Dinner Fourteen

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Somewhere along the lines, I got it into my head that cauliflower pizza crust always has egg in it.   Turns out, that is not at all true!   Besides seasoning, this crust only has three ingredients - cauliflower, chickpea flour, and ground flax.   Even better, it's pretty easy.   As usual, I tried to make the recipe a bit easier, and I got away with it!    I don't actually think you need to purchase 'cauliflower rice,' you could just as easily buy frozen cauliflower, and give it a quick chop or spin around the food processor.    I did a side by side comparison in the grocery store recently, and the two products seemed like a comparable price, by weight.  

Oh, and to report back, once I figured out 'gram flour' is actually chickpea/garbanzo bean flour....well, it's actually lots of places in North Bay, including my favourite grocery store - Freshco!   

So, as follows are the alterations I made to this wonderful recipe: 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds frozen cauliflower rice (this was one inner bag from the product available at Costco, which I thawed in the sink in some hot water in about 20 minutes)
• 3 tablespoons ground flax seeds
• 1/2 cup garbanzo/chickpea flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 400ºF and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Put the cauliflower rice it in a nut milk bag. Use your hands to squeeze the rice, removing all of the excess moisture from the cauliflower. There should be quite a lot of liquid that comes out.   I couldn't find my nut milk bag, so I used one of the reusable thin mesh produce bags you can buy at Metro instead (after giving it a quick wash).    If you don't have that, you can use a thin dish towel. 
• Place the drained cauliflower in a large bowl, then add in ground flax, chickpea/garbanzo bean flour, salt, garlic, and dried oregano. Stir well to mix, using your hands, if needed, to make it stick together. You can add a tablespoon of water, if needed.
• Press the mixture into the parchment-lined baking sheet, using your hands to shape the crust into your desired size. The thinner and flatter you can press the crust, the better, but try to keep it as even as possible for a sturdy result. 
• So this is what the recipe says "Bake the crust at 400ºF for 45 minutes, checking on it after 30 minutes to make sure it's not starting to burn. You want the crust to be dry to the touch and nicely golden. (Tip: You can roast vegetable toppings for your pizza at the same time! I put sliced tomatoes, red onion, and mushrooms on a separate pan, and take them out of the oven around the 25 minute mark so they don't burn.)"   However, mine only needed to bake for 25 minutes.   This may be because I put it on my cast iron cookie sheet?
• Then, I peeled the parchment paper off the crust, flipped it over, added my toppings, and baked it for an additional 10 minutes.   ​

* Pro tip, store your ground flax seeds in the freezer!   Once they are ground, their oil becomes very prone to going rancid.   Similarly, if you have the space, and you're not going to use them rapidly, you can do the same for anything else that is ground, including flour.