Well hi! Been a while!

Since I last wrote, I have embarked on a low carb diet. Well, most of the time. One of my favorite things to make to introduce others to low carb healthy eating is pizza! With a cauliflower crust. And people love it and ask me how I do it. So here’s how!

Usually I opt for a head of cauliflower, chop it, throw it in the blender and pulse for a bit. If you come across a sale on fresh cauliflower, you can do this and then freeze it for later. You can use it as rice or for a crust. But I had recently been shopping and the grocery store had these new bags on sale so I decided to give them a try.

I followed the instructions on the bag for heating the cauliflower in the microwave. When I use fresh cauliflower, I use about 2C and put it in a steamer and cook about 3 1/2 minutes.

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP. You have to get all the moisture out of the cauliflower. I use a clean kitchen towel and after my nuked cauliflower has cooled a little bit, I dump it in the center of the towel and begin squeezing. And squeezing. Really spend a lot of time on this step – it’s worth it.

When you’re done squeezing, you are left with a tiny, compact ball of mush that you don’t think will go anywhere. Just wait!

Here’s the amount of liquid I extracted from this batch!

Now it’s time to mix the crust. There are a lot of recipes out there but I have had the best luck with mixing my cauliflower 1:1 with cheese, add an egg and then some herbs and garlic if you want. If you use garlic, use a good powder or ensure all the liquid has been extracted from that too. You don’t have to get too crazy with your cheese types in the crust. I usually have a bag of commercial, shredded cheese in the freezer and throw that in — this time I had a cheddar mix. Save your good cheese for the topping!

Now it’s time to spread it! I just use a fork. If your mixture is tacky, you might have too much liquid in it. Add a little more cheese if that happens. Don’t make the crust too thin – it won’t rise like a traditional dough and if it’s too thin, it will burn. You don’t want that!

My favorite dish to use is this Corningware round quiche pan. I spray some coconut oil on it and I’m good to go. If you want to use a cookie sheet or traditional pizza pan, you’ll have to use more cauliflower (and cheese – remember 1:1 ratio!). I bake it until it gets a little brown on top. The goal is to have a crust that can stand on its own.

At this point, you can top as you want! Use the good cheese and enjoy! I hope this helps you make your own cauliflower pizza and eat low carb.