Saturday, April 21, 2012

Mmm...fake cauliflower pizza crust turned lasagna!

For dinner tonight, I thought I'd try a version of cauliflower pizza crust that used fresh cauliflower and didn't need a microwave (we don't own one!)

I baked the pizza crust and the center was still gooey but the underneath and corners were burned. I thought maybe if I put the toppings on and bake it at a lower temperature maybe it would be okay. Well. It wasn't...

That on top of my daughter fussy from teething and being extra needy put me over the edge for a moment. Then my mother-in-law said, I bet it's still good, we could try it and see how it goes. This statement saved me from turning to real pizza from our neighborhood italian restaurant! (Although, I was almost hoping for a good excuse to go for it!)

So I slopped it on my plate and it ended up tasting like lasagna without the noodles. I used Ricotta cheese in the cauliflower crust (which is probably why it wouldn't turn into pizza crust) and the mixture of cauliflower, Ricotta, oregano, basil, and garlic tasted like lasagna filling Topped with baby tomatoes, onion, and mozzarella. It was delish! Since I'm not cutting out fat, it was all whole milk cheeses so it was ultra delicious.

The only problem I faced was my own intolerance for dairy cheeses...I'm going to try and make some cheese (such as mozzarella and ricotta) from raw milk in May so maybe I'll be able to handle some of the delicious cheeses better!

I found the basic recipe on Sparkpeople recipes and made only a few changes. Here is the link to the original recipe: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1606756

Here is the recipe I followed:

1 Cup Cauliflower
1 egg
1 Cup Ricotta Cheese
1 tsp Oregano
4 fresh basil leaves (I freeze my spices so I don't have to worry about them going bad)
2 garlic cloves

If you have a vitamix, throw all the ingredients in your blender, and blend at 4 for 30 seconds. If not:

Either put your cauliflower in a food processor or shred it using a small grater. Add egg, ricotta cheese, and spices and mix.

Put on greased pizza crust (we use either butter or coconut oil for high heat cooking; Macadamia oil should also work well) and bake for 12-15 minutes at 450 degrees.

After the crust has baked, add toppings - we used mozzarella, onions, a tomato sauce, and pre-cooked chicken. But be creative, the original recipe has lots of creative suggestions.

If for some reason your pizza crust turns out to be pizza crust, just put the pizza back in the oven and put on high broil for approx. 3-4 minutes. If not, bake for another 8 minutes until ingredients are melted. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Scoop the cut pieces onto your plate (trying to leave the pizza topping on top for appeal). We added a little salt and pepper and a yummy side salad.

Turned out delicious - love it when mistakes turn out to be wonderful!

No comments:

Post a Comment