Ok so besides the strong urge for bread..(see ‘oh hello, sourdough’) I’m trying to stick to a low carb diet. It’s something like the paleo diet, only fewer fruits and nuts. When cooking on a diet you have to get creative. I’ve learned how to use so many imitation flours to try to make cookies, cupcakes, etc. All of which were crushing failures. They turned out sandy and almost biscuit-like, only not the delicious buttermilk steamy variety you might be thinking of, more like sandy clumps of no-flavor. It’s a process in learning how different things work. I did successfully make a keto-cheesecake, which was pretty delightful. ANYWAY!

I’ve had a craving for pizza that starts deep down in the depths of my soul…or maybe stomach. I recently got two heads of cauliflower as a perk of working with produce distribution , and not being able to sell the “less than perfect” specimens. When searching for an interesting recipe to make cauliflower cous cous (the food so nice they named it twice?) the Google gods smiled upon me and showed “Cauliflower pizza”. I looked at the recipe and thought, “YUP, That’s happening.” I used the recipe from ‘eat drink smile’ found here

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

1 c cooked cauliflower (riced in my new best friend, the food processor)

1 c mozzarella cheese

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp crushed or minced garlic

1 egg

I also added some Crystal hot sauce and some fresh cracked pepper, but I bet you could add red pepper flakes if you wanted to.

First, cut up the cauliflower, leave the stems we just want the 2″ of goodness that surrounds the stems. Then put them through the grater in your food processor. Oh my goodness, thank you Aunt Ann for this amazing wedding gift. It made my life a million times easier.Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

After you get it to a rice texture, throw it all in a bowl and cook it in the microwave for 7 minutes-ish.. (side note: one head of cauliflower makes a metric crap-ton of riced cauliflower, so prepare for more dough or other uses)

Then add all of the ingredients to the bowl, and mix until it starts forming a somewhat dough. Then you spray down a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Don’t skimp on the spray, it will determine whether you get slices of pizza or pizza smush. Then turn out the dough onto the sheet and press it into a circle…or square, if you’re from Chicago. What the heck, go crazy and shape it into a rhombus, I don’t care. Just flatten it into a polygon so it resembles a crust.

Sweet. Now throw it in the oven (actually, place it gently) and let it bake and smell up your house with pizza deliciousness for 15 min. Mainly until the center is set and the edges have browned. While this is baking I made my pizza sauce. I always make my own pizza sauce basically because I haven’t had a store-bought one that I like as much. And as I mentioned, I’m a tweaker.

Here are the ingredients to mine: Tomato Paste, Olive Oil, Red Wine Vinegar, Water, and my secret blend of herbs and spices, a dash or two of hot sauce as well. Mix it up until you get a smooth velvety consistency. Then once the crust has finished pre-baking, take it out of the oven and slather this stuff on there.

Then top with more cheese, I used a mix of shredded Parmesan and mozzarella. I’m not italian so I won’t add extra syllables like Giada. One thing, make sure you only use toppings that are pre-cooked or don’t take much cooking. I used chopped deli ham. The combinations are endless; you could make a white pizza, use pesto instead of tomato sauce, etc. go crazy. Bake for about 5 more min or until the cheese melts. Let the pizza cool slightly for 10 minutes. The crust will set up and you can even pick up the slices.

And enjoy! With the rest of the cooked cauliflower I made faux-potatoes for tomorrow night.

Sourdough update: The starter, Souie, is doing well and has moved to the fridge to slow the yeast growth. I feed it every other day to keep it going.

Now that dinner is over with, I can look at my Seeds of Change Organic Seed Catalog! Meg and I need to plan some garden space.

-Stine