Yes, you can make a lovely, golden, crispy pizza base out of cauliflower! So you’re eating vegetables without even knowing it. We love this topping combination of pumpkin, mushrooms, rosemary and chilli; however, feel free to mix and match this pizza base with our other favourite pizza topping combinations.
This recipe is from Nadia Lim’s Fresh Start, Feel Good cookbook!
Pumpkin, Rosemary, Chilli and Mozzarella Pizza with a Cauliflower Crust Base
Ingredients
Cauliflower crust base
- 400g (about 2½ cups) chopped cauliflower
- 1 small egg, lightly beaten
- ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- ½ tsp dried oregano or mixed herbs or cumin seeds or caraway seeds
Topping
- ¼ cup pizza sauce (see recipe below)
- ¾ cup grated mozzarella
- 6 button mushrooms, sliced
- 200g peeled pumpkin, peeled into ribbons or very thinly sliced
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 red chilli, finely chopped (remove seeds if you don't want too much heat)
- 1 Tbsp chopped rosemary leaves
To serve
- Green salad
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C and line an oven tray with baking paper.
- Blitz cauliflower in a food processor until it has a fine, crumbly texture, like rice. Alternatively, you can grate the cauliflower.
- Place crumbly cauliflower in a large bowl and microwave, uncovered, for about 6 minutes, or place on lined oven tray and bake for about 15 minutes, until just tender. Remove and transfer to a clean tea towel. When cool enough to handle, wring tea towel tightly to squeeze out as much water as you can.
- Tip cauliflower into a large bowl, mix in egg, Parmesan, garlic and dried herbs/spices and season well with salt and pepper. Spoon mixture into the centre of the lined tray and spread out and flatten to make a circular or rustic pizza shape approximately 0.5cm thick. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until firm and golden around the edges.
- Increase oven temperature to 220°C. Spread pizza sauce over the baked pizza crust and scatter over half of the mozzarella. Top with mushrooms and pumpkin ribbons, drizzle with olive oil, scatter with chilli and rosemary, then sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. Return to the oven to bake for 6-10 minutes or until the pumpkin is coloured and cheese bubbling.
- To serve, cut pizza into 6 even slices. Serve with green salad.
Notes
Nutrition information (based on ½ pizza per portion)
Energy: 398cals (1665kJ)
Protein: 31.7g
Carbohydrate: 17.6g (13.8g sugars)
Fat: 20.9g (10g saturated fat)
Pizza sauce:
Tip 1 x 400g can crushed tomatoes into a fry-pan. Stir in 2 Tbsp tomato paste, 1 tsp coconut or brown sugar, ½ tsp dried mixed herbs and 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil. Simmer, stirring often, for about 10 minutes until sauce is thick and the consistency of chutney. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Allow to cool before using. Makes just over 1 cup.
Tip 1 x 400g can crushed tomatoes into a fry-pan. Stir in 2 Tbsp tomato paste, 1 tsp coconut or brown sugar, ½ tsp dried mixed herbs and 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil. Simmer, stirring often, for about 10 minutes until sauce is thick and the consistency of chutney. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Allow to cool before using. Makes just over 1 cup.
