Veggie Pizza with Cauliflower Crust

5 Reviews
ADD YOUR REVIEW
Photo: Jennifer Causey; Styling: Lindsey Lower
Hands-on Time
25 Mins
Total Time
1 Hour
Yield
Serves 2 (serving size: 1 pizza)
By Rebecca Longshore
August 2015
RECIPE BY Cooking Light

For a flavorful veggie pizza, use homemade cauliflower crust and top with mushroom mixture, tomatoes, spinach, basil and mozzarella. 

Ingredients

  • 1 cauliflower head, roughly chopped (about 3 pounds)
  • Cooking spray
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
  • 1/2 cup presliced cremini mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup sliced red bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil, divided
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
  • 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2.5 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (about 2/3 cup), divided
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 0.5 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced seeded tomatoes
  • 2/3 cup fresh baby spinach

Nutritional Information

  • Calories 350
  • Fat 15.8g
  • Satfat 6g
  • Monofat 5.7g
  • Polyfat 1g
  • Protein 26g
  • Carbohydrate 32g
  • Fiber 11g
  • Cholesterol 25mg
  • Iron 3mg
  • Sodium 658mg
  • Calcium 488mg

How to Make It

Step 1

Preheat oven to 375°.

Step 2

Place half of cauliflower in a food processor; pulse 10 to 15 times or until finely chopped (like rice). Transfer cauliflower to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat procedure with remaining cauliflower. Coat cauliflower with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes, stirring once. Cool.

Step 3

Increase oven temp to 450°.

Step 4

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add mushrooms and bell pepper; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Set aside.

Step 5

Place cauliflower in a clean kitchen towel. Squeeze until very dry. Combine cauliflower, remaining 1 teaspoon oil, 1/4 cup basil, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, salt, garlic, 2 ounces mozzarella cheese, egg whites, and Parmesan cheese in a bowl. Press cauliflower mixture into 2 (8-inch) circles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Coat crusts with cooking spray.

Step 6

Bake crusts at 450° for 22 minutes or until browned. Remove pan from oven; top crusts evenly with mushroom mixture, tomatoes, spinach, remaining 1/4 cup basil, remaining 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, and remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake an additional 7 minutes or until cheese melts.

You May Like

Advertisement

Build-a-Meal

Find recipes with ingredients that you have on hand.

+ +

Read More

Advertisement

Ratings & Reviews

Labor-Intensive but Tasty

astrosnider
July 22, 2015
I would not recommend making this on a hot summer day when you don't feel like turning on the oven or on a day when you're pressed for time. There are quite a few steps involved, including chopping the cauliflower, pulsing the cauliflower in the food processor, baking the cauliflower, squeezing moisture out of the cauliflower, mixing it with egg whites, cheese, etc., forming it into rounds, and, finally, baking it once again with all the toppings on it. That said, my husband and I thought the crust was delicious and probably will make it again. I suppose the labor involved is comparable to making your own yeast dough crusts.We topped ours with thin slices of prosciutto, sautéed onions and zucchini rounds and fresh herbs from the garden as well as the tomatoes, mushrooms and red peppers recommended in the recipe. The crusts seemed to cook much faster than stated in the recipe. They were quite brown on the bottom after about 15 minutes of cooking, so I put the oven on broil after I put the toppings on. The pizzas were done in less than 5 minutes. You do need to watch these carefully to make sure they don't burn.

Delicious but a bit labor intensive

nwilker
July 29, 2015
I had no idea what to expect from this. It turned out to be delicious. My 7 year old loved it but my husband who's not a fan of cauliflower said it tasted like cauliflower. I think the crust tasted like a park crisp yum! Baking three times was labor intensive but I would make this again. The basil in the crust was wonderful.

Love this recipe! Very versatile!!

Jot
July 29, 2015
Love this recipe!! We make cauliflower rice and have attempted cauliflower tortillas multiple times, so the whole messing with cauliflower - cutting, food processor, microwave/oven, squeezing out the liquid etc is old hat! If you aren't familiar it can seem tedious!I would definitely attempt to get it thinner next time and love having the garlic and cheese in the base. And having 2 crusts so hubby and i could do our own pizzas!Definitely a keeper!

Tasty but lengthy

vwsmcosker
October 25, 2017
1st try at cauliflower crust pizza, with fakin bacon and non dairy cheese. It didn't stay together like crust cause I left egg yokes in by mistake. It was VERY tasty but took too long to make. Sally's Apizza has nothing to worry about. I would make again on weekend though. BTW I added red sauce.

Lots of work and dirty dishes for this recipe

ChefGloria1030
July 24, 2015
This recipe took lots of dishes to make and had many steps.  It wasn't good enough to justify all the work - tasty but just okay given the time and number of dirty dishes it required. 

Not pizza, but good.

Tracey
July 26, 2015
This dish was very good and filling.  However, it would never satisfy a pizza craving.  The work isn't much more than if you made your own pizza dough, but more than I would want to do on a weeknight after work.  I followed the recipe exactly and will probably make it again.

Not Bad At All

ghamp
February 19, 2016
This did take a little bit of effort to make but if you like cooking, it's fun and a very creative dish.  The pizza crust turned out very brown and pretty like the reviewers who posted pictures - it actually kind of had the texture of actual pizza dough but not as crispy.  I will probably make again but will experiment with the toppings.  The tomatoes gave it a really fresh and saucy taste.  Was full after eating about 3/4 and loved how it did not sit like a rock in my stomach.  Great way to get lots of veggies in a day.

Veggie Fix

LauraMcGhghy
December 05, 2016
Definitely making it again for a veggie fix.  Piled on spinach and 1 tomato per pizza.  Basil is a must for flavor.