This recipe is adapted from: The Detoxinista’s Secret to Perfect Cauliflower Pizza Crust. Prior to locating the Detoxinista’s recipe, I found this recipe – which is purported to be *THE ORIGINAL* cauliflower crust pizza conceived of by Jamie who blogs at Your Lighter Side – and I’ve wanted to try this recipe since I found it but there is quite a bit of cheese… so I assumed the cheese was holding the crust together and would never work without it. It’s 1 cup cauliflower to 1 cup mozzarella, after all. (Remember that mozzarella is not legal on GAPS). However, there are several cheeses that are legal on GAPS and those are: Asiago, Blue, Brick, Brie, Camembert, Cheddar, Colby, Edam, Gouda, Havarti, Limburger, Monterey Jack, Muenster, Parmesan, Port du Salut, Roquefort, Romano, Stilton, and Swiss.
As you know if you have been reading my blog for sometime, cheese and I don’t get along (respiratory issues).
Then today while talking to Kerri, a lovely woman with seven children who has been doing GAPS for six months (she was my guest on my Blog Talk Radio show today) we got on the topic of pizza, and I mentioned the recipe above, since they do eat cheese, wondering if they had tried it. I promised to email the link once we were done with the show.
I went looking for the recipe, and I sent it to her, but I found there were other recipes as well, and I started looking at a few of them. One in particular really piqued my interest (The Secret to Perfect Cauliflower Pizza Crust) because it called for four cups of cauliflower, and only 1/3 cup soft goat cheese. A very minute amount in comparison to the earlier recipe, and I felt certain it could be omitted.
Since I had four heads of cauliflower (ORGANIC, for once, mind you!! Yeehaw!) I decided to give it a whirl. I don’t remember telling you here at the blog, but about a month ago my dear, darling husband bought me, oh… I think it was FIFTY, yes 50 heads of cauliflower because he found it on sale, and it was ORGANIC! I will have to ask him to confirm but I think they were only fifty cents a head? It was crazy cheap. So needless to say we have been eating plenty of cauliflower. We also blanched and froze 15 pounds of it. But on with my review… let me first say, I love pizza. I have MISSED pizza in these over two years being on GAPS. And this pizza is a very lovely substitute. I have tried almond flour crust pizza, but the texture was like biscuits, or pie crust, or brownies. Nothing wrong with those textures, when you’re eating those foods. Pizza crust… that’s something else altogether.
Now I also must tell you that this pizza crust is not EXACTLY like flour dough pizza crust. I don’t know if we can achieve that being grain free. But it has a very nice texture to it that is quite reminiscent of pizza dough, and close enough that I am very thrilled to have found it. And one more thing, I think the toppings are going to have a big effect on the taste. I chose to season ground beef to taste like Italian sausage, mixed some tomato sauce in, and topped my pizza with sauteed onions, mushrooms and bell peppers, and sliced black olives. And a couple of slices of jalapeno peppers. It was VERY satisfying and filling. I only ate two pieces and was completely happy with that.
Okay, so this recipe is super simple. Four ingredients: cauliflower, egg, oregano, salt. That’s it. This makes one crust. Depending on your appetite this could feed from one to four, also depending on the person size. 
You will find a printable recipe below.
Cauliflower Pizza Crust
- 4 cups riced cauliflower – this will be one good sized head of cauliflower
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 whole egg
- pinch of salt
Rinse the cauliflower, shake off any water and break into small flowerettes. Place in your food processor. Pulse until cauliflower is similar in size to pieces of rice.
Here is how it looks riced.
Here are three of the ingredients: riced cauliflower, oregano and a lovely brown egg.
Now here is one area where the original poster and I differ. She says to place the riced cauliflower in an inch of water. I know from past experience that this will completely water log the cauliflower, so I chose instead of elevate mine well above the water line. Bring to a boil and steam for 5-6 minutes.
Line an 11″ x 17″ pan with parchment paper. I coated the cookie sheet with butter first, laid down the first piece of parchment paper (curly side down), buttered the piece of parchment paper and then laid the final piece on top. And one more coating of butter for good measure. I have watched videos of cauliflower pizza crust and it was stuck badly to parchment paper but using the butter seemed to completely remove the problem of sticking.
When the cauliflower rice is done, place it in a strainer, as you can see not much water drained out initially. Even though my cauliflower was not waterlogged, I did still follow Megan’s advice to place the cauliflower rice into a thin dish towel and squeeze out the liquid.
Here is the cauliflower squeezed dry, and the liquid.
Mix the cauliflower, oregano, salt and beaten egg together well, and dump onto the parchment paper.
Form the mixture into a crust. Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes. I kept checking to make sure it wasn’t getting too brown and Megan said 40 minutes and that is exactly how long it took for mine to be done.
And here is the crust! It was easy to remove from the parchment paper and I moved it onto a cooling rack so that it wouldn’t get soggy.
Here is what the bottom looks like.
I seasoned the meat sauce to have an Italian sausage flavor.
- 2 tablespoons healthy fat (lard, bacon grease, butter)
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel, crushed
- 1/8 teaspoon ground thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1 cup tomato sauce
Melt fat in a skillet until hot, add in onions and saute 2 to 3 minutes. Add in ground beef and brown completely. Add in seasonings and tomato sauce when done.
I also sauteed green bell peppers, mushrooms and red onions, and sliced black olives and placed that on top of the meat sauce.
Enjoy!
- CRUST
- 4 cups riced cauliflower – this will be one good sized head of cauliflower
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 whole egg
- pinch of salt
- PIZZA MEAT SAUCE
- 2 tablespoons healthy fat (lard, bacon grease, butter)
- ½ onion, chopped
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon fennel, crushed
- ⅛ teaspoon ground thyme
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- Rinse the cauliflower, shake off any water and break into small flowerettes.
- Place in your food processor. Pulse until cauliflower is similar in size to pieces of rice.
- Place the riced cauliflower into a steamer in a pan but be sure to elevate the cauliflower well above the water line (this prevents the cauliflower from getting completely waterlogged).
- Bring to a boil and steam for 5-6 minutes.
- Line an 11″ x 17″ pan with parchment paper. I coated the cookie sheet with butter first, laid down the first piece of parchment paper (curly side down), buttered the piece of parchment paper and then laid the final piece on top. And one more coating of butter for good measure.
- When the cauliflower rice is done, place it in a strainer.
- Place the cauliflower rice into a thin dish towel and squeeze out any liquid.
- Mix the cauliflower, oregano, salt and beaten egg together well, and dump onto the parchment paper.
- Form the mixture into a crust.
- Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes.
- It was easy to remove from the parchment paper and I moved it onto a cooling rack so that it wouldn’t get soggy.
- I seasoned the meat sauce to have an Italian sausage flavor.
- Melt fat in a skillet until hot, add in onions and saute 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add in ground beef and brown completely. Add in seasonings and tomato sauce when done.
- I also sauteed green bell peppers, mushrooms and red onions, and sliced black olives and placed those on top of the meat sauce.
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Hi Starlene. These look great. When I make pizza, I don’t pre-cook the cauliflower and it works out just fine (I use the recipe with the cheese added tho, so not sure if that makes a difference). Pizza on menu this Thurs so might play with recipe a bit
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Starlene Reply:
April 9th, 2012 at 8:21 pm
Hi Shelley, cool! The recipe I used said squeezing out the liquid was “THE SECRET” to cauliflower pizza crust coming out a success so you will have to let me know if yours works out. The texture of this crust reminded me of the flat hash brown patties that can be got from McDonald’s (I used to love those! ack!). You’ll have to let me know how it turns out if you try this one exactly.
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Wow, what a steal on those caulis, Starlene!! I’m going to try this recipe. I have tried almond flour and it was good. Haven’t tried any other recipes… I can have cheese so I’m just going to do the original recipe. Thanks for posting your findings!
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Starlene Reply:
April 11th, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Hi Magda! How are you doing?! I tried the almond flour crust but I was disappointed because it was more like biscuits, did you find that the recipe you tried was similar? Please report back and let me know what you think of this recipe. I am so so so happy with it. I think I have found the special meal I’m going to make my son for his birthday party coming up soon.
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Doing great! Still on GAPS but experimenting with non GAPS foods to see how I do. I’m just entering my 2nd year on GAPS.
I tried this recipe and it was good (very simple). Then again, I was so happy to have pizza again I might be prejudiced! LOL
http://www.elanaspantry.com/gluten-free-pizza-crust-video/
I also did this – yummy and very filling:
http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2012/01/19/mexican-meatza-ole/
I have 3 more recipes to try: one is coconut flour based, another is coconut flour and flaxseed and the last one is almond flour with eggs and cheese. I’ll post on my blog if/when I experiment!
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Hi Starlene,
I came by to see how you were and found this recipe. We just made it and it was delicious. Your directions and pics were fabulous. Thank you so much- I can’t do dairy either or almond flour right now- so this was perfect. We had it with caramelized onions, artichoke hearts, pesto and meatballs and shiitake mushrooms and one with Kalamata olives, made extra and might eat it for breakfast. Thank you, thank you, Nancy
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Starlene Reply:
April 21st, 2012 at 8:36 pm
Hi Nancy! I was just thinking today I need to make an update post.
I am SOOOOO glad you got to try this and liked it! OH! Yours sounds amazing! I made these again for my son’s birthday this past week and we had two crusts leftover, a regular sized one and a smaller one. I made the smaller one for lunch and gave my son half. It was so funny he ate one of his slices and then leaned back in his chair and said, “Wow. Good pizza.” It has been such a long time since we could have pizza and I’m just so tickled to be able to have it again. I want to try your first version now though. 
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Brilliant! I’m excited to find this recipe, Starlene. Having your take and photos on it helps.
I would have thought you’d need to brush it with olive oil to get it to brown nicely.
Does it crumble super easily like most GAPS-breadish experiments I’ve tried to make? I can’t eat almonds yet, so my flour options are limited.
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Starlene Reply:
April 24th, 2012 at 10:09 am
Hi Liz, nope, no crumbling!
It stays together very nicely. I hope you get to try it soon, I think you will be very happy with the outcome. 
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Thank you for the recipe – this is definitely the best pizza crust alternative! Yum! My only change…Instead of steaming and straining the cauliflower, I put the “riced” cauliflower into my dehydrator (I think 2-4 hours on about 110 degrees) and then proceed with adding the egg and oregano. I have also used the convection function on my oven so that it cooks in about half the time.
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Starlene Reply:
May 12th, 2012 at 9:52 am
EW, thanks for sharing your modification. I am going to have to try dehydrating, it sounds like it would work out great. Less stress on the hands with all that wringing!
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Wow does this look good, I am so happy I found a dairy free version about this delicious crust, thanks for sharing!
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Hi There…this is what’s for dinner at my house tonight! I have the hardest part out of the way and in the oven! Thanks for a great recipe! I had made it before using cheese in the crust, but I am off dairy now and didn’t know it could be made this way! I can’t wait to try it! I made your meat-sauce too! Smells so good! Thanks again~!
~lisa
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Starlene Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 9:15 pm
Hi Lisa! OH boy! I have been craving this pizza for the past few days and I have cauliflower on hand, too. I hope it was a hit for your family! ~Starlene
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I’m so glad you like my recipe and were able to adapt it. Thanks so much for the shout out!
Jamie
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OH HECK YES! I’ve been looking for somethign like this without dairy! THANKS for the great instructional pictures.
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Starlene Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Hi Julie! You’re welcome! I hope you got a chance to try the pizza. It was such a welcome treat for my son and I to be able to have pizza after all these years without.
Best, Starlene
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Excited to try this recipe. My kids are allergic to dairy and I was searching for a cauliflower crust with no cheese.
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