Love Pizza? Hate Gluten? No Problem!

I firmly believe that pizza should be considered one of our dietary staples. It’s great hot for dinner, cold for breakfast or lukewarm at lunchtime. Everyone likes it, in some form or another, and I’ve always contended (and will go to my grave defending this) that it is life’s perfect food. Loaded up with vegetables, whole grains and healthy protein, it makes one wholesome meal.
There are more ways to make an Italian pie then there are to skin a cat. (Probably a lot more actually, if you think about it, but let’s not.) Not long ago our very own Kelsey Brazelton blogged about her experience with gluten-free dough mix and Raquel Guss gave us a recipe for a super ‘clean’ pizza with a meat crust! This time around we’ve incorporated more veggies with another grain-free alternative recipe adapted from Detoxinista for a cauliflower crust pizza.
My traditional pizza lover, Bill, gave this crust a thumbs-up. Be warned though, it does not make a very big pie — the two of us almost devoured the whole thing!
To start you will need a medium head of cauliflower to make the cauliflower “rice.”

Pulse batches of raw cauliflower florets in a food processor, until a rice-like texture is achieved to yield 4 cups.

Fill a large pot with about an inch of water, and bring it to boil. Add the cauliflower rice, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Strain.

Transfer the strained rice to a clean, thin dish towel. Wrap up the steamed rice in the dish towel, twist it up and squeeze all the excess moisture out.

In a large bowl, stir together the strained rice, one beaten egg, 3 ounces softened goat cheese, 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning and a ¼ teaspoon salt.

On a parchment-lined baking sheet, press the dough out into approximately an 8-x-11 rectangle about 1/3-inch thick, making the edges a little higher. (Definitely use the parchment or you will have a stuck crust!)
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 400F. The crust should be firm and golden brown when finished.

At this point, it’s time to add all your favorite stuff: sauce, toppings and cheese, return the pizza to the oven and bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes, until the cheese is hot and bubbly.

Alternatively you can let the crust cool, wrap in foil and finish later or pop it in the freezer for an emergency “frozen pizza.” Just add toppings to the frozen crust and bake as before.
Chef’s Notes: There is a lot of wiggle room in the amount of cauliflower to use. After squeezing the water from the rice, my four cups looked more like one! I believe more cauliflower could be added without altering the finished product. Next time I am going to up the amount of cauliflower to 5 or even 6 cups but keep the rest of the ingredients the same.
Are there any pizza-haters out there? It’s hard to imagine, but we’d love to hear why!  —Karen