have made some sort of cauliflower based dish at least 8 times. 3 of which have been pizza. And let me tell you- 3rd time is the charm!!
After researching and reading a ton of recipes I made 3 different recipes. The first was too mushy. It was good, for a cauliflower, but it tasted like a heap of falling apart mashed vegetable with cheese and meat on top. Not what I was going for. Version one also completely ruined a perfectly good muffin pan even though I greased it up like crazy. Sad face!!!!!
Version two was better…in fact it was quite good and I would be content to make it again, but it had a bunch of extra ingredients that I wasn’t sure was necessary.
So for version three, I took a leap of faith and cut the ingredients down. Way, way down. Simple. Easy. Done. I am so excited about this recipe and can see myself making and enjoying this one for decades. Even if I decide to add wheat back into my diet in the future, I might be content with this version instead. Enjoy! 🙂
Cauliflower Crust Pizza (adapted from: An Edible Mosaic)
Serves 2
1 head of medium cauliflower (about 4 cups chopped)
1 cup shredded cheese divided into 2 half cups (of your choice! Mine was a mix of cheddar and mozzarella)
1 tsp. of garlic powder OR one clove of fresh garlic, minced
1 egg
1 tsp. of oregano
1 tsp. of parsley flakes
Pinch of salt and pepper
Approximately 1.5 cups of Tomato sauce (to your liking – I like my pizza saucey!)
Toppings of your choice (I used gluten free uncured pepperoni)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Wash and loosely chop cauliflower. Rice the cauliflower by using a cheese grater or pulsing through a shredding disk on food processor.
Put riced cauliflower in bowl and dry well by pressing with paper towels. This will help ensure a crispier crust rather than soggy.
In a frying pan, cook riced cauliflower for about 6 minutes over medium heat until softened.
Pulse cauliflower, ½ cup of cheese, spices and one egg into a food processor until well mixed.
On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (do NOT use wax paper or aluminum foil or just a baking dish or a muffin tin!)
Spoon crust mixture onto lined baking sheet. Using a spatula, press mixture into a rectangle shape of roughly 12 x 5 inches and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
Remove baked crust and increase temperature on oven to Low Broil
Add sauce (I chose to omit this and make mine dipping sticks), remaining cheese and toppings and place under broiler for 5 minutes. Keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn’t burn. When the edges start to look crispy, remove from oven.
Let sit for 10 minutes. This is crucial and will let the cauliflower hold together- otherwise your pizza will fall apart!
Cut your pizza. I cut mine into strips and wanted them to be even crispier so I stuck mine back under the broiler for about 3 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!
Be warned. You may catch your kids/husband sneaking cauliflower into your grocery cart from now on! 😛
*Nutritional info obtained from http://recipes.sparkpeople.com & is calculated for a cheese pizza with 1.5 cups of tomato sauce using above ingredients without any additional toppings*
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Nutrition Facts |
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| 2 Servings | ||
|
Amount Per Serving |
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| Calories | 410.3 | |
| Total Fat | 20.4 g | |
| Saturated Fat | 12.6 g | |
| Polyunsaturated Fat | 1.2 g | |
| Monounsaturated Fat | 3.6 g | |
| Cholesterol | 144.3 mg | |
| Sodium | 1,505.2 mg | |
| Potassium | 1,581.6 mg | |
| Total Carbohydrate | 31.1 g | |
| Dietary Fiber | 10.3 g | |
| Sugars | 7.9 g | |
| Protein | 30.8 g | |
**If you are watching your carb intake you can omit tomato sauce (see nutritional info below)**
|
Nutrition Facts |
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| Servings Per Recipe: 2 | ||
| Serving Size: 1 serving | ||
|
Amount Per Serving |
||
| Calories | 351.5 | |
| Total Fat | 19.9 g | |
| Saturated Fat | 12.5 g | |
| Polyunsaturated Fat | 1.0 g | |
| Monounsaturated Fat | 3.5 g | |
| Cholesterol | 144.3 mg | |
| Sodium | 542.3 mg | |
| Potassium | 973.4 mg | |
| Total Carbohydrate | 17.5 g | |
| Dietary Fiber | 7.6 g | |
| Sugars | 0.1 g | |
| Protein | 28.4 g | |
Tania Griffis is an accomplished writer, blogger, and interior designer with a Journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma. She started her popular blog, Run to Radiance, in 2011, demonstrating her design expertise through the personal remodeling of six houses to millions of readers across the globe.
Tania also owns The Creative Wheelhouse, a respected ghostwriting agency for bloggers, further showcasing her talent for creating engaging and informative content.
I’ve been on low carb for almost two years and haven’t made this in a while! There’s also a chicken crust pizza recipe out there that’s pretty good.
This looks doable – even for me! thanks, tania
YUM THIS LOOKS SOOOO friggin’ delicious!
Yum! I love cauliflower crust.
A wonderful idea for sneaking in veggies into a snack!