Monday, March 25, 2013

Low Carb Cauliflower Crust Pizza - No sauce, No flour, No Sugar, No Guilt

Cauliflower Crust Pizza Fresh out of the oven!

This is a recipe I need to credit pinterest for. I would have never conceived a cauliflower crusted pizza on my own... so thank you PinterestLisa & Megan who shared their creative genius and took pictures worth pinning so I could discover my own version :).

Lisa has a great recipe for Cauli-Rice that  I used as a guideline for making my own from frozen cauliflower bags.
2 - 16 oz  bags of frozen cauliflower out to thaw
Saturday morning I got up (rather late, don't let me fool you, I'm not early bird on Saturday ;)) and pulled these bags of cauliflower out to thaw for later. I suggest setting them on a towel to catch the water as they dethaw.

About 5-6 hours later I got to it! Preheated the oven to 350 degrees and the cauliflower was mostly thawed, I snipped open the bags and poured the contents into a microwave safe glass bowl. Thought I might mash them... did that for a little while and decided I'd chop them instead... this didn't last long before I got out the blender.. I was making some head way but my ears are sensitive and about 5 - 7 minutes later I transferred the mess back to the cutting board.

There are many ways to make Cauliflower Paste - no? ☺ However it works best for you to do it - do it!
In the end I used the CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP method!





      So Chop, blend, puree until you can't do it anymore! ☺ Or until you aren't  seeing any "chunks".

  Then transfer the mess onto a flour sack towel. 





Use your hands and wrap the cauliflower like it's a burrito! ☺


Wrapped it up all the way to the end of the towel. The towel will be pretty wet. 



Move to the sink. 


Holding both ends like they are a tootsie roll wring the heck out of it!
It's pretty amazing how much water is in this vegetable! ☺

It's important to squeeze, squeeze, squeeze! The less water there is in the mix the less it tastes/smells like cauliflower :).

Once it seems there is no more water to wring out move the mix back to the bowl and unroll the cauliflower.


Put it all back in the bowl.


Fluff the mix until it resembles rice and then put it in the microwave with a napkin over it for 5 minutes. 

**Please use hot pads to pull the bowl out of the microwave & set on a hot pad as it will be very hot!**

At this point add one egg, 3/4 cup of feta cheese, 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp pepper, and a pinch of salt. Stir well.

Next line the pan you will be using with parchment paper. Put the mixture of cauliflower dough on the pan and spread it out. I made mine into a circle but a rectangle will taste just as good! ☺

You can have your dough as thick or thin as you want just be sure the thickness is uniform throughout for even cooking!

Pop the crust in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. 



I put 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese on top, drizzled olive oil on top and added more pepper with our pepper shaker. 


Then I added a layer of pepperoni! Nummy, nummy, nummy! ☺




Popped the pizza with toppings back in the oven for about 8 minutes for the toppings to melt. It came out really well! The whole family seemed to enjoy it!  I love this variation because it cuts out flour and sugar. Both of which I've been pulling out of my families diet when I can. You could call us moderately Paleo. I (clearly) haven't given up dairy... ;)  




So in review:

Low Carb Pizza

Ingredients:
• 2 16 oz bags of frozen cauliflower
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 3/4 cup feta cheese
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese 
• Olive oil to drizzle
• Pepperoni slices

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1) Chop, puree, or blend 2 - 16 oz bags of thawed frozen cauliflower into cauliflower mash (or rice :))
2) Wring the water out of the mixture.
3) Put in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 5 minutes. 
4) Add egg, cheese, oregano, garlic powder, pepper, and a pinch of salt. Stir well.
5) Put parchment paper on pizza pan.
6) Place Cauliflower crust mix on parchment paper and form crust. Evenly spread mixture.
7) Bake in oven 35 - 40 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
8) Add cheese, olive oil and pepper (whatever other toppings you want☺)
9) Put pizza back in oven for about 8 - 10 minutes to allow for the toppings to melt. 
10) Cut pizza, serve warm and enjoy! ☺

Of course should you try this recipe for yourself I'd love to hear how it turned out! :) Happy adventures in the kitchen everyone! ☺Be safe out there! ♥ Dawn

6 comments:

  1. I have seen this recipe on Pinterest as well but wasn;t sure if it would actually taste good. After reading how your family loved it, I will give it a go soon :)

    Thanks for the detailed picture instructions, you have made it look easy ox

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for your comment Brooke! :) I think next time I will do a basil, chicken and tomato topping. This was good, but I like to venture into uncharted territory from time to time.

      Would love to hear how it turns out if you find yourself back here working it up someday :)

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  2. Your pizza looks wonderful and so happy that you loved it as much as we do. Thank you so much for you comment on my pizza and the linky love back to my blog, it's much appreciated.

    Since you're adventurous, try the crust with an onion garlic jam, prosciutto & chevre, that's my favorite, totally delish!!

    Lisa~~

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa! ^-^ thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! :)

      I've never heard of onion garlic jam but I will put that on my treasure hunt list for the grocery store :D Prosiutto and chevre sound divine! :) Thank you for the ideas! :)

      <3 Dawn

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  3. This is seriously intriguing. I like to experiment with finding "healthier" bread options and I LOVES me some pizza. I also happen to love cauliflour (hence my cauliflour mac experiment) so I may have to check this out!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :D Skies the limit with what you can do with the crust. Seriously playing with the seasonings and finding new favorites just might be in your future ;). I love that you had a cauliflower mac experiment! I'll have to do a search on your blog ^-^. I did a semi cauliflower cheese mac dish but added ham... nom, nom ham! :) http://lostsentiments.blogspot.com/2013/03/cauliflower-mac-and-cheese-with-ham.html This was good because the mister who is a pretty picky eater (though he tries pretty much everything I make like a champ! ;)) he doesn't like cauliflower but couldn't taster it in the dish! :D Huzzah!

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Comments are the best! Please feel free to say hello and join the conversation. :) I always love hearing from old, new and familiar faces ;)
♥ Dawn

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