I wanted to try one more time for a no flour pizza.
(Also tried portobella mushrooms, was ok.)
I have NOT YET tried this, but will this week.
Since Cauliflower makes a great mashed potato substitute, I did a search for potato pancakes with cauliflower,
I made real potato pancakes for us when my wife and I were first married.
I copied all info from the website and added, at the bottom of this post, a suggestion for completely Zone balancing it, nutritionally.
HERE IT IS:
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If you're missing pizza in your low-carb way of life, this is a great substitute for the traditional high-carb wheat-based crust.
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First of all, you need a batch of riced cauliflower. The easiest way to do it (for me, at least), was as follows:
- Throw a head of cauliflower into a food processor
- Process until the cauliflower is the size of grains of rice.
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Next step: take the riced cauliflower and place it in a covered microwave-safe dish and nuke it for a few minutes.
For two cups, I nuked it for eight minutes.
Two cups of raw riced cauliflower reduced to one cup (which is what you need for the recipe).
P.S.> Another recipe, same except states to cook it first then rice it with no nuking.
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So, now that you have your one cup of cooked, riced cauliflower, you can proceed with the recipe:
- 1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
- 1 egg (2 egg whites)
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese (I would add low-fat)
- 1/2 tsp fennel (I used fennel seed) or spice(s) of your choice
- 1 tsp oregano or spice(s) of your choice
- 2 tsp parsley (I used more than that, and used chopped, fresh parsley)
or spice(s) of your choice
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Preheat oven to 450F.
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Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray or favorable oil (or a Silpat sheet, or Parchment paper)
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In a medium bowl, combine cauliflower, egg/egg whites and mozzarella.
Press evenly on the pan.
Sprinkle evenly with spices (fennel, oregano and parsley).
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Bake for about 15 minutes (about 20 minutes if you double the recipe).
Top with your favourite low-carb sauce and cooked pizza toppings,
then place under the broiler for a few minutes and ta-dah! A pizza!
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Original Author's Comments:
Recently, while my family was watching a rousing marathon of Jason and the Argonauts,
I was looking through some old college recipe books some friends and I put together back in the day,
and found a recipe that was for a gluten-free pizza crust which used rice instead of the old stand-by flour.
Inspired by the success I was having with riced cauliflower, I played with the rice crust recipe,
made a couple of calculations and guesses on ingredients and flavorings, and came up with a pretty amazing pizza.
My kids didn't even know it was cauliflower.
And when they found out, the have been bugging me to make more, because they can't get over how very much they like this recipe.
I have to make a run to the store this morning for more cauliflower, as a result!
They don't even like other pizzas this much! This recipe turned out great.
The texture of the crust did take a bit of getting used to, however.
You Tube Author's Comments:
It was a bit moist, but held together perfectly. It wasn't unpleasant by any means, but it was a bit bland.
I would definitely add some cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes next time (to the crust) to make it a bit tastier.
Using a Monterey Jack cheese with hot peppers instead of the mozarella would also turn up the heat a notch.
I processed an entire head of cauliflower in the food processor,
so have lots and lots of riced cauliflower left to make more of these during the week.
It's my new favourite thing... and you can definitely change the type of cheese you use and
add various herbs and spices to your heart's content. It's very versatile.
This made a full meal for myself. I was definitely full afterwards!
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Nutritional information for the (entire) crust:
Calories - 434; Fat - 25 g; Carbs - 8 net (13 total); Fibre - 5 g; Protein - 41 g.
F = 8 blocks, P = 6 blocks, netC = 1 block
Add 2 blocks (low/no-fat) cooked meat toppings.
Count the Carbs in the sauce and additional C blocks of veggies as: topping or side or both.
8 blocks total or 2 blocks per each of 4 servings.

Did you grate the mozarella?

Have not tried this recipe, yet; but, yes, you would grate the mozarella cheese.
It is not part of the crust, so I am guessing you are adding it as a topping.

Never mind, yes it is in the crust; but, still, yes it should be grated or food processor.

I made this tonight. OKay, best PIZZA (grain substitute) crust so far.
The recipe appears a bit liquidy when pressing out prior to placing in the oven;
but, it turns out very well.
The only difference I would do next time is to cook it a bit longer than the 15 minutes.

Sounds good John! I will have to give it a try, as well.

I used this receipe for "potato pancakes" and they turn up quite good. I liked them, my husband was not that impressed. There was a distinct cauliflower flavour and smell. I did pizza the other day but the same result. It is just a big cauliflower pancake to me, which to me is a good idea for pizza baze just as is mushroom or egg plant. You've got to season it very well as it tends to go very bland for some reason. Next time I will try to steam the cauliflower first and then grate it. Grating it raw and then cooking gave this mixture a smell of cauliflower which did not go away. Thinking of that - I did NOT use cheese for the pancakes. Just cauliflower, egg, salt and spices.

Yes, it did have a slight cauliflower smell (taste is about 80% ? smell), which I, too, do not care for, but my wife liked it.
However, I made the pizza without any spices on or in the crust at all.
I think stronger "Italian" spices mixed in the crust, might have made a difference.
The same with potato pancakes, using a good fresh ground pepper, et. al.

I will try the raw cauliflower grated (or steamed one and then grated) + egg next time. It has a potential. Do you know the Japanese tempura? I had a vegetable one some time ago, and both cauliflower and broccoli were there and very tasty. I think they are raw, then dipped in a batter and then fried. So I am thinking the raw, grated cauliflower + egg and then fried should work as it sort of follow that tempura idea.

The mixture is kind of wet and grainy. (In fact I was [pleasantly] surprised it baked into a nice crust/dough like result.)
So, the batter might not "stick" to the vegetables, but if they are fried, rather than dipped into a fryer like Tempura, that might work ...
Yes, I had real Japanese Tempura, when I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, many, many, many moons ago ...
It was an extremely light batter.

P.S. When I made the pizza "dough", I used an old (gift when we were married), small Oskar food processor (one blade) on raw cauliflower.
Then i nuked it for 8 minutes. 2 cups did not quite cook down to one cup, about 1-1/4 to 1-1/3 cups.
I made a small batch of "mashed potatoes" with the remainder 1/4 to 1/3 cup, by adding a touch of milk, a touch of grass-fed butter, and some fresh ground pepper.

Still on a subject of cauliflower pancakes - few days ago I made the cauliflower pancakes again (just trying to achieve the best results) and they were very good in taste.
I quickly cooked the rosettes in boiling water (salted) and when they were still firm I mashed them roughly (there were still some chunks there). I let them cool down a bit and added one whole egg and a 1 Tbl of flour, salt, d freshly ground pepper and finely chopped white onion (half). Then I mixed it all, fried on a little bit of olive oil and got 4 nicely tasting pancakes.

We had this again, tonight. One small change, I added 1 Tbl Oregano, 1 Tbl Parsley, and 1 Tbl Italian Seasoning to the crust mixture. (Last time I used no spices to get a good idea of the original flavor. This very nicely hid/removed any and all cauliflower taste.

Final tweak to recipe:
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I find it better to mix the seasonings in with the cauliflower and egg - then no hint of (to me, awful) cauliflower taste/smell.
(Taste is about 80% smell...)
I also increased the recipe by 50% in volume (1-1/2 cups riced, cooked, cauliflower instead of only 1 cup),
increasing the remaining ingredients, as well.
It was a even better with just a little thicker crust.
I also made the edge all-the-way around just a tiny bit thicker than the rest,
because it semed that the edges tended to get a little crisp, otherwise.

Can't wait to try this...Pizza crust is the only bread I miss after 6 months in the zone

Tried this tongiht and it was delicious! my husband said he would never know what it was if I didn't tell him. I used 1 1/2 Cups caul. seasoned it after it was cooked, also added a little parm cheese. Turned out GREAT!

I still have to try this one!

Cauliflower is a really neat "mystery" vegetable!

Try this. Take a whole cauliflower head, still in one piece with green parts removed, and season with curry seasoning, S&P and olive oil. Wrap in foil and bake. Slice in thick in thick slabs to serve. Delicious!