This has got to be one of the most bizarre things I have ever cooked, Dear Readers.... but in an entirely wonderful way!
Pizza with a cauliflower? Bah Humbug!
I was so very sceptical of this dish. I've seen versions of it floating about the interweb, but really? I didn't think it would work, I didn't think I'd like it, I really didn't think it would taste good, and I really, truly didn't think it would work... I was so happy to be proven wrong on sooo many levels indeed
The star of the show...TaaDaa!
So simple....
Now each cauliflower weighs differently, so I went with cooked amount instead. This lovely produced two cups of cooked, squeezed crumb. Just to give you an idea of serving size, I made this recipe and photos using one cup only
1 cup cooked Cauliflower crumb
2 tablespoons gluten free Flour (or coconut flour for grain free)
1 Egg
pinch Salt
Break your cauliflower and stem into smaller florets
Process or grate your cauliflower into 'crumb', it will just take a few seconds
Place your crumb in a microwave dish and cook for about 8 to 12 minutes, or until it's cooked through
Yes, you can cook it any way you like if you hate microwaves, but this is a good dry way to go and you need to remove as much moisture as possible
Pop your cooked crumb into a strong porous cloth, or clean tea towel
Gather it up into a ball and SQUEEZE!
Remove as much liquid as you possibly can. This is the key to a crispy pizza. I think this is the step that also magically removes any strong taste from the veggie- so squeeze, squeeze away
See how nice and dry this is now, like damp sawdust
Measure your cooked crumb in cup amounts
For each cup of cooked crumb use one egg, 2 tab gf flour and pinch of salt
Add in the flour, egg and salt
You could also include a bit of garlic or onion powder and some dried Italian or pizza herbs too
The mix was still very damp, and not like an actual dough, but don't worry it still works out well
Spread out fairly thinly on a baking paper lined pizza tray. The easiest way I found was to use a silicon spatula and smooth the dough out that way
As you can see, this quantity made one about an inch smaller than the tray, but it would have been too thin to go any further
See, nice and thin- about the thickness of a thick wrap
Bake at 180/200* for 20 minutes, or until a light golden brown
The pizza base will easily lift away from the paper, and is fairly flexible
It had sweated a little on top of the paper, so while baking it with toppings, I placed it directly on the perforated pizza tray and let it crisp up a bit more that way
Top your pizza any way you like...
I like anchovies, olives, fresh basil, capsicum, lactose free cheese, gluten free ham and salami, mushrooms- the possibilities are endless!
Then bake your pizza in a hot oven 220*, until nice and bubbling and warmed all the way through
For a bit of fresh zing, I always have a bit of salad on top- today it was simply rocket and basil drizzled with white balsamic and EVOO
Look! Just like the 'real' thing!
You know Dear Readers, I was totally prepared to have a complete flop on my hands and to have wasted a whole afternoon.
I really can't say enough how surprised I was though. The pizza tasted awesome! It didn't taste like cauliflower unless you imagined quite hard, it was firm enough to eat properly, it browned up well, it even re-heated perfectly the next day. I just can't find the But... There isn't any.
I gave some of this to the whole family, even BigJ who loathes cauliflower with his entire being. Not one of them picked it. Admittedly, they preferred their wheat base, but they would have eaten my pizza without complaint if that's what they were offered. I don't usually make two different styles of meal, but you must remember I was expecting a disaster so tried to cover my bases :)
This will really be my Go-To recipe from now on, and I think I'll try a few experiments with it as pie bases as well. So very yummy indeed!
So Dear Readers, have you ever made something expecting a flop that turned out as amazing as this, and will you be willing to give this cauliflower pizza a chance?
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