Vegan Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Vegan Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Hi guys! Today I’m sharing a very delicious pizza recipe made with vegan cauliflower pizza crust!
This cauliflower pizza crust takes just 7 ingredients to make, its healthy and light, golden and crispy.
Typically, cauliflower crusts are made with parmesan. But this cauliflower pizza crust is made without cheese. It’s completely vegan, gluten-free, grain-free and oil-free. (Yet doesn’t compromise on taste).
I’ve topped this vegan cauliflower pizza with a simple pizza sauce and my homemade vegan mozzarella. All-in-all it’s a warm, savoury, gourmet and comforting dish for Friday pizza night.
Now, let me tell you exactly how to make this vegan cauliflower pizza, so you can make it pronto.
Vegan Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe
The Ingredients
The ingredients for this recipe are fairly simple and straight forward. Especially considering vegan cauliflower pizza crust is such a progressive recipe! haha.
In fact, my goal in creating this cauliflower crust was to keep it as simple as possible. Since making cauliflower pizza requires more steps than a traditional pizza dough recipe.
So, I’ve opted in for only 7 ingredients for the crust, and simple but delicious toppings.
Crust:
For the cauliflower pizza crust, you will need:
- cauliflower
- chia seeds
- almond flour
- sea salt
- garlic powder
- italian seasoning
- nutritional yeast
Toppings
Now, choosing the topping for this pizza is entirely up to you, and you can get as fancy as you like. For my pizza, I decided to keep it simple with an easy pizza sauce and my homemade vegan mozzarella cheese.
In which case, you will need:
- tomato sauce
- tomato paste
- sea salt
- vegan mozzarella (homemade or store-bought)
How to make cauliflower pizza crust
Now, I’m not going to sugar coat this by saying that making cauliflower pizza crust is effortless. Because, well – it’s more labour intensive than making classic pizza dough.
We must do a little work to our cauliflower before it’s ready for dough making. Which involves grating, lightly steaming, and straining out the water content. So, it’s a bit finicky!
However, the end result is a delicious crispy and golden pizza crust, made with whole foods, that’s vegan, gluten-free and a much healthier alternative to traditional pizza crust.
Once we’ve prepped the cauliflower we can make the crust.
To do this, we will toss all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir together. Form a dough ball with your hands and lay onto parchment paper (sized to your baking tray or pizza stone).
Next we will flatten the dough out with our hands, getting it as level and circular as possible, about 1/4-inch thick.
If you’re having trouble flattening the dough to even thickness, you can cover the top with another layer of parchment paper and roll with a rolling pin.
Now we’ve got a delicious vegan cauliflower pizza crust that’s ready to bake.
Tips for this recipe
To turn the cauliflower florets into rice I like to use a food processor. You can do this with a box grater as well, but it’s much more work! Passing it through a food processor on the grating blade is much quicker and easier.
Now, the most important tip for this recipe is to make sure that your cauliflower is squeezed dry – and I mean really dry!
Turns out, cauliflower has very high water content, and if you’re cooking with cauliflower that hasn’t been strained, you’re going to have a wet dough that doesn’t stick together.
I like to use my nut milk bag, or a cheese cloth to squeeze out the water content. (Make sure you give some time to cool after steaming so you can handle it with your hands). Alternatively, you can wrap the cauliflower up in a thin dish towel to strain.
An option to save time preparing our cauliflower for making crust is to buy frozen cauliflower rice. Let it thaw completely and then strain out the water with a nut milk bag or cheese cloth. This will save a lot of time grating and steaming.
Other recipes you might like:
If you’re digging this recipe you might also like:
- Sweet Potato Alfredo Noodles
- No-fail Salty Kale Chips
- Cauliflower Flatbread with Cashew Parsley Pesto
- Cheesy Cauliflower Bake
So, there we have it! Now you know how to make delicious vegan cauliflower pizza crust that’s crispy and golden.
It’s completely vegan, gluten-free, grain-free and oil-free. It’s full of flavour, and can be topped with whatever ingredients you like. Personally, I like it keep it simple with an easy pizza sauce and my vegan mozzarella.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do! And, if you do make this recipe please let me know in the comments below what you think! I love hearing from you. And of course, tag me on Instagram with the hashtag #twospoons. Nothing makes me happier than to see your recreations.
Vegan Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Ingredients
Cauliflower Crust
- 1.5 lbs cauliflower florets (about 6 cups)
- 3 tbsp ground chia
- 1/4 cup water + 1 tbsp
- 1/2 cup almond flour (ground blanched almonds)
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp italian seasoning
- 3/4 tsp sea salt finely ground
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
Toppings
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup vegan mozzarella
- 1/4 cup basil chopped
- pinch cayenne pepper flakes
Instructions
- Pass caufliflower florets through a food processor on the grating blade (not “S” blade) to make the cauliflower rice. Or grate by hand using a box grater. (Makes about 6 cups).
- Transfer cauliflower rice to a large mesh seive and bring a pot of water to boil. Place seive overtop of pot and cover with lid. Steam for 5 mins to soften. Let cool.
- When cooled enough to handle, scoop cauliflower rice into a nut milk bag (or cheese cloth or thin tea towel) gather together and press out the water by squeezing with your hands. Remove as much water as possible. (It's important to get it very dry).
- Preheat oven to 450F/230C. If using a pizza stone, place in the oven now (but first, cut parchment paper to be roughly the same size as your stone). In a large mixing bowl combine cauliflower rice, ground chia, water, almond flour, nutritional yeast, italian seasoning, sea salt and garlic powder. Mix well to combine. Then form dough into a ball with your hands.
- Lay dough onto parchment paper (sized to your baking tray or pizza stone). Flatten the dough with your hands, getting it as level and circular as possible, about 1/4-inch thick. (Optional to cover the top with another layer of parchment paper and roll with a rolling pin to make level).
- Gently transfer pizza crust on parchment paper to your hot pizza stone, or a baking tray. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes. Then reduce heat to 400F/200C and cook for another 15-20 mins or until golden.
- Meanwhile, prepare pizza sauce by whisking together tomato sauce, tomato paste and sea salt in a small bowl. If using my homemade vegan mozzarella (5 min recipe) prepare that now. (Link to recipe in notes).
- Lather pizza crust with pizza sauce and generously scoop vegan mozzarella on top. Sprinkle with basil, sea salt, pepper and cayenne pepper flakes. Cut into slices and serve.
Notes
Approvals
Nutrition
VEGAN – GLUTEN-FREE – GRAIN-FREE – OIL-FREE – SOY-FREE
Hi my name is Patricia I work at a prison I am the supervisor for the vegan meals I want to make a cauliflower crust for them BUTTTT my ingredients are very limited like no chia seeds no almond flower can you give me some do substitutes to use in there place AND NO nutritional yeast either
I’m so glad that you and your husband enjoyed this recipe so much Krystal! As I mentioned in my blog post, cauliflower pizza is more work than traditional dough, but it’s so worth it! I’m glad you agree and that you enjoyed it. Thanks for the sweet note.
This recipe is great! It was a lot of work to make this pizza but I’m so happy to say that it was completely worth it! My husband and I ate the whole pizza, just the two of us! This was not only the first time I made a couliflower crust pizza, it was also the first time I ate one! I had low expectations for myself, as a newbie, but I did it! Both my husband and I were so impressed at how delicious this recipe is!