The BEST Dairy Free Cauliflower Pizza Crust!
Alright, alright, here it is! The best dairy free cauliflower pizza crust! You've hoped, you've dreamed, and you've begged for it (really you've just left a few comments on my BEST Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe, but same thing) and I have finally delivered!
Since posting my Best Cauliflower Crust Pizza Recipe you guys have left so many nice comments saying how much you've enjoyed the recipe! I especially love when I get tagged in Instagram pics of the cauliflower crust pizzas that you've made and I get to see the amazing toppings you all have come up with. There are some beautiful cauliflower crust pizzas out there! But there is one question that keeps popping up in the comments, and that is how to make the crust without cheese. Fear not, my friends! It's easy and just as delicious to make a cauliflower pizza crust with no cheese! And guess what? No cheese, no flour, no grains means it pretty much perfectly paleo. A yummy delicious paleo pizza crust, it's a dream come true. And yes, it does still hold up to being picked up like a regular slice of pizza, just like my other cauliflower crust. Although, this piece was a little weighed down by the sheer amount of deliciousness I threw on top. More on that later.
The keys to this cheese-less cauliflower crust are pretty much the same as my regular cauliflower pizza crust. Preheat your pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven first, wring the water out of the cauliflower, and cook your pizza on oiled parchment or tinfoil. But here's some more deets on how I did it without the cheese. I followed my normal method of using the food processor to make cauliflower "snow," or "rice" as some people call it, but I think "snow" is so much more fun to say. I microwaved it for 4 minutes, I don't know exactly why 4 minutes, but this number seems to work for me. Three minutes would probably work also. A few of you commented that you don't microwave your food. Some have had luck squeezing the water out without microwaving it or cooking it a pan instead. Once the cauliflower was cool enough to handle, I placed in a tea towel and wringed the water out. You could go crazy with this step, one commentor even said they ripped their tea towel! But honestly you don't have to get every single last drop of water out. Just give it a few good wrings to get most of the water out. The cauliflower will now look more like powder, almost like grainy flour. Next I added my other ingredients - minus the cheese of course! I added my spices, 2 tablespoons almond flour, some nutritional yeast for cheesy flavor, but not a lot since I'm still on the fence about how I feel about nutritional yeast (I'm new to using it), an egg, and a tablespoon of olive oil to help with the binding in lieu of the cheese. I shaped my crust on an oiled sheet of parchment paper and slid it into the oven and onto the hot pizza stone using a thin plastic cutting board, a pizza peel would work also if you are fancy and own one of those! One note about the cooking time, I pre-baked the crust longer than I did with my cauliflower crust that uses cheese. I wanted this crust to get crispy and golden brown and without the cheese in it, it needed a longer cooking time. I also knew that my second cooking time would be less since I wouldn't be melting cheese and I would be using toppings that I already heated up before placing them on the pizza.
Now about those toppings! I went heavy on my toppings to make up for the lack of cheese on the pizza, although you will see a light dusting of freshly grated Parmesan on my pizza. I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. It was like a cheese loving robot took over my body and grabbed the mircroplane and wedge of parm and kept repeating "MUST HAVE CHEESE" very loudly while I mentally protested, "
No, you can't! It's supposed to be a cheese free pizza!
"Damn cheese-loving-body-taking-over-robot. But basically, you can top your cheese free cauliflower pizza crust with whatever you want, assuming you don't have a cheese-loving-body-taking-over-robot lurking in your kitchen somewhere, but I will include my recipe for this delicious BBQ pork pizza, because it was damn delicious and I think you should make it. The cheese loving robot also thinks you should make it, even if you make it with no cheese on top. Any leftover shredded meat would be good on this pizza, but I recommend my pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce.
But before I give you the recipe, the cheese loving robot would like to add, "MAKE THIS CRUST NOW. TOP IT WITH WHATEVER YOU LIKE, EVEN IF YOU DON'T LIKE CHEESE, WEIRDO."
Geez, cheese loving robot, there is no need to yell! And some people just can't eat cheese. Have a heart.
"I AM A ROBOT, I HAVE NO HEART."
Ok, this is getting weird. Recipe here.....
The BEST Dairy Free Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Makes approx. 1 - 10 inch pizza crust
1 medium sized head of cauliflower - should yield close to 3 cups once processed
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil (crush it even more between your fingers)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (crust it even more between you fingers)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
optional a few shakes of crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons almond meal
1 tablespoon (or more if desired) nutritional yeast (you could also omit this entirely if you like)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 egg
nonstick cooking oil
Place a pizza stone in the oven, or baking sheet if you don't have a pizza stone. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a cutting board, place a large piece of parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking oil or brush the parchment with olive oil.
Wash and thoroughly dry a small head of cauliflower. Don't get one the size of your head unless you are planning on making 2 pizzas. Cut off the florets, you don't need much stem. Just stick with the florets. Pulse in your food processor for about 30 seconds, until you get powdery snow like cauliflower. See above photo. You should end up with about 3 cups cauliflower "snow". Place the cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl and cover. Microwave for 4 minutes. Dump cooked cauliflower onto a clean tea towel and allow to cool for a bit before attempting the next step.
Once cauliflower is cool enough to handle, wrap it up in the dish towel and wring the water out of it. You want to squeeze out as much water as possible. This will ensure you get a chewy pizza like crust instead of a crumbly mess.
Dumped cauliflower into a bowl. Now add all your spices, your almond meal, your nutritional yeast (if using), and your olive oil. Mix the mixture to incorporate all the ingredients. Now add your egg and mix away again. Hands tend to work best.
Once mixed together, use your hands to form the dough into a crust on your oiled parchment paper. Pat it down thoroughly, you want it nice and tightly formed together. Don't make it too thick or thin either.
Using a cutting board slide the parchment paper onto your hot pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until it starts to turn golden brown and the edges crisp up. Remove from oven.
***UPDATE - My new oven requires that I pre-cook the crust for closer to 15 to 20 minutes to get it a nice golden brown. Go off of looks rather than time! You want the edges to start to be crispy brown but not too much so that when you cook it again after adding toppings it will burn.
Add your toppings (I recommend already cooked toppings, like shredded meat or sautéed veggies) and slide parchment with topped pizza back in the hot oven and cook for another 5 minutes until the toppings are warm. If using cheese for a topping, you can pop the pizza under the broiler to get the cheese melted fast without burning the crust.
Test your patience and allow it to cool for a minute or two. Probably closer to two. Then using a pizza cutter and a spatula serve up your delicious grain and dairy cauliflower crust pizza!
To top the pizza you can make your own 30 minute pizza sauce using my recipe! Or to make the pizza in these pictures, caramelize half a sliced up onion on the stove in olive oil for about 30 minutes. Tip: I add chicken broth or sometimes even just water to my caramelized onions to keep them from burning and to reduce the amount of oil I need to use. Once your onions are caramelized, add any cooked shredded meat you have to the onions to reheat the meat.
My pulled pork would be amazing!
Then, simply top your cauliflower crust with desired amount of BBQ sauce, I recommend using the cooked version of my homemade BBQ sauce, and the meat and onion mix.
Add 1 diced up roasted red pepper, and a dusting of parmesan if desired. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and top with 1 diced up avocado.
Enjoy!
P.S. Remember my story about not having an egg when I made this cauliflower crust for you before? Yeah, well that happened again. Luckily it was on a weekend and not the morning before a work day and I made my husband run out and get me eggs. He also came back with beer. Perfect lunch? I think so.