A recipe that came across my home computer a couple of times last week was for pizza with a crust that was made from cauliflower. In typical Minnesotan-talk, you might remark, “That’s different!” It sounded interesting to me, but seemed like more effort than I wanted to expend since pizza to me falls into the category of “fast” food. The recipes I saw involved cooking the cauliflower, and then putting it through a ricer and squeezing out the extra liquid and then making it into a crust. However, when I saw already riced cauliflower in the freezer section at the grocery store, it seemed a lot more doable and so I gave it try using the frozen cauliflower product.

So, why would anyone want to substitute cauliflower for use in a pizza crust you might ask? There could be several reasons that this would be an option for some people. For instance, if a person has diabetes and is counting carbs, they know that the carbs in pizza crust count up pretty quickly. Substituting a low calorie vegetable for flour can help cut back on the carbohydrate content of a couple pieces of pizza. If you’re trying to incorporate more vegetables into your or your family’s menus, this is a way to do it. If you need to be on a gluten free diet, pizza crust made with wheat flour is out, but using cauliflower can now make your pizza gluten-free. Finally, if you are trying to cut back on calories, cauliflower has fewer calories than something made with flour.

The real question though, is does it taste good? I like food that tastes good too and so that was the big question for me. It was also the reason for the experiment in my own home to see how it tasted. No trying this out on company or family until I had given it a shot first!

I used the frozen, riced cauliflower product and my favorite pizza toppings — Canadian bacon, mushrooms and an Italian cheese blend. I looked at all the various versions of recipes that I had found and gave it a try. I liked it! The pizza I made resulted in eight pieces with each piece being about 110 calories each. That’s not too bad for a piece of pizza! Of course, it would depend on the toppings you choose to use as far as the calorie and fat content goes. Following is the recipe I came up with if you want to give it a try:

Pizza with Cauliflower Crust

Ingredients

Crust

1- 10 ounce package frozen, riced cauliflower

1/2 cup Italian blend shredded cheese

1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp. garlic granules

1 egg

Salt and pepper to taste

Topping

1 cup pizza sauce (or tomato sauce)

22 slices pizza-style Canadian Bacon

1 small can mushrooms, drained (or fresh)

3/4 cup Italian blend cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Slightly defrost the frozen cauliflower product in a mixing bowl. Stir in Italian blend cheese, egg, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix well and form into a ball.

3. Carefully roll/pat out the dough on a piece of parchment paper that is cut to the size of your pizza pan. Press and shape it into a pizza crust, using your hands to shape it.

4. Transfer the pizza crust (with the parchment paper) onto a baking sheet or pizza pan. Bake for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

5. Remove pizza crust from oven.

6. Cover pizza crust with pizza sauce- smoothing it into a thin layer.

7. Add Canadian bacon pieces and mushrooms on top of pizza sauce. Add shredded cheese on top of meat and mushrooms.

8. Return to oven. Bake an additional 7 to 10 minutes until cheese is melted and lightly browned.

9. Serve.

Makes eight slices.

(110 calories per slice)

I would note that I didn’t eat all eight pieces at one sitting and did put the leftovers in the refrigerator. That resulted in a pretty soggy piece of pizza the next time and so I was not impressed with pizza as leftovers doing it this way. The crust also was not stiff enough that you could pick it up and eat it like a regular piece of pizza, but that wasn’t a major problem in my eye. The fact that the crust and toppings are spicy enough that you can’t really even tell that the crust was cauliflower was surprising to me. If you’re in the experimenting mode and looking for a way to makeover a pizza that is lower in calories, has more vegetables or are looking for a gluten-free option, here’s a recipe for you to try.

Cheryl Rude is a registered dietitian at Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center.