Cauliflower Pizza Crust

 "Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education" - Mark Twain

When I was a wee sprout I loathed cauliflower.

We would only really eat cauliflower when Dad was in charge of making dinner. He would steam the cauliflower just to the point of mush and give us all huge helping of it. Yuck.

 

At one point in time my Mom was on weight watchers and she mashed the cauliflower trying to convince us all it was mashed potatoes. We were on to you Mom, and we didn't buy it.

I realize that cauliflower is an acquired taste, and I am proud to say I finally acquired it.

If a boy would show up on my doorstep with a bouquet of cauliflower I would marry him then and there.

As many of you are on board with the Pinterest craze you probably came across a pin for pizza crust made with cauliflower. Weird right? I think I pinned it about a million times before I decided maybe I should just get it over with and test the recipe out for myself.

The result was different. Surprising. Interesting. Intriguing. Quite good when all was said and done. I made these pizzas on Superbowl Sunday, and then fed it to our sweet cleaning lady the next day. Poor thing, she doesn't speak English, so when she bit into the pizza she was really confused and my explaining didn't help. After the initial shock wore off she ended up liking it and finishing it off. We should pay her more just for testing out all my weird cooking experiments : )

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Serves 6; Adapted from Your Lighter Side, and eat drink smile blog

3 cup riced cauliflower (1 head makes about three pizzas)

3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

3 eggs, beaten

3 tsp dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp crushed garlic

1 1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

olive oil (optional)

12 TBS of tomato sauce (I used spaghetti sauce)

1 box frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed super dry or your pizza will be soggy

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes. There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself. Alternately you can steam it on the stove top, just don't submerge it in water or it will be too wet.

To Make the Pizza Crust:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray 3 cookie sheets with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together cauliflower, eggs, and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, pepper flakes, and stir. Divide into 3 equal portions. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9" round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of each mixture to help with browning...this is optional but highly recommended...it helps the crust become more crispy.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes until very golden brown. Make sure you make the crust nice and brown this will help it stay together and be crispy.

Remove from oven. Top each crust with 4 TBS sauce...spread around...then 1/3 of the box of defrosted super dry spinach, and 1/2 cup cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

I also made the crust ahead of time, put the toppings on it and froze it until ready to eat. Then just stuck it in the oven until cheese was melted.

Eat your heart out,

Dagny