A healthier alternative to your pizza cravings – Cauliflower Pizza Crust is easy, flavor-packed, more filling, and can be frozen for later too!
This Cauliflower Pizza Crust recipe is flavor-packed and a healthier alternative to regular pizza, you’ll be making this again and again with zero guilt! Cauliflower Pizza Crust is a fantastic low carb alternative to enjoy your favorite take out, just like this Cauliflower Rice! Top it up with a classic Margherita pizza topping or this Cheeseburger pizza topping instead. Enjoy all your favorite pizza while sticking to New Year resolutions.
CAULIFLOWER PIZZA CRUST
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With the new year, comes new resolutions and invariably one of those new resolutions is to eat healthier, especially after the holiday binge! 🙂 This Cauliflower Pizza Crust will guarantee that you eat healthier, while not sacrificing on flavor! This pizza crust is super flavorful and versatile, plus you can make extra and freeze for later too.
Why cauliflower pizza crust?
I love pizza. Just like most everyone else really, but sadly, with all the carbs in the pizza crust, it’s hard to enjoy it all the time without a little guilt.
This cauliflower pizza crust is the answer to that! You swap the carbs with the goodness and flavor of veggies, so you can go ahead and enjoy your pizza all you want, with minimal guilt.
How to Make Cauliflower Pizza Crust
How many cauliflower heads you use depends entirely on the size of the cauliflower. I use two cauliflower heads that are about 5-6 inches in width, to get about 1.5 lbs of cauliflower rice. This makes one cauliflower pizza crust.
I cut the florets and then pulse them in the food processor to make the cauliflower rice. Then it’s steamed (in the microwave, steamer or oven) so that it softens. This is the first step in making cauliflower crust.
However, if you can get your hands on cauliflower rice directly, then go for it. That eliminates the first step, so making this delicious cauliflower pizza crust becomes that much easier.
Once cooked cauliflower has cooled down, the water needs to be squeezed out to ensure a nice, crisp pizza crust.
The steamed and squeezed cauliflower is then mixed with cheese, herbs, seasoning and an egg to make a “dough.”
How do I get a crispy cauliflower pizza crust?
To execute a nice crisp crust, it’s important to remove as much water from the cauliflower as possible so that the crust cooks faster, making it crispy.
Some recipes call for the cauliflower to be spread out on a cloth napkin to absorb any excess water and to allow the water to evaporate faster as well. But in my experience, this still leaves some water in the cauliflower.
Solution – wait until the steamed cauliflower has cooled down, then place it on a clean cloth napkin or nut milk bag or a few layers of cheesecloth and then squeeze the water out. You’d be surprised how much water is removed from the cauliflower this way as compared to merely laying it out on a cloth napkin.
Once complete, you’ll end up with a mushed up ball of cauliflower, and this is what you use to make that crisp cauliflower pizza crust!
Can I freeze this cauliflower pizza crust?
Yes, you can! You will need to cook the crust first before freezing it though.
Place the mashed up cauliflower in a bowl, and mix it with all the cheese, herbs, seasoning and add an egg to bind it all together. This “dough” is the spread out to form a pizza base, and baked until the crust is cooked.
You’ll get a delicious pizza crust with crispy edges and some bite to it if you spread the dough to form a 10 – 11-inch wide crust. If you’d like it even crispier, then spread out the cauliflower dough more for a thinner crust.
Once the pizza crust is cooked through, you can top it with your favorite pizza toppings and bake to make your favorite pizza OR store the cooked crust for later by first letting it cool completely. Then wrap it with plastic wrap, followed by foil then freeze for up to 2 months.
To make pizza with frozen cauliflower pizza crust, first, allow the crust to completely thaw at room temperature. Then top it with your favorite pizza toppings and bake!
For more healthy recipes like this cauliflower pizza crust,
- Low Carb Cauliflower Breadsticks
- Healthy Crock Pot Taco Spaghetti
- BBQ Cauliflower Bites
- Weight Watchers Taco Soup
- Cauliflower Fried Rice
- More cauliflower recipes…
Tools used to make this Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Food Processor – A good food processor makes it so easy to make the cauliflower rice. You can use a grater instead, but it’ll be more time-consuming.
Cheesecloth – A great way to squeeze out excess water from the cauliflower.
Baking Sheet – A good quality sheet pan is crucial to making pizza. Spread out the cauliflower pizza crust dough on the sheet pan so you can bake the pizza crust in the oven.
Pizza Cutter – Makes slicing pizza super easy!
Ingredients
- 2 cauliflower heads 5-6 inches in width (see notes)
- ½ cup mozzarella shredded
- ¼ cup parmesan shredded
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 ½ tsp dried herbs (I used dried thyme and oregano)
- 1 large egg
Toppings
- Pizza sauce
- Mozzarella cheese shredded
- Your favorite pizza toppings
Instructions
- Cut the cauliflower into florets, and wash and drain. Place the florets in a food processor and pulse until you’ve made cauliflower rice.
- Place the cauliflower rice in a large microwavable bowl and cover loosely with a microwavable lid and heat for 3 - 8 minutes, until the cauliflower rice is steamed. (I prefer doing this in 2-minute intervals, stirring in between, until it’s done). Alternatively, you can steam it in a steamer basket, or cook the cauliflower in the oven as well. (see notes)
- Spread the cooked cauliflower on a tray, lined with a cloth napkin or a few layers of cheesecloth. Allow the cauliflower to cool down.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat and set aside.
- When the cauliflower is cool enough to handle, gather the ends of the cloth napkin and squeeze to remove water from the cauliflower. Squeeze out as much water as you can. There will a considerable amount of water.
- Now place the cauliflower in a mixing bowl. Add the cheeses, salt, black pepper and herbs, and mix until well combined. Add the egg as well and mix until it’s well mixed with the cauliflower.
- Place this cauliflower “dough” on the prepared baking tray and spread it to form a circle that’s about 10-11 inches wide, and about 1/4-inch thicks. If you prefer a thinner, crispier crust, spread it out more.
- Transfer crust to the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Carefully flip the crust over and bake for another 5 - 10 minutes.
- Once the crust is baked, you can top the pizza with your favorite pizza toppings and bake until the cheese is melted and golden brown. I like to use the broiler for this.
- If you’d like to freeze the crust for later, allow the crust to cool down completely on a wire rack, and then wrap it with plastic wrap (about 2 layers), followed by foil, and then transfer to the freezer.
- To use a frozen crust - unwrap the frozen crust and place it on the prepared sheet pan. Allow the crust to thaw to room temperature, and top it with cheese and other toppings and bake at 450°F or broil it until the cheese is golden brown.
Video
Notes
- Cauliflower substitution option > about 1.5 lbs cauliflower rice or florets.
- To cook the cauliflower in the oven, preheat oven to 375°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Spread the cauliflower rice on the baking sheet and cook in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until the cauliflower rice has softened (but not colored).
Nutrition
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