Sunday, September 22, 2013

Cauliflower Pizza Crust (For The Pintester Movement!)


Rachel and I are so excited to be apart of the Pintester Movement.
So as I said in the last post we are going to try to only do healthy recipes from now on to help aid me in my quest to become a healthier (and hopefully smaller) me!
This week we made Cauliflower Crust Pizza, since pizza is one thing I crave since starting my new diet.
I found this recipe a while ago on Pinterest and have been anxious to try it!
In the original post the blogger said to use Italian seasoning and Fennel seeds, we had neither so we didn't completely follow the recipe 100% >_< But here is what we used!
Ingredients:
1 recipe of Cauli-Rice
( the recipe: cauli-rice)
1/3 c shredded mozzarella cheese 
(we used half fat free and half regular)
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
We doubled the recipe so my family could try it too.

This is how you make the Cauli-rice. 
We start by braking the cauliflower (you use an entire head for one crust) down into manageable chunks.


Next we use my salad shooter, we just shredded up the cauliflower as much as we could. 
(Recipe called for a food processor but I don't have one) 


Next with our cauliflower in a large microwavable bowl we covered it with microwavable saran wrap.
Poked some holes in the top to let it vent as it steams and microwave for 7 minutes.
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When it's done we were supposed to wait a few minutes for it to cool a bit, and put the cauli-rice on a cheese cloth, and squeeze the crap out of it! It needs to be super dry.
I did not wait for it to cool nor did I have a cheesecloth... 
I burned my hands squeezing the liquid out using a thin kitchen towel.


There was a big size reduction.


Then we added our cheese, egg, salt n' pepper!
 We used a metal spoon to mix it together.


Shaping the "dough" was a bit of a challenge.
We just took a ball of the cauliflower mixture and smashed it down til it was flat and then used my hands to form it into a round shape.
We used a silmat as she suggested (I love this thing! Nothing sticks to it!) 


Place it into your preheated 450 degree oven for 15-20 mins (we did 20)

Since we doubled the recipe we were able to make 2 pizza crusts.

(We transferred this crust onto a regular pan so we could start the next crust thinking since it was cooked it wouldn't stick... We were wrong, don't do it!)

(Made this one into a rectangle, not for any particular reason... just wanted to.)

The first pizza we made into a buffalo chicken pizza. 
Using precooked chicken breast, fat free ranch, cheese (1/2 fat free 1/2 regular) and buffalo sauce. 
And thanks to my lovely friend, there was waaaay too much ranch on it because she doesn't really like spicy food and wanted it cooled down.

(Not the healthiest pizza but it's reduced fat and low carb!)
For the last step you place the pizza on the top rack on broil until the cheese is bubbly.

and here is the result!


Rectangle pizza we did a regular spinach pizza.


Our buffalo pizza was a little messy and Rachel was not able to finish her slice because it was too spicy for her. But I personally loved it (I have obsession with not only garlic but spicy things too!) The crust held up nicely and was chewy. It was a huge relief to have pizza in my tummy ^_^ 
Rachel's only complaint was that the crust was too think in some areas, she wanted a crispier crust, and she could taste the cauliflower.
The taste may have been because we didn't use the seasonings like in the original.
We loved it and would make it again any day of the week! The process to make it is very long, but worth it.
~Megan


And for your enjoyment a little Thorin sleeping on the Husband's keyboard =^.^=


                                      

27 comments:

  1. Daww,Thorin is such a cutie! The pizza looks really good. I have been wanting to try this one for a while.

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  2. The more I see this recipe the more I feel confident that I could try it and it won't taste like cardboard. Thanks for posting this.

    Cherin // masterfullyme.com

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    1. There is so much flavor from the toppings that the taste of the crust almost isn't there! So easy too! ^_^

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  3. Great job! I have a cauliflower pizza crust on my blog, but it never firms up quite enough. Maybe I'll reduce the added liquid and make it like this. I love spicy food, too :)

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    1. Spicy food rocks! And thank you! I looked on your blog for your recipe and couldn't find it :/
      ~Megan

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  4. Well I'm totally impressed that it didn't suck because cauliflower just seems like it would suck to me. ;) Awesome job!

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    1. Yeah I thought it would suck too because I HATE cauliflower! But I will defiantly make this again!
      ~Rachel

      I however love cauliflower but never knew I could use it for so many wonderful things until I found Pinterest >_<
      ~Megan

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  5. I have a cauliflower pizza crust on my blog too, they really aren't that bad. They smell pretty bad when cooking but in the end they are tasty.

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    1. Oh, it did! Right after we steamed it, it gave off that bad cauliflower smell. Went away after the liquid was gone though ^_^

      ~Megan

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  6. I have already tried smashed cauliflower and cauliflower "Alfredo" sauce, I shall have to try this too! That buffalo pizza looks delicious!

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    1. OoOoO! Did you like the cauliflower Alfredo? I really want to try it!

      ~Megan

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  7. I'm allergic to yeast, so all normal pizza crusts are out for me. I do have this one pinned and I am glad to know that it actually works, because I seriously need some pizza that won't hurt my insides!

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  8. I seriously love how y'all turned this into a "make it work" moment (or several). Salad shooter? BRILLIANT. (Also, I'm pretty sure the theme song to that infomercial is part of the soundtrack of my childhood.) Not happy that there were hands burned, but hey, that's what experimental cooking is all about, right? The pain AND the gain? If I ever decide to go gluten free again, this is what I'm trying for when the pizza craving becomes all-consuming.

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    1. We have a lot of improvising >_< The crust was really good. Even my husband and roommate liked it!

      ~Megan

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    2. "Pretty pretty pretty-- salad shoooteeeeer!" (Glad that's not just me on the jingle.)

      I've been wanting to try this because my guys and I love cheesey things, and I'm always wanting to sneak in veggies... If the *crust* were veggies, I would be some sort of evil-Mommy-genius!

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  9. N'aww, Thorin's adorable! That looks like one delicious pizza base too, I'll have to give it a go soon! Well done =D

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    1. Thank you! Thorin is pictured in our posts lots. He is a bit of a mama's boy. I would suggest this pizza crust to everyone who is trying to cut out complex carbs or just want an awesome pizza!

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  10. Wow, what a crazy inventive idea to put cauliflower into pizza crust. I think I have too great a fear of cauliflower to do this, but well done!

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    1. My co-blogger did too. She really hates cauliflower, but she really liked it as a crust.

      ~Megan

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  11. Yum, we make this regularly but just grate the cauliflower...much less hassle :-) Oh, and I never squeeze the extra liquid either...coz I'm partly lazy & partly afraid for my hands ;-)

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    1. I used the cheese grater attachment for my salad shooter. My hand hurt for hours after I made the decision to not wait for it to cool after steaming XD And your crust comes out fine with the extra liquid? Everything I read about it said it had to be really dry.

      ~Megan

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  12. My husband and I tried making this crust, but he ended up not paying attention to the recipe and put more than twice the cauliflower in than he was supposed to. I didn't realize it until we ended up with a giant cauliflower casserole instead of pizza crust! (It was a damn tasty casserole though)

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  13. Lol That is awesome! Glad it taste good!

    ~Megan

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  14. Why hello Thorin! :)

    I've been wondering how that would come out. I keep seeing it on pinterest and on recipes with out real feed back.. nice to see it worked out for you!

    (btw, do you know you have word verification on your comments?)

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    1. No, we were not aware of that. We will look into changing that if we can.

      ~Megan

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