Homemade Gluten-Free Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Printable Recipe (click to expand)
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 375ºF.
- Chop cauliflower into florets, then place florets into your food process, and process until the cauliflower becomes a rice like texture.
- Transfer cauliflower to a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove cauliflower from the oven, let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes, then transfer it to a medium size double lined with cheese cloth, then wring the cauliflower to remove the excess liquid with the cheese cloth.
- Increase the oven heat to 450ºF.
- Transfer the cauliflower into a medium size bowl, then mix in egg, cheese and seasonings and mix well until all the ingredients are well combined.
Hey there Honey's and New-Bees!
One of the biggest challenges my romeo and I faced when we went going gluten-free was curbing our appetite for pizza. Like many people we absolutely love a good slice of pizza, and let me tell you it was a real challenge finding gluten free pizza that didn’t taste like cardboard and wasn’t ridiculously overpriced ($23 for a medium pizza 😨) !
Pizza was probably the hardest things to give up when going gluten-free and I almost caved a couple of times…but despite the numerous office pizza parties, pizza/ movie nights with friends and just the smell of pizza lingering in the air as I walk by restaurants, I stayed strong and resist the urge to cave. However, it got to the point when I realized enough was enough, and finally started looking for a gluten-free solution to satiate my cravings and discovered cauliflower pizza crust.
Honestly, I was pretty skeptical about the idea of using cauliflower for a pizza crust, I was sure it was going to taste grouse, and that it would fall apart, but I decided to give it a shot anyway.
To make a long story short, I was wrong, the pizza was incredible and we definitely wanted to make it again but… it took almost 3 hours to make, my kitchen was a complete disaster and my romeo burned his hands, so needless to say I had to find a better way to make it.
Now don’t let our first experience scare you, it’s been almost 5 years since that first experience and I have found a better way to make it which is safer, less time consuming, requires minimal cleanup, and most importantly is fun to make!
My romeo and I absolutely love making this dish, and always get rave reviews when we serve it (especially to our non-gluten free guest who are always skeptical). I really hope you enjoy this fun recipe as much a
Step 1 – Dice and Bake
When I first started making cauliflower pizza I would chop the cauliflower into florets, steam it in batches, then process the cooked cauliflower into a rice like texture with my food processor. My kitchen would steam up like crazy, I had to be extremely careful not burn myself with the steam when I would process it, straining the cauliflower was difficult and it was just a really messy process!
Now that its been a couple of years I’ve made the process a lot easier, safer, and messy, but I still thought it would be important to share what I was doing so you can learn from my past mistakes. So now that you know what not to do, here is what you should do to get started 😀.
Chop the cauliflower into small florets, process the florets in a food processor until the cauliflower becomes a rice like texture, then transfer the cauliflower rice to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and BAKE it in the oven for 15 minutes.
See much simpler, less messy, and way safer!
Step 2 – Strain and Season
The first time I made this pizza my romeo and I made this we didn’t let the cauliflower cool down before squeezing out the liquid (hence the mild burns) and squeezed out the liquid with a mesh colander. Not only did we burn ourselves trying to strain out the HOT excess liquid with our hands, it took us well over 20 minutes, it was a significant source of the mess in our kitchen and we still had a lot of excess liquid – So don’t do any of that!
Once your cauliflower is out of the oven, let it sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes and increase your oven temperature to 450ºF. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that you wait those 5 minutes, if you don’t wait, you will burn yourself, there’s nothing to gain by rushing this step! Gaining 5 extra minutes is not worth burning yourself!
In the meantime while your cauliflower is resting, line a small bowl with a double layer of cheese cloth, then transfer you cauliflower into the cheese cloth and wring out the the excess liquid from the cauliflower (this should only take about 2-5 minutes). Once all the liquid has been squeezed out, transfer the cauliflower into a medium size bowl and mix in the egg, cheese, and spices until everything is well combined, then place the “dough” onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and press it out with your fingers.
Step 3 – Bake, Flip and Top
Once your pizza has been pressed out (you can have fun with the shape here since the “dough” is really malleable), bake your pizza crust in the oven for 20 minutes.
Now here’s where the one tricky part comes in, once your crust has baked for 20 minutes you want to take it out of the oven and flip it. The easiest way to do this is to place a piece of parchment paper on top of the crust, lift the bottom of the crust with a spatula while holding the top the parchment paper with a silicone oven mitt. In all honestly it sounds way more complicated than it is, and the crust will flip pretty easily because it’s pretty solid (I really thought the crust was going to completely fall apart the first time I did this), just remember to be careful.
Once you’ve flipped your crust, bake it for another 5 minutes, then remove it from the oven, dress your pizza as desired and bake your pizza in the oven until the cheese is golden brown and that’s it!
Hope you enjoyed the post and let me know how your cauliflower pizza turned out!!
Items Featured in this Post:
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 375ºF.
- Chop cauliflower into florets, then place florets into your food process, and process until the cauliflower becomes a rice like texture.
- Transfer cauliflower to a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove cauliflower from the oven, let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes, then transfer it to a medium size double lined with cheese cloth, then wring the cauliflower to remove the excess liquid with the cheese cloth.
- Increase the oven heat to 450ºF.
- Transfer the cauliflower into a medium size bowl, then mix in egg, cheese and seasonings and mix well until all the ingredients are well combined.
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Thank you for this!! i love Cauliflower crust, but I normally just buy it. I have been wanting to give it a go myself!:)
Yummm! Haven’t eaten cauli in about 20 years as always seems so boring, but came across this and def one to try. Thanks!
I can relate, and I was actually a little worried the very first time I made this…but after trying it I can attest it’s anything but boring! Enjoy 😀
This looks like an excellent recipe!! As a gluten-free girl myself, I am always looking for new ways to experiment in the kitchen! Will definitely be trying this! Pinning as well!
Awesome! Hope you enjoy. Honestly we’ve been making this for years and anyone I serve this to asks for recipe right after eating it; enjoy the recipe!!
I never knew that pizza crust can be made from cauliflower! This is creative and especially healthy too. Thanks.
It is a lot healthier and it’s a lot of fun to make!
Looks and sounds delicious! Made a pizza similar to this years ago, but now i want to try it again:)
This is the best explanation I have seen on how to make a cauliflower crust! I cannot wait to try it!!
Thanks Raina!!! Hope you enjoy it!
I have really got to try this one out. I have been wanting to make a califlower pizza crust for a while now, you steps look pretty easy and you worked all the kinks out for us. Thanks!
It is pretty easy, and it’s so delicious, I like it better than traditional pizza at this point!
Thank you for your tips. I made cauliflower cheese sticks and had a similar experience to yours. Will try it your way next time. It’s so important to get rid of as much moisture as you can. I thought nevdid but it wasn’t enough and they were a big soggy.
The cheese cloth made all the difference, and kind of makes squeezing out the liquid pretty fun, and it’s pretty incredible how much liquid comes out!
What an awesome recipe. Have never tried a cauliflower pizza base, but it’s sounds delicious and I will definitely be making it for dinner tomorrow night. Yum o 😊
Thanks! It’s such a nice alternative to traditional pizza, happy cooking!
Yum! This is one of my favorite pizza crust. I’ll try your recipe next time I make it.
Thanks, it’s one of mine as well! Enjoy the recipe!
Great recipe! Mine is always crumbly, maybe this will solve my problem 🙂
This recipe is definitely not crumbly! The pizza will hold together no problem the same way a traditional pizza would!
I’ve always wanted to try a cauliflower crust! I miss pizza but don’t miss the calories . This seems like a great alternative!
It’s a fantastic alternative!