Cauliflower Crust Pizza

 

If you look at Pinterest at the moment and everyone, I mean literally everyone is harping on about cauliflower crust pizzas, so choosing a random recipe - for they are all pretty much of the same I decided to follow suit and see what all the fuss was about.

Being a hardened pizza lover who has had to drastically curb her pizza eating ways in return for a sustained weight loss and healthy eating kick I did not hold our much hope, but I was so very pleasantly surprised with the results, this could be a new revolution, I almost cried tears of joy.  I was eating guilt free pizza!

OK, nothing could replace a thin and crispy pepperoni with extra cheese, but this does come a close second.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza
Makes 1 large Pizza, based on 2 people sharing approx. 15 Pro points each.

1 head of cauliflower, de-stalked and torn into small florets
100g ground almonds
2 eggs, beaten,
1 tbsp, dried oregano
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 small can chopped tomatoes (227g)
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 glove garlic, crushed
1 small red onion, sliced
handful of basil leaves
4 strips of thin pancetta, cut up.
1/2 a125g ball of mozzarella
25g parmesan

Blitz the cauliflower in a food processor until it resembles rice. Tip into a bowl and cover with clingfilm. Microwave on high for 6 minutes.  Turn out onto a clean tea towel and once cooled, squeeze all the water out of the cauliflower - loads with come out so keep on going as you need it at dry as you can get it.
Put back into a bowl and add the almonds, oregano, chilli and beaten eggs.  Mix together well with lots of seasoning.
Take a baking tray and line with some greaseproof paper.  Tip the cauliflower mixture onto it and push out to make a round, about 30cm diameter.  Make it thinner in the middle and deeper at the sides, they will become crispy edges.  Bake in the oven at 200oc for 15-20 minutes, the edges will start to crisp up. Remove from oven and cool slightly.

In the meantime, take a saucepan and add the chopped tomatoes, garlic, tomato puree and some of the torn up basil leaves and bring to the boil and continue to simmer away until reduced. You want to get out a lot of the moisture to stop it giving your base a soggy bottom.  In a separate pan, using 1 cal spray fry the onion until softened.

Take the base and spread over the tomato mixture, add the onion and chopped pancetta, torn up mozzarella and the grated parmesan plus a few more shredded basil leaves and put back into the oven for a further 10 minutes.

Serve as you would normally, because amazingly the base when cut actually holds up as a proper pizza base allowing you to pick up wedges and scoff!!!  Next time I will be adding chorizo and pre-cooked mushrooms and peppers, with extra seasoning in the base.  The choices are endless.