Tag Archives: cauliflower

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I’ve had a few readers ask me about Cauliflower Pizza Crust. To be honest, it took me a while to look into this because I was kind of like, meh. Cauliflower is everywhere. Rice, buffalo wings, and now pizza crust. Seriously. How much more can we torture one little plant? We don’t do this to broccoli, do we? What exactly was cauliflower’s crime? Being bland? Yup. That’ll teach ’em, now douse it with hot sauce and say it’s the same as wings.

With paleo this and whole 30 that, people are trying to replicate dishes they like, but can’t have because of dietary restrictions. I totally get it. My husband has some health issues and truly needs to find alternatives to high carb, low nutrient dishes that he loves. But cauliflower crust? I put it up there with chocolate pudding made with avocados. We are jumping the shark here people. Nonetheless, I decided to look into it. I’m not a huge pizza fan to begin with, but everyone else is, so what could it hurt to give it a go?

So, I searched the internet high and low and came across a wide variety of recipes. The general “how” of the recipe is that you pulverize the cauliflower, boil the pulverized bits and squeeze every last drop of scalding water out of the cauliflower by hand (natch!), combine the bits with cheese, egg, and spices and form into a crust and bake. Dry cauliflower “flour” is the goal here, with egg as binder and the cheese as a bit of substance. I suppose the spices are to try to trick you into liking it.

So I made it. There is something so very first world about taking a lovely head of cauliflower and pulverizing it into useless mush to make a quintessentially unhealthy fast food substitute.

This kind of reminds me of wet grits. Anyway, you boil these lovely bits for a few minutes.

I’m not the only one, grits, amirite? Ignore the obviously fogged picture. Sorry!!

So, then you take about 7 minutes to aggressively squeeze the life out of the ~~grits~~ cauliflower. Damn the burned hands and hot water. Squeeze like your life depends on it, because dinner certainly does!!

At the end of the squeezing, I got this sad little pile of cauliflower bits. I added an egg, cheese and spices and was able to mold a pizza-like shape out of it.

I then baked it naked for a bit, topped it and re-baked it. The plusses, no one in a million years believed there was no flour in the recipe. Not my husband, nor the kids who watched me make it. I could cut the pieces and eat them by hand, remarkable considering there’s no flour in this recipe. The inside of the crust was a bit “droppy”, but the outside was fine. I think a smaller pie might have made the whole crust more crispy, as would placing it on a pre-heated pizza stone for the baking portion of the recipe.

The kids loved it! My daughter considered it a wild success. This is huge, as her menu is rather limited. My son eats anything, so while I value his opinion, hers is much harder to win over. My husband said it was really good for what it was. Keep back, ladies, he’s all mine.

The crust was really spot on, nicely spiced, fairly substantial. No clue whatsoever you were eating cauliflower and goat cheese. Truly. Was it pizza? It is a wonderful substitute if you are dying for pizza, but really want to stick to a low carb or gluten free option. You will, however, fool no one into thinking there’s isn’t something amiss with the crust.

The minuses? Ugh, the work. The squeezing and the scalded hands.

My recipe was inspired by The Detoxinista’s version of the crust.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Serves about 4

4 cups raw cauliflower rice (about 2 heads of cauliflower, pulverized)
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup soft goat cheese (chevre)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon powdered onion
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Boil the raw cauliflower rice in salted water for 4-5 minutes. Drain. Place the boiled cauliflower in a clean dish towel and twist and squeeze all the water out of the “rice”. Squeeze until there is really no more water left. It will take a lot of time. If you decide to skimp on this part, you will be eating the pizza with a fork and knife. The horror!!

Place the “rice” in a medium mixing bowl and combine well with egg, cheese and spices. On parchment paper, or silicone sheet, form the “dough” into your desired pizza-like shape. I would not make it any thinner than 1/3rd to 1/2 an inch thick. The thinner the crust, the more likely it will be “firm”. However, make it too thin, and you’ll get holes in the crust. 1/3rd of an inch would be as thin as I would go. Bake the crust for 30-35 minutes, until the crust starts to brown and is fairly firm.

At this point, top the crust with your favorite pizza sauce and toppings. Return to the oven and remove when the cheese is bubbling.

Cauliflower “Mac and Cheese”

1 Reply

I miss pasta. I really, really, really do. Really, really good mac and cheese that is homemade is so luscious, rich, thick and, well, sinful.

Does this recipe replicate it? Eh. It’s rich and it’s creamy. But is cauliflower ever going to be confused with quality pasta? No. On the other hand, there’s no bloat from carb overloading and no out of control blood sugar responses. All things considered, this is an amazing vegetable side dish!! You’ve got a ton of cauliflower in a form that people will eat. Two pounds of frozen cauliflower barely escapes a dinner with four diners. Crazy for cauliflower. Honestly, we love this dish. I make this all the time. It’s quick, the ingredients are available year ’round, and even the kids eat it!

Also, it uses up some random items that I always have laying around: shredded cheese and sour cream. Taco night never seems to use all these items up.

Some caveats about this recipe. I make real mac and cheese and feel that this recipe should be no different. Take your low fat cheese, your Greek yogurt, your low fat yogurt, chicken stock and whatever other “lighteners” you have and don’t put them in here. You have already subbed out the pasta. Live a little and splurge. Seriously.

Also, keep in mind that the sauce is covering two pounds of cauliflower. Cauliflower is very, very wet. Especially when baked. It’s the opposite of pasta, instead of absorbing sauce, the cauliflower will be adding water to the sauce. So, this sauce will be very thick and rather over spiced. If you were to try a bit of the sauce, you would immediately think: too much salt, the woman is crazy. Oh, wait, the cayenne just hit!! Now it’s too spicy. And too thick. Don’t think those things until you’ve baked the whole concoction. If you cut back on the spices, your dish will be incredibly bland. If you waiver on the sauce and think it needs to be a touch thinner, it will won’t be thick and creamy at finish. It’s a delicate balance that will only reveal its perfection at the very end.

Cauliflower “Mac” and Cheese
Serves 6

2 pounds frozen cauliflower florets
1/3 cup water
6 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 mustard powder
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack and Cheddar Cheese, plus additional for topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 2 to 2 1/2 quart baking dish and set aside.

Place the cauliflower and water in a saucepan and cook the cauliflower until it’s not frozen anymore. You don’t want the cauliflower to be too soft because it is being cooked again in the oven. Thoroughly drain the water out of the pan.

In a small sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and stir for about 1-2 minutes. Add the milk and stir until really thick. Add the salt, cayenne, and mustard powder. Stir until well incorporated, and remove from heat. Add the sour cream and stir well. Add the cheese and stir until melted through.

I suppose at this point, I should tell you to pour the sauce over the cauliflower and stir well. It’s bad enough to clean the sauce out of the small pan, why make more work and have to clean it out of the cauliflower pan too? So, I put the cauliflower in the greased baking dish and pour the sauce over the cauliflower there. I then stir the mixture together until well blended and add cheese for the topping.

Cook until bubbling and the cheese is melted and just starting to brown.

Cheesy Cauliflower Patties

4 Replies

The low carb craze has made superstars out of some vegetables that at best were used to torture children in a previous life. Kale. Seriously. Kale. The only way kale is good is when it is cooked for a very long time in a ham hock gravy or in Kale and Andouille Soup. There, I said it. Kale becomes tolerable when cooked within an inch of its life and paired with a smoked pork product.

The next vegetable up for abuse is the poor man’s broccoli, cauliflower. Cauliflower is tolerable when you add a signficant amount of dairy products to the mix. I’ve made cauliflower puree, which can double as a quasi mashed potato substitute. Cheesy cauliflower patties are now starting to trend, which would be the logical progression. When I was a kid, my mom would make potato pancakes out of left over mashed potatoes. After fending off dinosaur attacks, of course. So, why not try to make fried patties out of cauliflower? Well, cauliflower has no starch. It also contains a lot of water. You need a lot of help to make these suckers stick together. This “help” likely defeats the purpose of choosing cauliflower, because it either adds carbs or gluten. On the plus side, it’s probably far more healthy than what you were going to eat, even with the add-ins.

I saw purple cauliflower in the store and thought that maybe such a cool color would inspire the kids to give the dish a try. My daughter did try it and didn’t really like it. Son and husband really liked it, as long as I didn’t try to say it was something that it wasn’t. In other words, these were very good cheesy cauliflower patties.

As you can see above, I subbed the patties out for English muffins in Eggs Benedict. These were really good. A savory, cheesy bottom that you didn’t have to fight with, complimented the poached egg and Canadian bacon really well. As a bonus, no need for asparagus, there was already plenty of veg on the plate!

The other time I used it, it was a vegetable for dinner.

The patty served as a very nice compliment for my steak dish! I liked it and would make it again. Definitely a different take and something to shake up the veggie routine in our house. As a bonus, very easy to make!

Cheesy Cauliflower Patties
Makes about 6-8 Patties

6 cups roasted cauliflower florets (approximately)
1/2 cup easily meltable cheese (I used Monterrey Jack)
1/4 cup panko or bread crumbs
1 egg
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 cup butter or coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

Place all ingredients, except the butter, into food processor. Pulse until the cauliflower is coarsely ground. Remove mixture from processor and form into patties. The smaller and thinner the patties, the more likely they are to maintain their shape.

In a heavy bottomed skillet, over medium heat, melt the butter. When the butter just starts to foam, add the patties, careful not to crowd. When the patties are browned, carefully flip and cook until the other side is browned as well. About 3 minutes each side. Serve as desired.

Note: I roasted the florets at 375 degrees fahrenheit in olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper for about 25 minutes, turning once.

Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes

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Being a fairly low carb person, there are certain foods I desperately miss. Would I love a plate of French Fries? Yup. Pizza? You bet. Stuffing? Yes, a million times. Crackers with my cheese? Of course! Bun with my hamburger? Oy.

Mashed Potatoes? Not really. I’m not a potato fan, unless they are completely fried crisp. Then, ok! I’m mostly in it for the crispy outside shell. Steak fries? Pass. My husband, on the other hand is part Irish and LOVES potatoes. He’s having to get extremely serious about being low carb because his lack of seriousness has had some health consequences. So, he reluctantly joins the low carb bandwagon.

I had heard about fake mashed potatoes. But honestly, the thought of cauliflower really didn’t appeal to me. Sure, it’s beautiful when raw. That’s about where my affinity ends. I’ve used it as a rice substitute, but it’s pretty swamped with strong flavors and more there for filler. In this recipe, cauliflower is the star. The. Star.

I tried a ton of recipes and some lacked the heft or texture of mashed potatoes. Some were just runny. Others worked better, but really didn’t take advantage of the blank canvas. I tried to up the flavor here and add really good texture as well.

Cauliflower is wet. Very, very wet. And in this recipe we steam it, adding more water to the process. So, without something more, you’ll have a very thin mixture with just pureed cauliflower. I used a combination of cream cheese and butter to really give the dish more substance. I also could have roasted garlic and added it to the puree, but I liked the convenience of granulated garlic. It added flavor without any additional moisture.

This recipe comes extremely close to garlic mashed potatoes. My kids ate it up until I told them it wasn’t mashed potatoes, then it became a pariah on the plate. But really, it stands on its own as a great dish. No need to fool anyone, just say it’s pureed cauliflower. Unless they are minors. Then it’s mashed potatoes. As an extra bonus, it’s mashed potatoes that are quicker and easier to make then real mashed potatoes!

Your mileage my vary on this dish. I used 1 really large head of cauliflower.

Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4-6, as a side dish
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

1 large head of cauliflower, heavy stalks removed, cut into florets
3 tablespoons of cream cheese, divided
3 tablespoons of butter, divided (I used European Style, which has more fat content)
3/4 teaspoon granulated garlic, divided
Salt and Pepper

Steam cauliflower until soft. I used a steamer insert and placed it over boiling water and it took about 13 minutes.

Place one third of the cauliflower into a food processor (if yours can take more, great, mine couldn’t). Add 1 tablespoon cream cheese, 1 tablespoon butter, and 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic to the food processor. Puree until the consistency desired and there are no remaining chunks of cauliflower. Place in a serving bowl and cover. Repeat process until the cauliflower is all pureed. Salt and Pepper to taste and serve.

Cuban Black Beans and “Rice”

2 Replies

The three things I miss the most on a low carb diet are bread, pasta and rice. And sugar. And ice cream. Ok, I miss a lot. But when serving the Ropa Vieja, I knew I had to come up with a “rice” like dish. Ropa Vieja with a side of asparagus just, well, sounded so unappealing. So, I researched “rice” dishes.

Cauliflower seems the go to vegetable for starch substitutes. And why not? It’s white, low glycemic, low carb and high fiber. It’s fairly neutral tasting, has some texture, and takes well to other flavors. But when I saw recipes with directions that began with “grate the cauliflower”, I’m out.

Just no.

I’ll grate nutmeg and that’s about it. I have better things to do with my time than to grate a head of cauliflower. But the interesting part to me was that these recipes steamed the bits of cauliflower. Why is that interesting? Well, there were lots of tips included in these recipes to dry the cauliflower bits out. So, the steaming made the vegetable to wet. Go figure.

So, I roasted it. Why? Because if moisture is a problem, that’s a problem oven heat can fix. Two, there’s something very appealing about the slightly charred, nutty, roasted taste of vegetables. Three. You stick it in the oven, jostle the pan a bit during the cooking time, and the veggies are cooked. Just chop finely and you have “rice”. I’m all about simple and easy cooking methods.

My daughter came home from school one day with a recipe for pinto beans. She copied it down from her workbook over the course of a few days to “sneak” it home because she thought it sounded good. How cute is that?!? I told her I was making this dish and she ran and brought me her purloined recipe. So, I used parts of that recipe to make the dish. She was so thrilled she actually ate it! As an extra bonus, I told my husband I was making a black bean and rice dish and asked if he would sample it. He grabbed the offered spoon, ate it and said it was great! I replied, “Really? You were tricked by the cauliflower?” His eyes flew open and he went to the dish and shrugged and said, “I guess so!”

Put this dish in the rotation!!

So, here you go. A lower carb version of Cuban Black Beans and Rice.

Cuban Black Beans and Rice
Serves 4-5

“Rice”
1 head of cauliflower
1/4 olive oil (or any neutral oil)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of pepper

Black Beans

1/4 cup of olive oil
1 green pepper, diced
1/2 jalapeño pepper, minced
1 medium onion, small dice
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 15 ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil (as needed)
Salt and Pepper

“Rice”

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

Separate the florets from the stalk of the cauliflower. Place florets on a baking sheet and coat with oil, salt and pepper. Place sheet in oven. During roasting, flip florets occasionally to prevent over browning. Roast until florets are tender and slightly browned, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool slightly and when you can handle them, chop finely until the pieces are about the size of rice. Set aside.

Black beans

In a saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. When heated, add the peppers and onion. When the onion is translucent, add the garlic. As the garlic softens, add the cumin and the paprika, stir well. Add the black beans and the “rice”. Mix thoroughly. Taste the mixture, if the mixture is too dry, add the olive oil until the texture is appropriate. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

	Zane Dyer on Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
	dawn of food on Breakfast Sausage
	Susan on Breakfast Sausage
	Dorothy's New Vintag… on Quiche
	Buttermilk Pie \| daw… on Pie or Pastry Crust

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