Renée By The C.: Recipe: Vegetarian Cauliflower Pizza! Easy, Healthy and Gluten Free!

How many pizza's slices can you eat? I know I'll be tempted to go for seconds and thirds for a pizza that just came out of the oven, but how many calories would you regret racking up by the end of the night! Don't like veggies? You won't even think there are any vegetables in this crust! Even if you don't have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, this pizza would be a great alternative to increase your vegetable and dietary fiber intake without losing all the flavors and mouthfeel of a real pizza!!! I know it's hard to believe but this is my 'raison d'etre' as a culinary dietitian. I live to research, test and produce a highly nutritional dish that will tantalize everyone's tastebuds and yet makes them feel extra good about eating it.

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Cauliflower is a natural cruciferous vegetable that is highly versatile, highly nutritious and related to disease prevention. They are not only high in vitamins, minerals and fiber, but in recent scientific studies, cruciferous vegetables have been linked to cancer prevention where animal laboratory results show anti-inflammatory effects, protection against DNA damage, and have antiviral and antibacterial affects. How exciting! There's now more reason to add these amazing vegetables to your diet and help you live a more fulfilling and healthy life! There are many versions of this cauliflower recipe and many links on the web are really good, I've just compiled a few recipes I've found and modified it to my own liking, I hope you'll try this at home.

Recipe: Cauliflower Crust Pizza with Barbecue Sauce and Tomatoes and Onions

Ingredients: (Makes Two 9x9 inch round pizza)

Crust: 2 heads of cauliflower

4 eggs

1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper cracked

1 tsp oregano, dried

1 Tbsp garlic, minced

Toppings: 4 Tbsp Barbecue sauce (any)

2 roma tomato cut into wedges

1/2 red onion sliced thin

1 cup mozzarella pizza cheese, shredded

1 cup chicken breast, diced (optional for carnivores)

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit

2) Cut cauliflower into chunks and pulse in a food processor or a blender. Be careful not to puree it too finely, a texture like rice is what you want. (as shown). Take riced cauliflower out and drain and squeeze out any excess liquids and place in a large mixing bowl. This process can be done before hand and can keep a stash of riced cauliflower in your freezer so you can make pizza on demand!

3) In the bowl, add in cheese, salt, pepper, eggs, oregano, and garlic and mix thoroughly to combine.

4) On a parchment lined flat baking tray (can be square or round) spoon cauliflower mixture onto tray and spread evenly to about 1cm thick and place in the over for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

5) After taking the crust out of the oven, you can low spoon on the barbecue sauce then layer on the tomatoes and onions. If you would like to add meat, some diced chicken breast would be a great addition. At the end sprinkle on the cheese and return to the oven for about 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and some browning occurs.