Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Cauliflower Pizza Crust - A Paleo Pizza Story

After a week in Ireland eating potatoes (on the side of my potatoes) and two weeks of eating out to avoid creating more clutter in the midst of a move, I'm ready to get back to my paleo meals. Like any addict though, I'm gonna have to ween myself off crack flour and sugar slowly, lest I suffer from night sweats and bouts of withdrawal-induced shock. What better way to trick my body (and tastebuds) into thinking we're not kicking these bad habits any time soon than with a paleo version of pizza??
There's really nothing particularly unusual about this 'za. It's topped with marina (sugar and soy free, of course), pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, and lots of mozzarella (which isn't technically paleo, but I'm weening myself, here!!). All the "paleo" in the pizza is coming from the crust, made entirely from cauliflower and mozzarella.
 See?? It even LOOKS like crust:
 'Cus I like to keep it rull witchall, I will say it doesn't taste like the traditional pizza dough we all know, love, and curse our thighs about. But it is REALLY good! I mean, it's cheesy, herbed cauliflower baked into a bread-like crust. You literally can't NOT like it. And if you don't, my guess is you don't have a soul.

I imagine I'll be making iterations of this non-stop over the next several weeks.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust For People Who Have Souls
Makes one pizza crust, roughly 8 large slices

  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 2 cups mozzarella cheese
  • 1-2 eggs, beaten 
  • 1 tsp. oregano
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. pepper
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. "Rice" the cauliflower by chopping it into small chunks and pulsing quickly in a food processor until it looks like short grains of rice. Don't overpulse or you'll puree it and that's no good. Alternatively, you can grate the cauliflower on a cheese grater as well. 
3. Microwave cauliflower "rice" for 8 minutes. Don't add any water to this. There's enough water in the cauliflower.
4. Mix cauliflower, cheese, egg, and seasoning with your hands. Start with one egg. If the mixture feels dry, add slightly more egg until it starts to bind or come together.
5. Pat the crust on to a WELL oiled/PAM'd cookie sheet covered with foil. You can make it any shape or thickness you like. 
6. Bake for 15 minutes.
7. Top with your choice of ingredients (must be cooked) and place under broiler until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to try this, great recipe!

Lisa said...

I'm totally making this, I too am recovering from a potato and beer filled vacation to Ireland, so I'm trying to go back to Paleo.

Thanks for posting this, I have a head of cauliflower in the fridge just waiting for this!
Also can't wait to see you post about Galway, we went there also :)

Anonymous said...

That looks absolutely DELICIOUS! I'm going to have to try this recipe out, bc pizza is my favorite!!

Xx

http://chelseasgirl.wordpress.com/

Meg O. said...

Wow! That looks incredible! Who knew???

Unknown said...

Thank gawd, I was waiting for your review on this before I tried it... I'm on day 5 of no flour or sugar... It's on the menu for next week! It looks sooo good!

Unknown said...

i love bread, but this looks amazing! maybe i can trick the boyfriend into thinking it is real pizza?!?

style-extraordinaire.com

Cleochatra said...

It is so cool to see versions of my recipe spreading across the 'net! Here's the original, made back in 2008 for the first time. Since then, it's been a hit! http://blog.yourlighterside.com/2009/05/low-carb-pizza-dough-cauliflower.html

Yours looks positively amazing as well! I love your site.

A tip: Fennel does a terrific job of ridding cauliflower of its pungency.

Fondly,
Jamie

Deidre said...

For a gluten free girl this is just an absolutely BRILLIANT recipe. Definitely going to give this a try.

Jenna @ TubbyFitness said...

GREAT recipe - so delicious! I put this on my blog, but I messed it up because I didn't use enough oil on the aluminum foil. Needless to say, the pizza turned into pizza-bowls.

Anybody reading this should know that Melissa is not messing around when she says "WELL oiled".

Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

I made this tonight and my entire Italian family LOVED it! Thanks!

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