Deliciousness: Cauliflower Style

You've seen this pinned, right? The Paleo approach to pizza is using a cauliflower (btw, in the last 24 hours I have become and expert in spelling cauliflower. I had no idea, or use for it before.) pizza crust. I heard about it a year or so ago from a girl I was friends with on Facebook, but she doesn't really look like someone who actually enjoys food, so I kind of ignored her. 

I've made low carb pizza before, and we enjoyed it, so I thought I might as well try the cauliflower recipe.

I decided yesterday that I was going to go for it. I like vegetables, but cauliflower isn't usually up on my list. I've actually never bought it before. I like broccoli, and well, just about every other vegetable (except peppers) but never cauliflower. I don't really even know why. It doesn't have a distinct taste or anything. So yeah, I had to search for cauliflower because it wasn't on my route of regular produce stops.

I found this post from Everything Tasty from My Kitchen on how to make the crust.

This is the recipe directly from the above posted link.

Makes one 9-10" pizza

Inspired recipe from Your Lighter Side

Ingredients for crust

• 1/2 head of a large cauliflower (this will shrink to about 2+ cups after cooked) 
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp oregano
• freshly ground pepper
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese

Pizza Toppings

• Pizza sauce
• Shredded mozzarella cheese, or cheeses of your choice
• Favorite pizza toppings  

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

1. Break the cauliflower into floret's and use a food processor or cheese grater to shred the cauliflower into little bits. It takes about 10-12 pulses in the food processor to get the right consistency, being careful not to over process and make a puree. Transfer to a large bowl and cook in the microwave, uncovered, for 8 minutes on high heat. It is not necessary to add water, the cauliflower will steam on it's own.
2. Let the cauliflower cool slightly and mix in all remaining crust ingredients. Spray a pizza pan or sheet pan with non-stick spray liberally and spread out the mixture. Go for a pretty thin pizza, this will ensure crispiness. Spray the top lightly with cooking spray. 
3. Place the crust in the oven and cook for 20 minutes. It will get crispy and dark in many areas. Important tip: before you top the crust with toppings, be sure to take a large spatula and very gently loosen the bottom of the crust from the pan. This will prevent it from sticking as you cook it further. 
4. Top the crust with your favorite toppings and bake until cheese is melted, about 10-15 minutes, and turn on the broiler for 2-3 minutes to crisp the top to your liking. 

The following photos are mine that I took last night.

This is after the crust pre-baked. I would suggest baking it a bit longer. In my oven I would probably go for 25-30 min, its entirely up to you though. This was still fairly mushy, and I really wanted it to be crispier.

 Joshua doesn't care for Margherita Pizza, so I decided to make one while he was at work as a tester. I knew I had tomatoes, but forgot that I didn't have many red, so I used the orange tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil.

 Before baking.

 After baking I decided I wanted it more done, so I put it under the broiler for about five minutes.

And it was much better. I can't believe I'm going to say this, because I swore I never would, but I think I used too much cheese. Dare I say it was tooooo cheeeesy??? No. Just no.

However, I did put too much cheese in the center, and it was pretty soggy. I had to eat it with a fork, which is no big deal, because I probably would have anyway. Next time (later this afternoon) I make one I will try harder to get the crust crispy.

Absolutely delish. I was very skeptical with this one. Everyone who posted it though said it was delish, and now I'm on the bandwagon. I'm a big fan. Now I just need a better food processor.

 In other news, there has been a food stealing epidemic at work.

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