Primal Cauliflower Pizza Recipe
This recipe is a little bit different in that it doesn’t fall into my normal categorization or Paleo or Zone, but Primal. There’s a lot of writing on the Primal Diet out there on the interwebs, but it’s very similar to the Paleo Diet, with the inclusion of some dairy back in.
And guess what? Mozzarella is one of those dairy products. That opens up some interesting cooking techniques, one of which is a grainless pizza dough. I made a few batches of these, testing each one on Jen.
Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I got the recipe from, but I’ll provide my adapted version for you to enjoy.
Ingredients for Crust:
- 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese
- 1 cup Cooked Cauliflower
- 1/4 cup Coconut Flour
- 1 Cage Free Egg
- 1 tsp Garlic Salt, Kosher Salt, or Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Oregano
- 1 tsp Basil
- 1/2 tsp Fennel
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
Ingredients for Base Toppings:
- 1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese
- 1/2 cup Diced or Chopped Tomatoes
Directions for Crust:
- Turn on the oven and set to 350°F.
- Bring 5-6 cups of water and 1/2 tsp of salt to a boil over high heat.
- Add 2 cups of cauliflower to boiling water, cover, and let cook for 10-15 minutes, until cauliflower becomes slightly translucent and soft.
- Remove cauliflower from water and drain well. Move the cauliflower to a large mixing bowl, and proceed to mash cauliflower to smithereens with whatever you’d like. Potato masher, beer bottle, Playstation 3, or in my case, a large fork will do. The cauliflower doesn’t have to be mashed smooth like potatoes, but you want it to be mashed to where it’s slightly larger than the size of rice. Set aside.
- Add in the egg, coconut flour, and mozzarella cheese. Mix well. I found mixing it with my hands was easiest. Add in fresh basil, garlic salt, oregano, black pepper, and continue to mix.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and flatten the dough on the sheet to about a 1/2″ to 3/4″ crust. If you don’t have parchment paper, well, better stop here, because this recipe just won’t work. Just kidding. You can lightly spray or coat the pan with some olive oil, but parchment paper makes it a lot easier to transfer off the pan later on.
- Place your flattened crust into the oven, and let it cook for about 17-20 minutes. The crust should start to have some brown, crispy spots, but not completely cook all the way through. Remove the baking pan and place it on an oven-safe surface.
Directions for Toppings:
- While waiting for your crust to cook, you can prep your toppings for your pizza. Most pizza sauces are loaded with sugar, so I prefer taking crushed tomatoes and mixing in about a tablespoon of coconut flour to give it some thickness. I also add more oregano and chopped basil to the tomato sauce for that Italian kick (well, after watching the World Cup games this week, I’m not sure the Italians can kick…I kid, I kid!)
- Top your crust with your tomato sauce, and add a layer of mozzarella.
- Add any additional toppings you normally like on your pizza. A couple cloves of fresh chopped garlic, mushrooms, onions, sausage, go nuts! Just remember if you are adding meat to your pizza to use pre-cooked meat.
- Place your pizza back into the oven for 5 minutes.
- Remove pizza and slice.
Makes 1 10″ pizza.
While this doesn’t wholly fit into being Paleo, I’d say the breakout is about 4 blocks of protein, 3 blocks of carbs, and 8 blocks of fat.
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I’m ready for more of these. Do you think they would freeze well?