Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Cauliflower Pizza Crust is all over Pinterest and has piqued my interest on multiple occasions. I actually made this over two years ago and found the image file when hunting through some old files. This crust turned out really well. I find making cauliflower rice and squeezing out the water to be bit labor intensive, but it actually isn't that bad. Make sure you immediately rinse the towel you use to squeeze the moisture out of the cauliflower. I set mine aside and forgot about it and it smelled awful the next morning! I topped my Cauliflower Pizza Crust with pizza sauce, mozzarella, turkey sausage, and Oven-Dried Tomatoes.  Delish!

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Ingredients:
2 pounds cauliflower florets, riced
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella
1 teaspoon dried oregano
pinch of salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F.

1. To make the cauliflower rice, pulse batches of raw cauliflower florets in a food processor, until a rice-like texture is achieved.

2. Fill a large pot with about an inch of water, and bring to a boil. Add the "rice" and cover; let cook for about about 4 - 5 minutes. Drain into a fine-mesh strainer.

3. This is the secret: Once you've strained the rice, transfer it to a clean, thin dishtowel. Wrap up the steamed rice in the dishtowel, twist it up, then squeeze all the excess moisture out.

4. In a large bowl, mix up your strained rice, beaten egg, mozzarella cheese, and spices. It will not be the consistency of typical pizza dough.

5. Press the dough out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. (It's important that it's lined with parchment paper, or it will stick.) Keep the dough about 1/3-inch thick, and make the edges a little higher for the crust. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes. The crust should be firm and golden brown when finished.

6. Top crust as desired. Return the pizza to the oven, and bake an additional 5 - 10 minutes, until the cheese is hot and bubbly. Slice and serve immediately.

Time-Saving Tip: make a double-batch of cauliflower pizza crusts and save one for later. After baking the crusts, wrap up the extra pizza crust in foil, and freeze it for later use.  Simply add toppings and bake at 400F, until the cheese is hot and bubbly.

Source: Adapted from Detoxinista