I’m jumping on the cauliflower base bandwagon. I loved making this because I love pizza, but as I currently eat in a low-carb way, it’s a food that no longer makes it onto the list. I also love tomato sauce either for pizza or pasta so loved being able to make that for the first time in months too. It’s the little things, etc…
The result was interesting – good interesting. Depending on the approach/ingredients you choose, you can create a base that is crunchy or soft. The way I did it resulted in a softer base, which was crispier around the edges. In a slightly chewy way. Which I liked.
What to use – serves 2
- 300g cauliflower florets
- 20g parmesan
- 4 table spoons water
- 1 egg
For the topping – whatever you like really. I went for what I had in:
- tomato sauce
- mushrooms
- pepper
- mozarella
- parmesan
First I put the sauce on to cook. Chop a white onion into small pieces and sweat in some olive oil until translucent. You don’t have to add onion, but I like it. Add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic and cook for a minute. Add a tin of tomatoes, and a couple of good pinches of herbs, bring to a bubble, then turn the heat down and leave it to blip for at least 20 minutes. You want the sauce to reduce down so it’s thick enough to spread on the pizza base, and so that the flavour intensifies. Keep an eye on it and stir now and again. Taste and season – you can also add sugar and salt to intensify the flavour further.
To make the base I did a bit of research to see how other people approached this, and went for a sort of middle ground which included an egg and cheese.
First, blend the courgette florets. Now two things to note here. First, you want to do 3 florets at a time otherwise the whole process will stall and you’ll end up picking pieces out – tedious. Second, there is nothing remotely appetising about the smell of blended cauliflower. Wear a nose peg.
Once blended, put in a bowl and add the parmesan, egg and water and mix. It should make a sort of dough.
Put a piece of baking parchment on a baking tray, and spread the dough out to about a half centimeter thickness. Don’t be tempted to make it super thin as you’ll have a hard time turning it over later – unless you’re making tiny ones. I’d also perhaps grease the paper and use double thickness next time as it disintegrated. Bake for 30 minutes at 180C (fan).
Turn it over (carefully) and bake for another 10 minutes. I think the easiest thing to do would be to place another piece of baking parchment over the top of it, flip it, then peel off the original piece, then slide back on to the backing tray. Unless you’re doing two smaller ones which should be relatively easy to turn.
Spread your tomato sauce over the base, top with whatever you like and then bake for another 10-12 minutes.
Mmm rating: mm mm mm
Calories pp: a lot less than a traditional pizza. I worked this out to be 300 calories which equates to half the calories of an 8 inch Pizza Express Margherita.
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