This Week in Chynna's Kitchen: Cauliflower Pizza!

Hello, everybody! It's the CaffeinatedFoodie, and welcome to my Kitchen! If you know me, then you know that I love food. I love eating food, taking pictures of food, and cooking food! I love finding new recipes and testing them out in my kitchen! When I studied abroad in Italy, I took a cooking class for credit, and my new found love for cooking began. Recently, I haven't been cooking as much, at least not as much as I did in college, but I try to do it as often as I can. So, each week I hope to try a new recipe, whether it be a side dish, main meal, or dessert, and will post the recipe on my blog. In the hopes that you followers would like to try it as well! So, without further ado, let's get cooking!

A few weeks ago, I attempted to make Cauliflower Pizza. If you don't know what Cauliflower Pizza is, it's basically using rice Cauliflower as the crust, instead of a flour crust. It's not a Pizza using Cauliflower as a topping, although that might not be a bad idea to try out in the future. I first saw this version of a crust, while watching Kaitlyn Bristowe and Shawn Booth's Snapchat's. They are a couple from The Bachelorette, who are extreme health nuts, and are always cooking up healthy, yet tasting looking food. It looked absolutely delicious, and I have been wanting to try it out ever since. So, I finally took the plunge, and cooked my first Cauliflower Pizza.

Making this crust was definitely a labor of love, but I was pretty impressed with myself for my first time. I did use a short-cut, by using pre-made Cauliflower Rice, which I got at Costco. Most recipes called for getting a head of Cauliflower, roasting it in the oven, and breaking it up into rice form using a food processor. But, I did not have a food processor, so using pre-made Cauliflower Rice was a helpful short-cut.

The most difficult part was of course making the crust, because after warming up Cauliflower Rice, you had to wring out all the moisture before cooking it. This step is necessary, to avoid a soggy crust. I didn't use a towel, which is what most people recommended. Instead, I used paper-towels, which was a terrible mistake. I got very frustrated during this part, because I wasn't sure how much Cauliflower Rice to use, in order to make a personal sized pizza. I wasn't able to find the measurements online, because as I said before, most recipes just used the whole Cauliflower. Most of my time was spent warming up Cauliflower Rice and burning fingers, until I felt like I had enough to make a personal pizza. After about an hour of working on the crust, I was done with it, and was ready to start the next steps. Which was seasoning the Cauliflower, cooking the crust, and prepping your toppings.

To Make the Crust:

-Heat up Cauliflower Rice in microwave safe bowl, I used at least half of the bag to get this size of a crust (as shown in the picture above).

-Wring out water, using towel (do not use paper-towels). I found an easier way from Food Network's, Katie Lee to draw out the moisture, so here is the link for that receipe if you want to check it out. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/katie-lee/cauliflower-pizza-crust-2651381

-Season Crust; I used an Italian Seasoning's blend, Parmesan Cheese, a little bit of Salt, and Pepper. You will also need an egg to bind the crust, I did not have eggs at the time, so this was another difficult step for me in making the crust. If you want to make this completely vegan, you can use almond or flax meal. Since, I did not have eggs, I used more cheese and a little bit of flour.

-After mixing the Cauliflower mixture using your hands, spread out crust into a flat disc, onto a baking sheet. Don't forget to spray sheet with cooking spray, or whatever non-stick spray you have in your pantry.

-Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Toppings:

-Just like any other homemade pizza, you can add whatever toppings your heart desires.

-I used; canned tomato sauce, mushrooms, marinated artichoke hearts, canned olives, salami, and an Italian Cheese Mix.

-Bake for another 10 minutes, or until toppings have cooked through.

Now, it's time to eat and pair with your favorite Wine!

While this was a labor of love, it ended up being absolutely delicious. I felt full after eating the pizza, but didn't feel that heaviness you sometimes get after eating a normal pizza. There was a definite learning curve to this recipe, but that goes with any new recipe you are going to try out. This Cauliflower Crust Pizza is a healthy and delicious meal, that I think would even be a fun meal to cook with your family or friends. So, I hope you enjoyed this new recipe, which I think will be a perfect meal to add to your Game of Thrones or Stranger Things viewing party.

Cheers!