Adventures outside my comfort zone...

Tonight I tried my hand at Cauliflower Pizza Crust.  I found this post and figured, why not? The worst thing that happens is I've wasted money on a head of cauliflower. The blog, onegoodthingbyjillee, has a TON of home made ideas, everything from laundry detergent to today's entry of tater tots. Sometimes it's a little overwhelming, but the cauliflower caught my eye.

Basically, you buy cauliflower, chop it up, mix it with an egg, cheese and some spices, bake it, then add pizza toppings.

I've included the recipe at the bottom but here are some things I learned and pictures from my experience:

• Been a while since I purchased cauliflower. Really easy to work with, easy to chop, easy to pulse in the food processor. I almost wanted to over-pulse but she warned against that so I kept it "rice-y".
• Her's looked more dough like, whereas mine had more liquid, especially the first one.

Notice the burned piece in the top right? That's the liquid. My second one came out much better but I used more cauliflower and cheese.

• It says to use the tin foil. I wanted to make sure mine wouldn't stick so I even sprayed my tin foil. I say bollocks to using the tin foil next time. I struggled to get the crust off! I'm just going to use the cookie sheet next time since it won't tear when I'm trying to gently take this cauliflower semi-masterpiece off.

• She uses a cast iron skillet turned upside down to broil the crust after you add the pizza toppings. I did this too, but it isn't necessary at all. I didn't broil the crust since my oven runs super hot and I didn't want a 900 degree kitchen. Turned out just fine without broiling and next time I'm just going to bake it again with the toppings on the cookie sheet.

It turned out great! The second one was better than the first. All 3 of us enjoyed it and Ed gave me the seal of approval to have again. I like the fact that we are getting more vegetables with this meal and I seemed to get fuller sooner without having that feeling like I just gorged myself on pizza.

Here is the recipe (taken directly from her blog I listed earlier):

Cauliflower  Pizza Crust

Makes one 9 inch pizza crust
Adapted from eat. drink. smile.

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (I used an italian blend)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp kosher salt
olive oil (optional)
pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*

Directions:
Remove stems and leaves from 1 head of cauliflower, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to your food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (You can also use a cheese grater). Place the “riced” cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (may need to adjust according to your microwave). No need to add water.

One large head will produce between 2 and 3 cups of riced and cooked cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.

To make the pizza crust:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray (or use non-stick aluminum foil on a cookie sheet, which is what I did). In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, beaten egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, minced garlic and salt, mix well. Transfer the mixture to your cookie sheet, and pat out into a 9″ round.
Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool awhile. This helps to make the crust more solid.

To make the pizza:  add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes). *Toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.