With goat cheese… and cauliflower crust! Aha! I knew I would lure some of you in with the temptation of pizza (those of you who would otherwise baulk at the cauliflower crust part in the title). But trust me, it is so so good, you won’t even miss the fluffy, doughy crust from a delivery pie. Not that there is anything wrong with that fluffy, doughy crust. No sir. But, a certain someone at home was pre-ttttyyy skeptical about the cauliflower crust… And guess who ate half the pie? That’s right. It was officially man-approved. Now get to cookin!
INGREDIENTS:
CAULIFLOWER CRUST
1 head of cauliflower, medium size
1 whole egg, whisked
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp each salt & pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried Italian seasoned bread crumbs + more if needed
TOPPINGS
1 cup venison sausage, browned and cooked through
pizza sauce
1 shallot, sliced thin
2 oz crumbled goat cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
Anything else you just can’t live without on your pizza – go crazy!
STEPS:
1. Preheat your oven to 450* and place a baking sheet inside to get nice and hot. While the oven is heating up, snag your cauliflower and chop the florets off of the stem, adding them to a food processor. It helps if you can get the chunks fairly small, just to help the processor get them down to size. You essentially want the pulsed cauliflower to look like a giant bowl of feta cheese. See what I mean? Or couscous? I don’t know. Like this.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, cook the cauliflower for around 4 minutes or so to cook it. Once it is finished, remove from the microwave and let it cool for 5-10 minutes. Then transfer it to a clean dish towel and ring out as much of the excess liquid as you can. There will be a pretty fair amount, and if you don’t listen to me and let it cool, you will burn your hands with hot cauliflower liquid and then you won’t want to keep cooking. Did this happen to me? ……. No….. I’m just warning you…
3. A good thing to do while the cauliflower is cooking and cooling is to get your venison sausage browned and cooked. I like to put it in a hot skillet and let the bottom sear for a few minutes before moving it around to cook evenly. See those nice brown crispy parts? Those are the best. Once cooked, set aside until it is time to assemble the toppings.
4. Once the cauliflower is {mostly} liquid free, put it back in the bowl and mix in the rest of the dry ingredients, followed by the egg. I found that using my hands was the best way to get everything combined enough. It should form into a ball pretty easily. If it is still pretty damp, add in the bread crumbs to absorb some of the moisture.
5. Place a sheet of parchment paper on your counter or cutting board, and spray with non-stick spray. Then flatten your dough into a disc. It will vary in thickness depending on how much crust your head of cauliflower yielded. Mine was about 1/4″ thick, but tapered at the edges. Snag that hot baking sheet from earlier and slide the parchment paper/crust onto it. Carefully. It is hot, after all. Then bake the crust for 10 minutes or so, depending on your oven, until the top starts to turn a golden brown. See?
6. Assemble the rest of your toppings! Start with the pizza sauce and add a thin layer of shredded mozzarella. Then get the sausage, shallot, and goat cheese on there, topping it all with the rest of the mozzarella. Then bake for another 5-7 minutes, until the cheese is all melty and delicious. Then turn the broiler on high for the last 60 seconds or so, just to give the cheesy topping that nice golden brown top.
7. Slice ‘er up and dig in! This recipe makes one crust, but it really feeds 2-3 people just because of its size. You can believe me that you might want to just eat the whole thing yourself. It’s a vegetable crust. So the whole thing isn’t even bad for you, right? It’s actually healthy…
What are your favorite pizza toppings?
Adapted from here.
