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This Amazing Thin Crust Cauliflower Pizza needs just 5 ingredients and it’s low carb, gluten free, nut free, keto and I promise you, does not even taste like cauliflower!
I’m sure some of you have attempted a cauliflower pizza before in hopes it would satisfy that carb loving craving. And I bet you’ve been disappointed. I’ve even been disappointed in recipes I’ve tried. All of them seemed to fail in the ability to be able to pick it up like a typical pizza.
I’m here today sharing my take on the cauliflower pizza that truly curbs that greasy pizza craving you so desire and it does not even have a hint of cauliflower taste!
Doesn’t it look fabulous? All the makings of a really good pizza and it’s just 3 net carbs for 2 slices for this crust and you can REALLY pick it up, for real!!!
When I’ve made cauliflower pizza in the past, most recipes always seem to include mozzarella cheese. I have these tasty Cheesy Cauliflower “Bread Sticks” that are use mozzarella, but weren’t strong enough in my opinion to use as a pizza in order to add toppings other than cheese. So I decided a change in the cheese was in order. If you think about it, mozzarella is a moisture rich cheese and that is why any cauliflower pizzas that include it are never going to have that ability to actually pick up with your hands and eat it.
I decided a hard dry cheese was needed to create that texture I so desired, that ability to truly eat this pizza with your hands, not a fork and knife. Parmesan cheese was my choice!
After it cooks if you want to firm it up even more before diving in, you can cut it and place the pizza slices on a wire rack which will help them not to get soggy on the baking pan.
Is it a perfect resemblance to a thin crust carb laden dough? No of course not. But it is a pizza you don’t need to eat with a fork and knife. It is low carb, keto and gluten free and it does curb that craving. It passed the test with my picky children and hubby and the teenager who hates anything cauliflower ate a piece.
Brenda’s Notes:
- You can buy a small head of cauliflower to rice it yourself in a food processor. A small head is about 4 cups florets, once riced if you have more than 10 ounces in weight, do not include. Make sure to weight out the 10 ounces on a scale. The raw cauliflower does not need to be precooked.
- You could also just buy cauliflower rice in the frozen section in Walmart and other supermarkets. My frozen cauli rice was a perfect 10 ounce bag which will be a time saver in the making of this pizza.
- I recommend buying parmesan and grating it yourself.
- Nutrition info does not include the marinara sauce, cheese and pepperoni, it’s for the crust alone.
- My Quick Marinara sauce is fabulous for this pizza!
- I used a 12 inch in diameter round pizza pan.
Enjoy!
Meal Planning
If you love meals like this for yourself and family, you might be interested in my meal planning membership. Weekly low carb keto dinner meal plan sent to your inbox every Friday with shopping list. The best part about my meal planning feature is that if you aren’t interested in one of the dinner meals you can swap it out for something else! You can even change serving sizes and the shopping list will adjust! It pretty amazing software and I hope you’ll take advantage of it. You can have a sustainable low carb/keto lifestyle when you’re well prepared and planning meals is the key! LEARN MORE TODAY!
Keto Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza
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Keto Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza
Ingredients
- 10 ounces cauliflower rice or 4 cups florets
- 1 cup parmesan cheese grated
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 egg large (1/4 cup liquid)
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
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Place cauliflower in a food processor and pulse until crumbly and rice like.
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Heat the cauliflower rice in a dry skillet over medium high heat, stirring often to remove as much moisture as possible, about 10 minutes. Once it looks somewhat dry, add parmesan cheese and seasonings.
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Continue to cook on medium heat until the parmesan is melted.
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Remove from the heat and stir in the egg.
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Use parchment on a 12 inch round pizza pan and spray with olive oil cooking spray. Spread out the "dough" and flatten as best you can. use another piece of parchment paper on top if it's too sticky for your hands to spread and make the edges slightly higher to form a crust.
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Bake for 20 minutes. Add your favorite toppings and bake another 10 minutes. Cut into 8 large slices and serve!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information is for the cauliflower crust, not including toppings.
Net Carbs for 2 slices= 3g
Wow, looks delicious. I’ll be making this on Friday.
I heard a helpful tip for making riced cauliflower: Put fresh cauliflower pieces into a blender jar and add lots of water, to an inche above the cauli pieces. Pulse a few seconds until it resembles rice, then strain out the water. If also using the stem, do it separately as the stem parts take more pulsing. Thanks for the recipe!
I really want to try this… quick question – if using frozen riced cauliflower do you thaw it first or just cook from frozen?
Nope I’ve used it straight from the freezer when I tried it, and let it cook on the skillet for about 10 minutes until it looks less wet.
Excellent thanks. This was going to be my question!
Any suggestions on what to use instead of Parmesan cheeses for a dairy free option?
I wonder if nutritional yeast might work?
Go veggie parmesan cheese
Also, using parmesan cheese makes it Non keto. You can’t call it a keto recipe since keto is “cheese free”.
I’m not sure where you’ve gotten info on keto but keto is definitely NOT dairy free unless one chooses to be as a personal choice.
Absolutely correct. That person must be confusing paleo with keto, which have many similarities, but no dairy in paleo but allowed in keto.
Yes. You can. Not all Kind but there are a lot Of choices!
Keto is most definitely NOT dairy free! Who told you such a thing??
KETO IS NOT DAIRY FREE AND YOU SHOULD REALLY MAYBE BE INFORMED ON WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT BEFORE YOU POST IT
Be nice. No need to yell ?. People are learning all the time.
You can use 1/2 cup cornmeal like I just did. It’s in the oven, so excited!
Corn meal in addition to the recipe or replacing something in the recipe?
Wjat would you suggest when using fresh, not cooked cauliflower?
*What
Hi Laura, not sure I understand your question since I am using fresh non cooked cauliflower in this recipe.
Thanks for the recipe! I made it today and enjoyed the flavor. I didn’t use parchment b/c I have a cast iron pizza pan. My pizza turned out ‘floppy’ perhaps b/c of the pan. I’ll try it again with the parchment and perhaps longer in the oven.
Any tips on making it ‘non-floppy’ would be appreciated!
Thanks!
-L
The pan has to be preheated along with the oven so it is already hot when you place the crust on. Should come out crispy.
Agree! This recipe wasn’t good. Crispy on the outside and soggy in the center. Had to eat it with a knife and fork, I like to pick my pizza up by the hands. Probably need some sort of flour perhaps almond flour? Also one bag of Couliflower rice made a very small personal size pizza.
How much Parmesan by weight rather than volume? Different graters can produce very different volumes for the same weight.
I made this today, it was spot on, delicious, didn’t have a taste of caulflower at all. It was a perfect pizza I am amazed. Thank you so much! I will try your other recipes. Would you say is this acceptable to eat once a week? :3
Absolutely! thank you!
I loved this! I hate trying to squeeze the cauliflower through a towel … no need with this recipe! Thank you so much! PS First time the crust stuck togather too!
Thank you Nancy!
Hi,
I made this to spec and unfortunately I wasn’t able to pick it up and eat it. I had to use a fork and knife. Any suggestions?
Thank you
I did too!!
I found leaving it whole on a rack to cool down left mw with a crispy crust pizza.
What an AMAZING recipe! My family and I thank you to the moon & baaaaaack! It tastes like thin crust yummy pizza! We use stoneware and leave iton a little longer, but otherwise it’s perfect! Thank you for sharing this ???
The flavor was great, but the crust remained mushy despite cooking it for an additional 5 minutes. Could it have been due to using dairy-free parmesan cheese?
going to try tonight – can crust be made ahead of time? Thanks
Maybe if you bake it then let it cool, refrigerate and then when ready to have it for dinner reheat about 5 minutes, add toppings and cook to melt cheese on top.
Hello, I was just reading recipes for cauliflower pizza dough and whoever it was talking about it says she cooked the crust as in the recipe, about 20 minutes, but then flipped it over for another ten minutes in the oven…exact crispiness, I hear! I’m going to try this today for our dinner.
A little confused with step 6. What I interpreted it as, was to put parchment on pizza pan, oil it, spread the mixture on top, and put another piece of parchment paper on top to flatten it, then remove the top parchment paper and then bake?? I had issues with the crust sticking to the parchment paper even after baking. Maybe because we made it too thin? I’m not really sure. I’d like to try this again, any recommendations would help!
Maybe you just need to grease it a whole lot more. It is sticky and you may need to peel it off the parchment or use a spatula under it to really get it off the parchment. If you allow it cool a bit before trying to remove it from the parchment that will help too.
I added the egg while the mixture was in the skillet and I think that’s why it took longer to stick together and it came out a bit too salty for my taste. It was my first time making this but overall I think it’s ok. I did burn it a little lol but i like it extra crispy. I think next time i’m going to add half a cup of parmesan instead next time.
Omg I just made it and it came out amazing . Very easy to make and I’m not even a cook I’m so surprised. 5 stars
Omg! I was on Keto for a week ( lost 8 pounds woohoo) and I wanted to make celebratory cauliflower pizza. I found your recipe and my boyfriend and I loved it! It’s so good 🙂
What do I need to do differently to have a crispy crust? I had to eat mine with a fork. I just cooked it in my non-stick skillet in the oven.
Made this tonight. Very good. The bad…I aren’t the whole thing.
I have been making cauliflower pizza crust for years. This is by far the easiest and best tasting recipe I have ever tried. We’ had it twice this week and I plan to make some for the freezer. Thank you!
Thank you so much!
Trying this recipe tonight! Do you know if “dough” can be frozen and eaten later? Perhaps half-cooked, like other pizza doughs? Thanks in advance!
I’m very curious to know this as well. I’m facing the possibility of hospitalization for bed rest and looking for keto recipes that I can make now for my husband to get him through the month I’ll be out of comission if it happens. Keto has basically cured his type 2 diabetes and I’d hate to see him get unwell again. Yes he’s a grownup and can theoretically cook for himself … But realistically he’d be back to Domino’s every night within a week like when he was a bachelor lol.
I love this pizza! I’ve made it like a dozen times.
If you cook it longer the crust gets crispier also,
I add a fourth of teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes to it.
This is such a great recipe especially since it does not use creamed cheese like most do! But since I’ve made the original recipe so many times I’ve tweeked it a bit. After you cook the riced cauliflower to evaporate the water let it cool and squeeze it in a cheese cloth. You can’t imagine how much water it will release which results in a crispier crust. I also add additional seasonings to the crust such as garlic powder and red pepper flakes to give the crust more seasoning. Also if you pre heat a pizza stone in the oven and transfer the pizza on it for step 2 it also helps crisp the crust. Love this recipe its a keeper!
I made this tonight and it was soooooo delicious we also had to eat it with a fork but we loved it so much. We just started the keto diet and I hope we can find more recipes like this. Thank you so much for posting this.
Made this last night and it was amazing. The whole family loves it. Thanks you!
Can’t wait to try this. My 6year old daughter has type 1 diabetes and low carb foods are better for her. Regular pizza has sooo many carbs and makes her sugar sky high so I’m really excited to try your recipe. Thank you so much!
PHENOMENAL! I cooked up some tomatoes, chicken, then spinach, and used basil, garlic pepper, and onions along with parmesan to top it off. Drizzled avocado oil over that then stuck it back in the oven to melt for 8 mins! I ate 2/3 of the pizza, and I have no shame because it is delicious and within my macros. I’m a huge fan!!
Okay so I tried this crust not so much for pizza but for a crunchy “bread “ to dip in marinara sauce and it worked! I just baked it with drizzled olive oil and a little more Parmesan sprinkled on top along with some chopped basil. And cut it in triangles. I am trying to find appetizers that I can enjoy super bowl Sunday and this will work! Thanks for the recipe.
Great idea!
I have this in the oven now. I noticed it was more dough like before I added the egg. Hope it comes out ok. How big is this pizza supposed to be? Mine looks like a small personal size?
Under Brenda’s Notes: The pan is 12 inch round.
I made the cauliflower pizza crust last night and it was so easy! Since I’m allergic to tomatoes, I made it with alfredo sauce, chicken, bacon, mushrooms and spinach. It was so good, next time I’ll try it with pesto! Thanks, Brenda
You crave carbs because you need carbs. Healthy carbohydrates are an essential part of a healthy diet and trying to go without them will give you cravings because your body is telling you what it needs. The key is to properly balance each meal, with the correct amount of both carbs and protein. Keto diets, although useful short term weight loss tools, are very unhealthy in the long term and can cause serious health issues, such as kidney failure.
That being said, thank you for the recipe. I am always looking for creative ways to cook veggies. The cost of the Parmesan cheese is prohibitive but I’m sure I can modify it to work with more budget friendly ingredients.
This dish was a hit with my grandchildren as well as myself and my daughter who are on the keto diet. I came out just perfect. We were able to pick it up and eat it no fork and knife needed. We made two pizzas it was so good. will definitely be trying other recipes from this site. Thanks so much.
Made this last night it was delicious! Using parmasan instead of mozzarella in the crust is genius! I did flip it over after baking 20 minutes, added topping and baked for another 15 minutes. Will definitely make again, thanks!
Has anyone tried to make ahead and freeze? Either the dough or a prepared crust? I’d love to have a few ready to go in the freezer for busy weeknights.
I was going to buy one at the store, but it had 49 grams of carbs for a really small pIzza. I looked at the ingredients and it had brown rice and white rice flours. That makes it gluten free, but not low carb.
I just made this one, and it turned out perfectly! I’m not sure why some people said it’s really small. Mine came out at least 12″. Some people also said that it was soggy. I think they may not have used a big enough pan to dry the riced cauliflower out. I used a 12″ pan and spread the cauliflower out to fill the bottom of the pan, then stirred it and flattened it out, over and over, for the full 10 minutes. Then mixed in the cheese and seasonings, then the egg and it was perfect, Maybe getting the cauliflower really dry makes the difference. Mine was really crisp on the outside and slightly floppy in the middle, just like a real pizza is. I was absolutely able to eat it out of hand, No utensils necessary. Thanks, Brenda!
Very tasty but not quite crispy enough. Allowing it to cool about 10 mins helped but then it wasn’t as hot. It’s on my favourites list now ?
made it tonight….mmmmmm made two , one store bought regular crust for hubbie and one for me..but…my husband went back for seconds on my cauliflower crust one so ….might have to toss the regular pizza……We loved it…followed the recipe….and made a small quicker version of your marinara sauce (thank you very much lol)…it worked like you said….I added oiives, mushrooms, green peppers (oh no….I forgot the onions lol) and pepperoni….It was so fun to have a couple of slices of pizza after a month of no no….thank you
We’ve tried cauliflower pizza twice and honestly the horrendous smell while it’s baking and then trying to get over that smell while you are eating it, prevents us from liking it every time. Both times it’s gone into the garbage…outside…immediately!! I found a better recipe using a broccoli crust and it has become our favorite. Cauliflower pizza will continue to be an ABSOLUTE NO GO in our house! Yuck, never ever again!
You say you tried cauliflower pizza twice, but did you try this particular recipe?
Looks delicious! I’ll have to give it a shot.
Made it tonite it was amazing can you freeze the pizza after it has been cooked for future use?
Yes I’ve frozen, just the crust after baking and cooling.