Ultimate Cauliflower Pizza

Serves: 2

Difficulty: Easy

Eating is one of those small pleasures we can still indulge in during lockdown, but a few weeks in and I for one know the indulgence may have gone a little far. Easter weekend was the highlight with barbequed delights followed by homemade cake, anyone else feel me?

So this week is all about clean eating (trying to up the vegetable content in our meals while reducing refined carbohydrates and sugars). But even when you're focusing on clean eating, pizza doesn't have to be off the table.

I was a bit sceptical when I first heard of cauliflower pizza, firstly because I don't like cauliflower! But it's definitely one of those foods that follow the rule, don't knock it before you try it. So here's a recipe I've created with my partner. There are a lot of other cauliflower base recipes out there which means you can switch out some of the ingredients if you don't have them. That said, this has been my favourite and I promise it's not just because I made it.

Pizza Base

1 cauliflower

1 handful of grated hard cheese (cheddar, manchego, gruyere)

1 ½ tbsp. linseeds or chia seeds (if you don’t have these add a little more cheese)

Small handful of cashews

1 egg

1 tsp of sea salt

Black pepper

Pizza tomato sauce

1 ½ tsp olive oil

½ red onion

200ml passata

2 cloves of garlic

100ml red wine

1 tsp dark brown sugar or date syrup

1 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp chopped fresh rosemary

Big pinch of salt

Black pepper

Pizza Toppings

4 chestnut mushrooms

½ red onion

1 ½ tsp balsamic vinegar

½ tsp brown sugar

Olives

Chorizo

Mozzarella or blue cheese

Equipment

Microwave or steamer

Clean Tea Towel

Food processor

High-Speed Blender

Large baking tray

Baking parchment

Mixing bowl

Grater

Tomato Sauce

If you want to create your own tomato sauce, make sure you make this first. It takes about 45 minutes but it creates a tasty rich flavour for your pizza that you just don’t get with shop-bought versions.

1. Start with chopping you red onion finely. Meanwhile, heat up your olive oil in a small saucepan. Once up to temperature add in your onions and a good pinch of salt then fry for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring them to avoid them sticking to the bottom on your pan.
2. Add your passata and red wine to the pan and stir everything together until the sauce has warmed up all the way through.
3. Crush in your garlic cloves, add the herbs, a pinch more salt and brown sugar or date syrup.
4. Continue to stir for approximately 30 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken. It gets boring, but it is worth the effort.
5. Taste your sauce and add a little more salt if needed as well as black pepper.
6. Put this aside for later.

Pizza Base

1. Preheat your oven to 180c (170c Fan), line the bottom of your baking tray with baking parchment and rub a little oil onto it.
2. Chop up your cauliflower into individual florets, then also chop the base into smaller pieces. With the food processor (or Nutribullet style blender) blitz the cauliflower up into small pieces that resemble rice or couscous. You will need to do them in batches to get even sized pieces.
3. Steam the cauliflower for 5 minutes in a steamer or place in a bowl and cover, and microwave for 1 minute.
4. Meanwhile, put your linseeds into a little bit of water and set them aside. Do the same with your cashew nut (just enough to cover them the cashews).
5. Once your cauliflower has finished cooking wait for it to cool, then place the cauliflower into a clean tea towel and squeeze out the excess water.
6. Grate your cheese and put this into a large mixing bowl. Add your cauliflower along with the salt and pepper.
7. Drain your cashew nuts, holding back a little bit of the water and then blend these in your blender until they form a paste. You can also do this with a pestle and mortar if you do not have a blender.
8. Next drain your linseeds then add these along with your cashew paste to the bowl.
9. Finally, beat your egg, and add this to your bowl as well. Fully mix all of the ingredients until they have bound together.
10. Transfer the base mix onto the baking parchment and flatten it out to create your base. You want to create a thickness of about 5-7mm.
11. Bake your pizza in the oven for 15 minutes.

Pizza Toppings

1. Chop up your cheese, olives and chorizo ready to go onto the pizza and set them to one side.
2. Slice your mushrooms and fry these for 5 minutes in a little oil, with a sprinkle of salt, and set to one side.
3. Next fry you red onion in a little oil, once they are mid-way through cooking add a glug of balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Fry until caramelised.

Bringing it all together

1. Once your pizza base has been cooking for 15 minutes, take it out of the oven. Evenly spread your tomato sauce over the pizza, leaving a 1.5cm border of bare pizza base around the edge.
2. Next add your mushrooms, olives and onions and put the pizza back in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
3. Take your pizza out again, add your cheese and chorizo to the pizza and place back in the oven for 2-3 minutes.
4. Now your delicious and healthy pizza is ready! Take it out and enjoy it straight away.