Can you believe that we haven't made paleo pizza on the site yet?! Gotta start from the ground-up right? I'll tell you: I have tried a bunch of paleo pizza crusts, and they've all sucked. All of them. Texture. Flavor. Water content. Structural defects. Inedible in the form of leftovers. There's always something off about them. Most of them can't be held in your hand like a normal pizza slice without the physical integrity being catastrophically compromised before it makes it into your waiting mouth. Look: this one can be held in your hand!
(Don't worry, the recipe for this incredible fresh pizza is here!)
There was one primal cauliflower pizza crust made with cheese that I loved by Eating Bird Food (though their website was down at the time of writing this – I hope it's still there. If you eat cheese then you've gotta try their crust!). But I wanted to make a good dairy-free crust for those who can't eat dairy.
So after trying so many of the recipes out there, I got a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't. I think that THE BEST Paleo Pizza Crust addresses all of the important details listed above, which brings us to here and now.
Here and now. That's all any of us have, really. Which is a convenient segue for me to mention the pattern in the photos of my hands. I was at the wedding of one of my oldest friends last weekend. His husband is Indian and had a henna (or mendhi) party the night before. Typically this is just the women that take part in this (if I understand correctly), but this was my second time. The first was for my sister's wedding, and that time was because I was her maid of honor (I feel “man of honor” overshadows the groom's role, am I right?). Every time I caught a glimpse of it I thought a hand tattoo would be cool, but for now, I'm still a blank canvas.
I think your here-and-now should be filled with something delicious atop THE BEST Paleo Pizza Crust. I've got a terrific pizza recipe coming in the next few days – but that doesn't help your here-and-now. Need some ideas? Use the fillings from any one of my omelettes. I think I actually based this one on a pizza I made a few years ago.
THE BEST Paleo Cauliflower Pizza Crust
- Yield: 2-3 servings (12 slices) 1x
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup ground chia seeds
- 3/4 cup water
- 3 cups processed cauliflower (~1/2 a large head)
- 1/4 large onion (finely diced)
- 1 Tbsp ghee
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp dried basil
- 3/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 3/4 cup almond flour
Instructions
- Mix ground chia and water together well and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- In a large frying pan saute onions in ghee over medium heat. Once translucent add cauliflower and cook until soft and light brown (like me! haha).
- Allow to cool enough to handle, pour cauliflower and onion into a dish towel, and twist to squeeze excess fluid out (see photo above).
- Transfer cauliflower to a mixing bowl, add remaining dry ingredients and mix well, then add the chia and mix by hand. This will actually be dough-like in consistency.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, then flatten out the dough into your desired shape (I prefer square, myself). Press it out until it's about 1/4″, and form a lip around the edges.
- Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes until browned and crispy. The edges should be crunchy. It's gonna smell delicious, so be prepared for neighbors knocking on your door….
Notes
This should be large enough to feed 3 people, but if you think about people's pizza-eating habits with regard to quantity, 2 might be more realistic (especially with how good the pizza pictured at the top of the page was!)
- Category: Pizza
Would this amount of dough cover a pizza pan if that is the shape you want? Your henna is lasting quite well! I love your description as to the desired colour of the cooked vegetables!
Short answer: yes, 1 pizza pan wOrth of dough.
Long answer: I don’t have a pizza pan so I had to do some math to answer this question for you Momma.
I made a rectangular pizza on a cookie sheet which took up over half of the cookie sheet (somewhere around 100 square inches but it was thick enough to spread a little more), and a 12′ pizza is 113 square inches. So a 10′ pie would have a thicker crust than a 12′.
*note: the thicker the crust, the more baking time you’ll need to get desired crispiness/texture. And vice versa for thinner crusts.
Thanks, Raj. Love to see that you still use all those math skills!
Wow looks fantastic, and I will now be able to use up that half cauliflower head in my fridge now, can’t wait to try this out tonight! Thanks for the awesome recipes. 🙂
Oh yeah what does processed cauliflower mean? Just chopped up fine in a food processor a day/ or cooked? Thanks!
Processed= food processor or I just used a cheese grater (more mess, but I’ve got a huge metal bowl that catches most of the cauliflower shrapnel).
Be sure to let me know how it goes tonight (and what you top it with!)
This looks amazing, and I love that it doesn’t have dairy or eggs, as most cauli crusts have one or the other. When it’s not so ridiculously hot and I can turn on the oven, I must try this.
Sondi,
I bet you’ve got a good one on you site – forgot to look on yours while researching ideas.
Enjoy!
I could not wait for the response, I figured it out, “riced” the cauliflower in my processor and you were right O M G!!!!!! I topped mine with pesto, sundried tomatoes, prosciutto and arugula! HEAVEN!!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!! 🙂
Hey! That sounds fantastic!
Gimme a about a week and I’ll share the pizza that I made with this
I just made this. The cauliflower took a lot longer to brown then I was expecting but it was well worth the time it took. I had never made a cauliflower crust before and after searching for recipes, I’m so glad I went with this one. The texture, taste, and consistency were so perfect. I’m only bummed that I couldn’t try leftover pizza because it was so good my husband and I gobbled it all up at once! My husband was a skeptic before, but has admitted defeat and was even impressed by how similar it was to actual pizza crust. I will definitely be making this again. Thanks so much!!
Sharon,
That’s the best review this week! Take that husband! Glad you both liked this one (please share on your social media).
And I’d definitely recommend trying the Salmon Lox Pizza recipe 😉
great recipe but I couldn’t bring myself to accept squeezing AFTER frying in that delicious butter-onion so I steamed it instead, then squeezed and then fried! Who ever heard of throwing away good butter?
Mary,
You’re a smart woman!
no Raj, just hungry! Great site, thanks.
I can’t eat cauliflower do you think broccoli could work? FYI, loved your Frappacino!
Ann,
That frapp is yummy, eh?
Broccoli. Well… it would change the flavor and I don’t know about texturally. Maybe. Carrots maybe for texture, but then it would be sweeter… I was wondering about something like turnips? I don’t know Ann. It would probably my take some experimenting. But the binding of the chia seeds could result in interesting outcomes with any of these. Please let us know what you come up with, and good luck!
Beautiful henna! I love your attitude and sense of humor – great recipes, too!
Hey, thanks Wanda! I really appreciate hearing that! You’re clearly good people. E-hugs to you!
This really is the best cauliflower crust recipe!! It Holds together even better than regular crust and has a great, hearty texture and flavor. I loaded mine with tomato sauce, ShrOoms, thIck cut bacon, and fresh basil. Will definitely be making again!
★★★★★
Yesssss! Mackenzie, that sounds like a wonderful topping. Now tell me your feelings on pineapple on pizza…
Always shocks me how dividing a topic that is.