STELLAR Tried Cooking The Infamous Cauliflower Pizza Base, And Here’s What Happened

The internet is alive with hyper healthy veggie substitutes for ingredients that would normally give us the guilts. Take brownies for example, where would we be without the virtuous, gluten-free, sweet potato version? Thanks Deliciously Ella. That’s dessert and em, sometimes a sneaky brekkie sorted, but what about a main?

This year’s kale is the cool cauli, so it would be rude not to cook with the cute Brassica heads. And the dish? We rolled up our sleeves to make cauliflower pizza.

Before we go any further, let us say this – it does take a while to make (at least an hour) and yes, there are many messy steps involved, but it’s sooo much tastier than anything you’ll buy (delivery or restaurant), plus the wholesomeness hit is off the chart. We used BBC Good Food’s recipe as a guide.

So, the STELLAR kitchen resembled a snow globe (we’ll be finding those bitty cauliflower bits in every pot and pan for days to come), and that raw, root veggie smell was super off-putting – but it pays to persevere, we promise! Next time we go cauli (and there will be a next time), we’ll call on some extra cooks.

Top tip: If you don’t have a food processor, use a blender – it takes a frickin age but there’s no other way around it. Keep your eye on the prize, we mean pizza, and don’t eat a bag of Haribo golden bears while you battle the noisy kitchen appliance (*STELLAR looks at the ground and scuffs shoes*).

We’re calling our cauliflower pizza-making experiment a success.

Here’s how you can make it at home:

Ingredients:

Base:

Large cauliflower head
100g ground almonds
2 eggs

Topping (here’s our pick but it’s totes up to you):

1½ mozzarella balls (the large ones)
3 or 4 mushrooms
3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
6 cherry tomatoes (halved)
½ red pepper (cut into thin strips)

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C and grease a baking tray using oil or butter. Place and press parchment paper on top, making sure it sticks.

2. Remove the cauliflower leaves and chop into small pieces

3. Place the chopped cauliflower in a food processor and pulse until you see something that resembles cauliflower snow. (Otherwise use a blender, transferring small batches and blitzing the veg as best you can)

4. Transfer the cauli-snow to a bowl and cook in the microwave for 5-6 mins until soft. Allow to cool – this is crucial for the next step to avoid burning – suffice to say we learned the hard way.

5. Grab a clean tea towel, or nut bag. Spoon the cooked snow into your linen of choice and squeeze, hard. The trick to a good cauli base is zero water. So squeeze until that snow is completely dehydrated.

6. In a bowl, mix the dehydrated cauliflower and ground almonds with two well beaten eggs, adding some salt.

7. Mould the mixture into a dough ball then place on the greased and lined baking tray. With a knife smooth out the mix to the base depth you prefer. Leave the sides a little thicker so they’ll crisp up.

8. Place in the oven for 15-18 mins.

9. While that’s cooking, prepare your toppings. This might seem weird but the most important thing to do is to dry your veg or meat (patting with kitchen towel works). This helps keep your base crisp, it’s not as strong as the regular flour version, and it’s mighty porous.

10. When the cauli-base is done, arrange the cheese, veg and meats on top. Whack the oven up to 220°C and place the pizza back in the oven for 10-12 mins to melt and soften the toppings.

And… you’re done. Eat it all yourself, you deserved it. Blood, sweat and tears, this one… but still mouth-wateringly, taste bud tinglingly scrumptious.

• Cauliflower
• gluten free
• grain free
• healthy
• Pizza