My wife and I have always really enjoyed cooking together and coming up with new recipes on the fly. Recently we started documenting some of our better creations in hopes of starting a blog or maybe an E-Cookbook. We have about 12 solid recipes down pact and all writen up. But comming up with smi-original and delicious recipes is way harder than we thought. Sometimes we hit a homerun on the first try, but most of the time we have to go back a tweek them a couple of times to get it just right and then we write about it... Seems simple enought, right?
Hey you! Do you like pizza?!?! I know it’s a stupid question because pizza is one of those foods that when even when it’s bad… It’s still pretty good, because it’s pizza! We like 99.99% of the rest of the world LOVE pizza… a lot!
In fact, I love the process of making pizza almost as much as eating the pizza.. but since my wife tries to avoid refined grains, I didn’t get to utilize my sweet dough tossing skills very often because of the whole white flour crust part of pizza. Well, that all changed when we discovered the magic of the cauliflower crust pizza! We can’t take credit for being the first ones to come up with a cauliflower crust recipe, but we’ve made A LOT of the ones out there and we’ve found one way that works best for us. The trick with cauliflower crust pizza is to find a balance and have as little moisture left in the cauliflower rice without drying it out too much.
Originally we followed the boil and strain method. This is where one ‘rices’, grates or finely chops the cauliflower florets, boils the piss out of it and then wrings it out in a dish towel or cloth. This way works just fine if done properly, but it’s a huge messy pain in the ass to remove all the moisture, it takes a long time and you have to wait until it cools down to wring it out so you don’t burn yourself. I’m not a doctor folks, I lack patience [www.badumtss.net]
Then we found some recipes that don’t require straining because you bake the cauliflower rice. This worked too, but we still had to open the oven every 5 minute or so to toss the cauliflower around so that it wouldn’t roast on any given side. Also, we found that this way still produced moist cauliflower rice because the oven tapped a lot of moisture and produced poor evaporation.
A few days ago we decided to try and ‘toast’ the cauliflower rice in a frying pan on the stove before mixing it with the other ingredients. Eureka! This turned out to be the most efficient way while also producing the most realistic final crust.
Edit: UGH! Picture not uploading... can be found here: http://www.riscoeats.com/easy-cauliflower-crust-pizza
Ingredients
- 3 cups of riced cauliflower, give or take
- 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
- 1 Large egg- beaten
- Pizza toppings
- Sauce
- Mozzarella cheese
- Anything and everything
Instructions
- Grate, chop, or blend a fresh cauliflower – Start with ½ of a head, it should give you about 3 cups. We use the grater blade on our food processer.
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Heat a pan over a medium burner and add your cauliflower rice. No oil needed, we are trying to toast it/ dry it out a bit.
- Cook, stirring often with a rubber spatula, for about 12-15 minutes or until the cauliflower has softened and a majority of the moisture is gone.
- Turn off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.
- In a large bowl, beat your egg and incorporate the parm.
- Once the cauliflower is cool enough to not scramble your egg, add it to the bowl and mix toughly.
- Form the cauliflower mixture into a ball and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Use your hands to flatten into desired pizza shape, about 1/3 of an inch think. There’s no wrong shape of pizza, feel free to use your imagination here. You’ll want the edges to be slightly thicker so that you have a crust and your toppings don’t slide off.
- Take the crust and bake it for 12-15 minutes or until its firm
- Once done with the initial bake, apply your toppings. Sauces, mozzarella, pepperoni, peppers, onions, etc.
- Now stick that bad boy back in the oven for another 10-12 minutes or until cheese is completely melted. I like my mozzarella a little brown around the edges, but that’s just me.
- Take it out and eat it immediately, burning the roof of your mouth! No seriously, let it cool or it will fall apart.
- Enjoy!
Instructions
- Grate, chop, or blend a fresh cauliflower – Start with ½ of a head, it should give you about 3 cups. We use the grater blade on our food processer.
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Heat a pan over a medium burner and add your cauliflower rice. No oil needed, we are trying to toast it/ dry it out a bit.
- Cook, stirring often with a rubber spatula, for about 12-15 minutes or until the cauliflower has softened and a majority of the moisture is gone.
- Turn off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.
- In a large bowl, beat your egg and incorporate the parm.
- Once the cauliflower is cool enough to not scramble your egg, add it to the bowl and mix toughly.
- Form the cauliflower mixture into a ball and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Use your hands to flatten into desired pizza shape, about 1/3 of an inch think. There’s no wrong shape of pizza, feel free to use your imagination here. You’ll want the edges to be slightly thicker so that you have a crust and your toppings don’t slide off.
- Take the crust and bake it for 12-15 minutes or until its firm
- Once done with the initial bake, apply your toppings. Sauces, mozzarella, pepperoni, peppers, onions, etc.
- Now stick that bad boy back in the oven for another 10-12 minutes or until cheese is completely melted. I like my mozzarella a little brown around the edges, but that’s just me.
- Take it out and eat it immediately, burning the roof of your mouth! No seriously, let it cool or it will fall apart.
- Enjoy!