Keto Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza Crust (Gluten Free)
This amazing, thin crust, cauliflower pizza recipe needs just 5 ingredients and it’s low carb, gluten free, nut free, keto and I promise you, does not even taste like cauliflower! 2 slices equals 3 g net carbs!
Keto Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe
Cauliflower can me made into some amazing things! If you’re on a low carb or keto diet, this cauliflower pizza crust recipe will satisfy that pizza craving! It’s quick, easy and delicious!
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!
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. Even a store bought keto pizza crust will not compare to my recipe for cauliflower pizza crust!
Grams of Carbs in Keto Cauliflower Pizza Crust versus White Flour Pizza Dough
Traditional pizza dough made with white flour will have 26 grams of total carbs per slice, and that is not including any of your favorite toppings, just the regular pizza crust.
My cauliflower crust recipe has just 4 total carbs per serving. One serving is 2 Slices which is amazing and perfect for those following a low carb and/or keto diet.
It curbs that craving and you don’t feel deprived at all! It passed the test with my picky children and hubby and the teenager who hates anything cauliflower ate a piece.
Can I Swap the Parmesan Cheese?
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 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!
So the answer to swapping parmesan cheese with a softer cheese, is a firm No!
Crispy Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza Crust
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. This will help it not to get soggy on the baking pan before you dig in.
How to Make Perfect Keto Cauliflower Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
Fresh cauliflower florets or riced cauliflower
Parmesan Cheese
Onion powder and garlic powder
Egg
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Place cauliflower in a food processor and pulse until crumbly and rice like. You can skip this step if you purchased cauliflower rice. Just thaw it in a large bowl and squeeze out excess water before using.
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.
Continue to cook cauliflower mixture on medium heat until the parmesan is melted.
Remove from the heat and stir in the egg.
Use parchment on a 12 inch round pizza pan or baking sheet 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.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Add your favorite pizza toppings and bake another 10 minutes. Cut your low-carb pizza crust into 8 large slices and serve for pizza night!
Best Tips for Perfect Cauliflower Crust Pizza
You can buy a small head of cauliflower and pulse it in a food processor until it has a rice-like consistency.
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 weigh 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 cauliflower 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 for best results.
Nutrition info does not include the tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni, it’s for the crust alone.
My Quick Marinara sauce is fabulous for this pizza along with some Italian seasoning!
I used a 12 inch in diameter round pizza pan.
How to Store Cauliflower Low Carb Gluten Free Pizza Crust
Please store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Can I freeze this keto pizza recipe?
Yes, you can make this cauliflower pizza crust and freeze as is before baking. Keep on the round pizza pan and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for up to 3 months.
When ready to serve, remove frozen crust and thaw on counter for 30 minutes then bake as directed. It may take a 10-15 minutes longer than a fresh unfrozen pizza.
Alternately, to save time, you could bake the crust as directed, allow it to cool completely then wrap and freeze. When you are ready to reheat, it won’t be as long in the oven to enjoy your low carb crust.
More Low Carb Keto Cauliflower Recipes
Keto Low Carb Pizza Crust Recipe
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
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Place cauliflower in a food processor and pulse until crumbly and rice like.
- 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.
- Continue to cook on medium heat until the parmesan is melted.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the egg.
- 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.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Add your favorite toppings and bake another 10 minutes. Cut into 8 large slices and serve!
Notes
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
Good morning ! Your recipe sounds delicious! I am on a low histamine diet and should steer away from Parmesan cheese . Can I substitute it with mozzarella cheese? Or is there another binder I could use ?
Nutritional yeast might be more comparable to parmesan cheese. Mozzarella is too soft of a cheese to sub with parmesan. You could also try sheep’s milks cheese called Manchego that is similar to Parmesan.
Do you have a substitution for the cheese?
Im cutting out carbs after lunch and have been really hungry for pizza, tried a cauliflower crust for the first time yesterday. This is the most delishious crust EVER ! Ill take it over flour based crust any day. I made it with fresh cauliflower, it came together perfectly without any trouble rolling or baking. Topped it w Pesto, mozarella, green pepper and turkey pepperoni. Absolutely outstanding ( admittedly I am a caulifloer lover). Never going back to traditional crust again. Thanks so much !
Hi Brenda
Cindy from Trinidad. I tried this recipe today. This is the best low carb crust I’ve ever tried! Sooo goood. Thank you.
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.
This was delicious and didn’t taste like cauliflower at all. It was a little floppier than I expected from the description but I did eat it by hand like a regular pizza. I tried spreading the cauliflower mixture out with the back of a silicone spoon, but it was only limitedly effective. So I put a piece of parchment paper on top and rolled it out with my rolling pin like I would for a regular pizza and that worked excellently. I followed the recipe exactly except I added some pizza seasoning to the crust mixture that I got in the bulk seasoning section of my grocery store. It added that special kick. I already added this recipe to my digital cookbook and I’ll definitely make it often. Thank you so much! I’m now going to explore your other recipes.
Looks delicious! I’ll have to give it a shot.
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?
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
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 ?
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!
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!
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.
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.
Sorry but I have to comment on misinformation. Keto diet does not hurt you in the long term. It does not really affect kidneys that way unless you have type 1 diabetes. And carbs are not an essential part. There are many carnivores out there.
Having said that healthy carbs do taste good and this looks excellent!
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
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.
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!
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!!
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!