My roommate has a tradition of hosting pizza parties.  She makes several batches of pizza dough, and invites all her friends to bring over their favorite toppings and bake creative pizzas.  She had one of these pizza parties tonight.

I wanted to participate, but was hesitant about eating pizza.  I’ve been making more exceptions than I’d like lately to my preferred eating habits that include limiting grains, particularly ones that aren’t soaked or fermented, and avoiding wheat.  My body’s been noticing the exceptions; my digestion’s been a little off lately.

Luckily, over at Low Carb Examiner, I spotted a recipe for a cauliflower pizza crust, the brainchild of Jamie VanEaton.  The crust is made only of cauliflower, eggs and mozzarella, with some optional herbs and spices.  No flour, no grains, no gluten.  I bought some cauliflower, mozzarella, and eggs, and I set to work.

It works beautifully.  It’s not bread, but it has the same kind of browned edges and foldable softness a doughy crust has.  Even better, it’s filling without giving me the bloated, tired feeling I get from eating all the white flour in a traditional pizza crust.  The cauliflower flavor is subtle and appealing.  It’s nice to have another cauliflower recipe, since I love cauliflower and frequently cook with it.

You don’t have to be wheat-free or gluten-free or even a cauliflower fanatic to like this pizza.  I brought some sample slices out to the crowd of party-goers and asked for honest opinions.  Positive scores all around, especially on pizza 2.0 whose crust I allowed to get a little browner.  

And for the sake of Eat Local Challenge month, everything in this pizza was local, except for a little olive oil and black pepper I put on one of the two (I forgot both on the second pizza).

Before we get to the recipe, I want to add that I’m impressed with the ingenuity and creative simplicity of a bunch of recipes I’ve found on Low Carb Examiner.  Jamie has a knack for coming up with low-carb versions of savory carb-heavy comfort foods, but without the kind of substitutes you see in some alternative-ingredient foods, like additives or processed ingredients.  She uses simple substitutes like cauliflower, which appears again in the tasty-sounding lasagna and enchiladas.  Also, check out her jicama hashed browns, nacho chips made of zucchini, egg and cheese, and a zucchini version of her pizza crust.

Okay, now on to the recipe with pictures:

Cauliflower Crust Pizza: All local and gluten-free

For the crust:

1 egg

1 cup cooked, mashed cauliflower

1 cup grated mozzarella

Optional: herbs or seeds.  The original creator of this recipe used fennel, oregano and basil.  I kept it plain and focused on the toppings.

For the toppings:

Mild tomato sauce or purée

Grated mozzarella cheese

Ricotta cheese, for small dollops on top

Assorted vegetables.  I used sautéed onions and chanterelles, fresh button mushrooms, basil, fresh small summer squash, and fresh tomatoes

Optional: olive oil, black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  (Mine was at 500 and worked fine; I was sharing the oven with other pizzas.)

Cook cauliflower until it’s soft.  Use whatever method you prefer: steam, boil, roast, pressure cook, whatever.  Mash it up with a ricer.  Mix in egg and mozzarella.

Grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.  If using a pizza stone, cover it in aluminum foil and then put down parchment paper.  Spread out your dough batter about 3/4 inch thick and eight or nine inches wide.  (I doubled the batter but still baked it as two separate batches.)  Let it brown, about 12-15 minutes. 

Take it out and cover it with your toppings.  Bake again until crust edges brown further and cheese on top melts.  Serve hot.

Pictures:

Here is the crust from the first version, although I preferred the browner second crust.

Here’s the first pizza:

Here’s a slice:

Here’s the second pizza:

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