Cauliflower pizza crust

The versatility and unique opportunity of cauliflower to do crazy things gets me every time. I love experimenting with it. Everyone knows about cauliflower rice right? It's only more recently that I've come across cauliflower pizza base recipes. 

Maybe this is not such a new thing but it's something I've only seen more recently. It was only a matter of time before I had a go myself.

I wanted to create both a sweet and savoury version. Today you have my savoury option and tomorrow you'll have my sweet version. Both versions were pretty successful, with the sweet version I made the crust the day before and then topped it as a raw pizza pie. However with the savoury version I baked the base and immediately applied the toppings before re-baking a little for a hot pizza.

This savoury crust was very soft not the sort to pick up in your fingers, I'm wondering if I let it cool first and maybe even froze it before adding the toppings, it would have a bit more structure to it after baking. Nonetheless it was very yummy and didn't bother me that it was soft, just thought I'd mention it to those who are looking for more of a typical robust pizza crust. I'll report back when I try pre-freezing... or if in the mean time you try it this way, let me know how you get on! 

For this savoury pizza I used a simple tomato chia sauce, with the chia acting as a thickener to create more of a paste that wouldn't run off the sides of the crust. Just add some sliced veggies of your choice, re-bake until lightly golden and you're all done. Super simple low carb dinner- great for hot summer evenings!

Recipe: Cauliflower pizza crust 

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

• ½ cup cooked cauliflower- pureed

• ¼ cup almond flour (or other fine flour to bind into a dough)

• 1 tbs flax

• 2 tbs nut butter (I used peanut butter)

• 1 chilli powder/garam masala

• 2 crushed garlic cloves

• salt to taste

topping:

• ¼ cup tinned tomato/salsa

• 1 tbs chia (to thicken)

• vegetable toppings of choice (small pieces for a quick cook)

Method:

Mix the base ingredients together to form a smooth dough. The dough will be fairly sticky but easy to smooth out into a circle using wet hands, flatten to approx. 5mm thick.

Bake the base on a lined baking sheet for 10 mins 180C.

Meanwhile mix the tomato mix with the chia and set aside. Prepare the veggies of choice.

One the crust has prebaked, add the sauce and toppings and bake for a further 20 mins or until the topping is lightly golden.

Note: the cauli crust was firm when it first came out of the oven, however the application of the topping softened it up and so it could not be handled like a regular pizza.