Can you believe that this dish is carb free? What I mean is that this is not your average pizza... The crust, or base, of the pizza is made from cauliflower, egg and cheese. As part of my healthy eating regime I am avoiding eating carbs such as bread, pasta, potatoes and rice for my evening meal. I find that my usual carb heavy meals cause me a lot of bloating and make me feel quite 'heavy'. I've been eating carb free evening meals for a week and a half now (except for one night when I was dying for some bread and ate a bagel!) and I've already lost 5lbs! Here's how you can make this pizza at home...
I started by grating a medium sized cauliflower into a bowl. It was easier to grate than I thought and it only took a few minutes. If you have a food processor, you can also use that to grate the cauliflower.
Once it was grated I microwaved it for 4 minutes.
Using some kitchen roll I squashed the cauliflower down to soak up any excess water.
Back in the bowl, I mixed 1 egg, 1 tsp mixed herbs, a pinch of salt, 30g cheddar and 20g mozzarella. Both the cheeses I used were low fat versions, you can also experiment with other herbs and flavours such as garlic, black pepper or chilli.
Using my hands I pressed out and shaped the cauliflower 'dough' onto a lined baking tray. I went for the traditional round shape but this dough is really easy to shape so you could mix it up a bit if you fancied! It was about 5mm thin.
I baked the dough on 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 for about 12 minutes, it should be bubbling and golden.
While it was baking I prepared my chosen toppings. I didn't cook my toppings before but I would recommend doing so. The chorizo and cherry tomatoes were fine but I found that the aubergine did not cook as well as I would have liked.
I added my toppings, some more cheese, and popped it back in the oven for about 10 minutes, until the cheese melts. Low fat cheese doesn't melt very well in the oven, so I did grill the pizza towards the end. So you can bake or grill depending on what toppings you've used. You just want the cheese to be melted really.
Here's a close up to show you what the base is like. The way I can best describe it is similar to an omelet. The cauliflower flavor is not noticeable at all. It definitely does not have a bread texture, so don't expect it to be just like a regular pizza dough. But it's a fantastic and tasty alternative. I really enjoyed it, ate the whole thing up, and felt great afterwards! I will be making this again and experimenting with the toppings!
