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I really like pizza…. no I kind of LOVE pizza and so does Neil so our “easy” dinner choice is pizza, but let’s face it, if we ate pizza every day we’d weigh 3000 pounds. So I really enjoy switching it up, making it different AND slipping in those extra veggies. Left to his own devices, I think Neil would skip veggies every night, so making a pizza crust of cauliflower means he’s DEFINITELY getting a serving of veggies- heck by the time we split this pizza he’s eaten half a head of cauliflower!

So let’s get started!!

Ingredients

• 1 Head of Cauliflower (I suggest medium to large)
• 1.5 Tsp Minced Garlic
• 1/4 Tsp Himalayan Salt (or sea salt)
• 3/4 Tsp Italian Seasoning
• 1/2 Cup Grated Mozzarella Cheese (use part-skim to cut out calories)
• 1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
• 1 Egg

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
2. Prepare a round pizza pan by covering it in parchment paper or wax paper. Spray the paper generously with an olive oil cooking spray.
3. Wash cauliflower and cut it into florets- cut as much stem off from the floret as you can.
4. Here you have two choices- you can either set the cauliflower aside until it dries or, if you’re like me and never remember to do that ahead of time, take a paper towel and dry as much of the cauliflower off as you’re able.
5. Take your cauliflower florets and blend them in a food processor. It’s going to look almost like rice:

**Tip with the food processor- don’t do all the cauliflower at once or you’ll end up overloading the processor. You’ll know you’ve added too much when you have all the processed cauliflower around the sides and one or two florets in the middle just spinning around- not that… I…. did… that… and then stood there and laughed at it… 😉

6. When your cauliflower is all processed into cauliflower rice as shown above, move it to a microwaveable safe bowl.

7. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and stick it in the microwave for 3 minutes to cook the cauliflower.

8. Let it sit for a minute or so in the microwave because it’s going to be REALLY HOT.

9. Uncover the cauliflower and dump it out onto a cheesecloth- one with very, very small openings. If you don’t have a cheesecloth feel free to use a clean kitchen towel- it will work the same way for this. In fact, I never had a cheesecloth until I met Neil- he’s the one that brought that to the table.

10. Let the cauliflower cool AT LEAST 10 minutes! Like I said, it’s going to be VERY hot- steam rising from the cauliflower kind of hot!

11. Once the cauliflower has cooled- I’m serious, wait at least 10 minutes- I don’t want you coming back to me telling me your burned yourself on cauliflower steam- gather it up in the cheesecloth or towel and hold it over a bowl.

12. Wring out the cauliflower until you’ve squeezed all the liquid out of it. This ensures that you’ll get that crispy pizza like crust! I got that great trick from Knead to Cook– she makes some fantastic recipes so gotta give it up to her!

13. Wring, wring, wring that cauliflower’s neck! Get allll the liquid out- you want a crispy crust, don’t you???!!! Now, you’ll end up some delightful cauliflower juice…. use it to start your vegetable broth or throw it in your next soup or juicing attempt!

14. Open up the cheesecloth/towel and you should end up with something the consistency of a cross between mashed potatoes and cookie dough. Pretty cool, right?

15. Dump the “dough” into a mixing bowl and then I recommend preparing to get your hands dirty to mix the flavoring ingredients in.

16. Add garlic, himalayan salt (or sea salt), Italian seasoning, egg (or other binding agent if you don’t eat eggs- totally up to you!), mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Feel free to customize this to YOUR liking. This is just my down and dirty easy way to flavor it!

17. Get your hands in it and mix it together until everything is well-distributed.

 18. Remember that pan we prepared with paper and covered in olive oil spray? Time to pull it out now! Dump the dough onto the olive oil covered paper and start spreading!

19. I just use my hands to spread the dough into a circular shape. Do your best to make it thin and even all across the board- especially the edges. You really want to make sure you try to get the outside edges as close to the same thickness as the rest of the dough.

 20. Once the dough is evenly spread, stick the pan with the dough into the oven which has preheated to 450 degrees and cook for 15-16 minutes. You want it to cook but not TOO much since you’re going to stick it back into the oven with your toppings in just a bit.  If you see my pic below you see I didn’t do the best job of making sure the edges weren’t too thin, so just really watch that.

21. The cool thing about this crust is you can easily make it ahead of time and top it later- no big deal! I, however, am hungry and want to eat NOW so no waiting for me! The next part is the fun part- topping the pizza!! You can seriously top this thing however you normally would top your pizza. Our toppings of choice were marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese and sausage on half since Neil likes that- and hey, I’m making sure he gets his veggies!

22. Once you’ve topped your pizza pie, stick it back into the oven at 450 degrees and cook for about 3-4 minutes. You really just want to make sure all your toppings are hot and the cheese on top is bubbly and melty!

23. This step is IMPORTANT or you’ll end up with a mess- a tasty mess- but still a mess! WAIT UNTIL THE PIZZA COOLS a bit and then it will literally lift right up off the wax or parchment paper without much fuss at all.

The only thing left at this point is to EAT! And Enjoy!!!!