Cauliflower Pizza Crust

When Keely came home for a visit last week to celebrate my birthday, we thought it would be fun to try a new recipe. She was telling me about one of her friends who regularly makes pizza using cauliflower as the crust. Pizza is one of my favorite foods, so if one can make some healthy, yet tasty substitutions, then why not? At the onset, both Keely and I admittedly had low expectations. We were just planning to enjoy the experience of making something new together and then end up eating what we thought would be "just OK." We were so wrong!

We both took a bite, looked at each other with surprise, and then began the giggles.
"No way!"
"I can't believe this!"
"This is crazy!"
"No one would ever guess this is cauliflower!"
"I'm definitely making this for my kids one day as a way to sneak in some veggies and still have pizza night!"

You're gonna love the simplicity of it, too. Start with a head of cauliflower and "rice" it. That is, chop it so finely until it looks like, well, rice. Be sure to remove the stem and leaves first. If you have a food processor, this step will be easy. Don't over-do it, though, or you will puree it. Since I don't have a food processor, I just used my food chopper.

Next, microwave the riced cauliflower for 8 minutes. To make a 9 inch round pizza crust, you will only need 1 cup of the cooked, riced cauliflower. (I ended up with about 4 cups, so I saved the extra and made pizza again later in the week.) Add 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, 1 beaten egg, 1 teaspoon dried oregano and 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt.

Mix well and pat onto the pizza stone. (For the pizza below, I doubled the recipe, but this isn't recommended. If you make the pizza too large, it has a tendency to get a little soggy in the middle.) I sprayed a little olive oil on top so that the crust browns nicely. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Done!

At this point, add your favorite sauce, toppings (pre-cooked), and cheese. Broil for about 3-4 minutes.

Keely and I made two varieties. For the first half, we used pesto sauce, mozzarella cheese, feta cheese, spinach, sundried tomatoes and a little more oregano on top. We figured out that one generous slice was approximately 293 calories, using the MyFitnessPal app. The second half was pretty traditional:  marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, turkey pepperoni, and a few jalapenos and banana peppers. This version had only 195 calories per slice! A few days later, we made just a plain pepperoni as shown in the first picture above. Have fun trying your own favorite combinations!

Note: Be prepared to eat each slice with a fork. But, this is a small price to pay for a low-carb, low-cal, gluten-free, healthy meal. Shhhhh. Don't tell the kids! :D

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano 
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• olive oil spray (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Remove the stem and leaves from cauliflower and "rice" it. That is, chop it so finely until it looks like grain. Next, microwave the riced cauliflower for 8 minutes. Mix together all ingredients listed above and pat onto a pizza stone or sprayed cookie sheet. Spray olive oil on top (optional). Bake for 15 minutes.

Add your favorite sauce, toppings (pre-cooked), and cheese. Broil for about 3-4 minutes until cheese is melted.