Cauliflower Crusted, Mediterranean Caramelized Onion Pizza

Published on December 4, 2013 | In American, Asian | By Patrice |

- Difficulty Level

Why are you giving this post such a funny look? Never heard of Cauliflower on a Pizza? Well just wait until you try it, you will be all smiles am sure. But first I have to tell you the story of this Pizza, no wait, I will let you peek at the finished product first. We really do like this Pizza crust. The crust doesn’t taste like the usual white dough that holds the toppings and doesn’t have any flavor. This crust has flavor, a nutty, cheesy type flavor that will go well with about any toppings you try.

The key to this Pizza is the Crust as it is made from Cauliflower. That’s right I said Cauliflower. So if you think about it… The crust is great for people that eat gluten free, or vegetarians too. We will go through how to make this step by step and you can top it however you would like, after all it is your pizza isn’t it. The crust recipe is a combination of recipes we found and then we baked ours a bit different from anything we found. We think the baking and preparation of the crust is the key to the Pizza.

As a side note, the Nutritional Yeast is what really makes this dish. We are new to using it but the nutty, cheesy flavor of it helps add to the crust. Besides Nutritional Yeast is VERY good for you, look it up. We used Bob’s Red Mill http://www.bobsredmill.com/nutritional-yeast.html

Nutritional Yeast Substitutes – Sometimes this product can be hard to find, but never fear, there are some substitutes. Brewers Yeast – a byproduct of making beer and doesn’t have all the flavor of Nutritional Yeast. Parmesan Cheese – not as nutritious and more fat content. Wheat Germ – works well in baked goods. Another is Yeast Extract you could use. Just think of your application when using one of these as a substitute. If you come up with another good ideas to use…pass them on to me.

Low Calorie

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Ingredients

Crust
6 C of riced raw Cauliflower - 1 medium head
1 1/2 C of egg whites (we use egg substitutes that are made out of egg whites)
1 1/2 C Nutritional Yeast
3 C Fat Free Mozzarella
1 1/2 C grated Parmesan
3 T Garlic powder
1 T Italian Seasonings
Toppings
1 Onion thinly sliced into rings
2 oz Feta Cheese crumbled
1 small Tomato - thinly sliced
2 T Tomato Paste / Sauce
2 T Kalamata Olives chopped
1 t Capers chopped
1/4 lb Ground Turkey
1 t Greek Seasonings

Instructions

Crust: When you are ready to do this dish, preheat the oven to 425 F and heat a frying pan to caramelize the onion and get that going to. After all you want to take your time caramelizing them now don’t you? We use the Cuisenart’s grating blade to “rice” the cauliflower and grate the cheeses; but you can use a grater or the chopping blade too. It is best to have everything uniform in size though, so everything cooks the same. Mix all the Crust ingredients in a bowl. We used a baking sheet lined with a silpad. We also used a second baking sheet lined with a silpad to flip the crust over and continue cooking it. You can line the pan with Parchment paper or spray too if you want but we like using the silpads for this type of cooking. We would think that if you used a spray it might stick to the pan and that would not be good. Now that you have your baking sheet ready, press the material from the bowl onto the sheet – like this:
You want to spread it as thin as you can get it without any holes in it. Bake it for 20 – 30 minutes. Remove from oven and use the second baking sheet and silpad. Lay the silpad on top of the crust and then the baking sheet. Now hold both ends and turn over so the crust is in the second pan. Remove Baking sheet from top and silpat; set them aside for now. Your baking sheet should look something like this, although this picture was taken after the second side had baked:
Return Baking sheet to oven for another 10 – 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on counter some. Flip it into the second pan again and let set a little longer. Check the moisture, does it feel damp? If it does return it to the oven for a few minutes more. What you are after is a firm crust and a little crispy. You want to have the crust as dry as possible before you put toppings on it as they will give the crust more moisture.
Topping: Top the Pizza with your own toppings or the ones in the Ingredients list under Toppings. As a side note, what we did is cut the crust in half and put toppings on just half of it. There was only two of us and we did have left overs too. After you have topped it like you want, return to the oven for 10 minutes or so until it looks like you want it too. This is what ours looked like coming out of the oven, enjoy:
Lessons Learned: Next time we will try to make this crust even thinner, it was great as it is but we could have made it thinner we think. If the crust doesn’t seem dry enough, flip it and bake it again. Ours shrunk about an inch all around before we put the toppings on. Make sure you have a small amount of Tomato sauce for the pizza before you start so you don’t have to reduce a whole can of V8 into sauce. But it did work well and when it was getting close to the reduction I wanted I added some herbs to it. Next time make sure we have friends over so we don’t have leftovers