Cauliflower Crust Pizza is a gluten free alternative to the regular pizza crust. Cauliflower crust is nutritious and tastes great too.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

For Crust:

Cauliflower – 1 large (about 800-900gms without the leaves and stem)
Flaxmeal – 2 tablespoon
Lukewarm Water – 6 tablespoon
Cream Cheese – 4 tablespoon
Dried Herbs – 1/2 teaspoon
Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
Garlic, minced – 1 clove
Peppercorn, freshly ground – 1/2 teaspoon

For Topping:

Mozzarella Cheese, shredded- 2 cups
Pizza Sauce or Marinara – 1/2 cup
Red Bell Pepper – 1/2
Green Bell Pepper – 1/2
Pitted Olives, sliced – 1/2 cup
Jalapeno – 1
Tomato – 1
Onion – 1
Thyme – 2 to 3 stalks  or use Oregano
Salt – to taste

For Aid:

Parchment Paper
Baking tray / Pizza Pan
Thin Cotton Cloth
Medium sized bowl
Fine mesh strainer

Method:

Preparing Cauliflower Crust:

1. Cut cauliflower into bite sized florets and wash them thoroughly. Drain out all the water.
2. Take small quantity of cauliflower florets and shred them into coarse, rice-like size.
   
3. Bring about 7-8 cups of water to a rolling boil in a large pot.
4. Add shredded cauliflower and cook for 4-5 minutes.
5. Transfer cooked cauliflower into the strainer. Drain out all the water. The cauliflower rice is now ready.
6. Cover a medium sized bowl with a cotton cloth. Transfer the cauliflower rice to the cloth.
   

   Bring all the ends of the cloth together and squeeze cauliflower to remove all water content. Lot of water comes out on squeezing. Keep it aside for 5 minutes and squeeze again to remove more water.The cauliflower is now slightly mashed.

   
7. Mix flaxmeal with 6 tablespoons of lukewarm water. Keep it aside for 2-3 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 450F (~230C).
9. Line the baking tray/pizza pan with the parchment paper.
10. In a mixing bowl, take mashed cauliflower, cream cheese, flaxmeal mixture, dried herbs, salt, minced garlic and freshly ground peppercorns. Mix well until well combined.
11. Spread the mixture on the lined parchment paper into a 1cm thick base of desired shape.
    
12. Bake for nearly 20 minutes until the crust browns slightly and becomes firm. Do not turn off the oven.
13. Remove from the oven, let it stand on a wire rack for 10mins.
14. Carefully detach the crust from the parchment paper. Be very careful not to break the crust. This crust is not as stiff and firm as the regular flour crust. I transferred the crust on a flat surface, with the crust at the bottom and parchment paper on top. Carefully, pressing the parchment paper against the crust, I slowly pulled away the parchment paper from the crust. You could probably try the non-stick baking tin instead, I have not yet tried this.
15. Transfer the crust back to the baking tray lined with parchment paper. The pizza crust is now ready.