I was planning to share a quinoa, kale and tofu skillet recipe this morning, however plans changed after I had one bite of the pizza I made last night for dinner.
Don’t get me wrong, the kale and tofu dish is great (I’ll still post the recipe sometime this week). However, this pizza isn’t your average pie and judging from the response I got when I posted an Instragram photo on Facebook last night, the recipe needed to be shared right away. The thing that makes this pizza so unique is that the crust is made out of cauliflower – yes, the vegetable!
I honestly can’t remember when or where I first saw the idea for pizza made with a cauliflower crust (probably Pinterest), but I know that it has been done many times before. I used this blog post from DAMY Health as a guide and came up with a variation of the recipe. I was a little skeptical about using cauliflower to make a pizza crust, but trust me when I say that it’s pretty amazing. You can taste the cauliflower flavor (which I like) but it still tastes just like pizza – cheesy and delicious. The edges of the crust even get a little crunchy like regular pizza does.
So yes, pizza CAN BE healthy! If you cut this crust into 8 slices, each piece of crust (without toppings) has only 50 calories, 2 carbs and 5 grams of protein! There’s no need to feel guilty about eating a few slices, several times a week. 
- ½ head cauliflower (about 2 cups riced)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 cup part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- Pre-heat oven to 400° F.
- Prep a cookie sheet or pizza stone. You can grease the cookie sheet or use greased aluminum foil. It will stick if you don’t grease it properly. (I used a Pampered Chef baking stone, which doesn’t require any prep if it’s well seasoned.)
- Remove the stems and leaves from your cauliflower and chop the florets into chunks. Add to a food processor (I used my Vitamix) and pulse just until the texture is similar to rice. If you don’t have a food processor or Vitamix, you can grate the cauliflower with a cheese grater or chop it.
- Sauté cauliflower “rice” in a non-stick skillet over medium heat and cook until translucent, approximately 6-8 minutes. (You can use the microwave for this as well. Just place cauliflower in an uncovered microwave-safe bowl and cook for 8 minutes.)
- In a bowl combine the cooked cauliflower with all remaining ingredients.
- Spread dough out evenly over foil (or stone) – about ¼ to ⅓ of an inch thick. The pizza should be about 9-10 inches in diameter.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is golden, crispy on the edges and cooked through the middle.
- Remove the crust from the oven.
- Top with pizza sauce and toppings. Be careful not to add too many heavy toppings as you don’t want to weigh down the crust.
- Broil the pizza for 5 minutes, or until the toppings are hot and the cheese is melted. Allow the pizza to cool for 2-3 minutes then cut and serve immediately.
You can top the pizza with whatever you like, just make sure the toppings are already cooked since you’ll only be broiling the pizza for a few minutes. I spread on a layer of my basil lima bean hummus, my favorite homemade pizza sauce (recipe from Ashley of the Edible Perspective), roasted squash and zucchini, roasted eggplant and a sprinkle of the shredded mozzarella, about 2 Tablespoons. The crust already has cheese so you don’t need much on top. Also keep in mind that the cauliflower crust isn’t quite as hearty as most regular dough-based crusts so you don’t want to weigh it down with a ton of ingredients. Keep is simple.
I found that it’s easier to eat this pizza with a fork/knife. Once you get to only a few bites left, it’s fine to pick up with your hands, but it tends to collapse if you try to pick up the whole slice early on.
Overall I LOVED this pizza and will definitely be making it again sometime soon – perhaps I’ll even try a vegan version next time. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!
I hope you have a wonderful start to your week! I’m pumped because we’re headed to Boston this weekend for a wedding and have all day Friday to hang out in the city. If you have any recommendations of things we should do and see while there – restaurants, breweries, history stuff, etc. I’d love for you to leave them in the comment section.
Last but not least, the office arm challenge exercises for week 6 are up so if you’re following along, definitely check those out.
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Just made this for dinner tonight and it was DELICIOUS!!! thank u for sharing the recipe.
Made this for dinner tonight. Just chucked on what veges I had and it was amazing!!! so blown away by how easy it was to make and how yum the base was. Going to think of a bit more adventurous toppings to put on it when I make it next week!!
Loved this recipe! Changed up the toppings and even my veggie fearing spouse loved it!
I just made this recipe tonight and loved it! The only thing was that mine turned out super small- do you know the reason for this?
I do not have a food processor so I chopped the cauliflower up into really small bits. My pizza ended up barely serving 2. It was, however, delicious.
hmm.. I can think of two reasons it may have turned out smaller… maybe your head of cauliflower was smaller or perhaps you didn’t spread the “dough” as thin as I did. You could always double it next time.
If you are worried about the size of the bits and don’t have a food processor, I chopped my small, but when I removed it from the skillet and added the other ingredients I used a hand blender. I have made cauliflower rice with a friend and their processor, but in a pinch this minimized my fear that the texture would not be satisifying. Trouble was I could have eaten the crust without the toppings. Sooo good!!!
Ok…yes…sounded crazy, so had to make it to find out. Pizza was awesome…..small though, barely enough for two…for a lunch snack. Will double all ingredients next time. As it was a pizza i added some Pepperoni and Red Onion, and Ground Sausage (pre-cook onion and sausage)
Thanks for this recipe! It was delicious, and sooooo easy to make! I can’t wait to make it again, with different toppings! Did not even taste the cauliflower! Looking forward to making more recipes from your blog!
I have made this twice and the first time it was amazing. I loved it. However please everyone take note DO NOT USE FOIL. The first time I made this I baked on parchment/baking paper and it worked perfectly, but today I ran out and decided that spraying some foil would be enough to stop it sticking. Nope, melted to the foil and had to be thrown out. I was so annoyed because it takes me ages to make (no food processor) and it smelt so good cooking too. Grr. So THANK YOU for the wonderful recipe but I just want to warn others about the foil. Thanks again.
I tried making it for the first time today and used foil. I ended up spraying the foil with a calorie free “oil” type spray. It stuck a little but was able to remove. It turned out great! I cut up 2 little turkey sausage links, sauteed bell peppers, mushrooms and onions. I also added a little garlic salt. I think I found one of my new favorite go-to no bread dishes
This pizza came out amazing.. I had about three cups of riced cauliflower once sautéed and used two eggs and two cloves of garlic same amount of cheese and it was pretty big rectangle shaped pizza
I also just sprinkled Italian seasoning over the entire dough prior to baking… This is better than real pizza..but I used turkey pepperoni and sliced olives as my toppings with a handful of 6 blend Italian cheese all over the top..thanks so much for this recipe makes low carb eating easy
Yay! I’m so glad the pizza came out and you enjoyed it!
Awesome! I’m so glad that it came out well.
I am finally going to try this! I want to make it so i can eat it at work the next day. How would you suggest i prepare it the night before? Thanks!!
This recipe is so great! I do not even miss regular pizza crust when I eat the cauliflower crust. I have passed this recipe on to many of my friends and everyone loves it! Thank you, I finally don’t feel deprived of pizza while on a diet:)
Made this recipe last week for dinner! I couldn’t believe how much it tasted like ‘regular’ pizza! Was wondering if I could make the crust ahead of time and freeze it? Thoughts?
I’m not sure if it would work, but you could definitely try it. Let me know if you do end up trying it.
I riced a ton of cauliflower and keep it in a tupperware for when I want to nuke it and cook some pizza up!
I was putting off making this because I was skeptical and thought it was going to be one more failed “alternative” to gluten-laden favorite. I really am pleasantly surprised and I even made my kids taste test it – two thumbs up! I can’t believe I can eat this and not worry. Thank you SO much for sharing the recipe.
Oh this looks wonderful. I’m wondering … do you think this could be veganized? Perhaps using flax eggs instead of a real one and maybe nutritional yeast instead of the cheese?
You could try using flax eggs and nutritional yeast. Definitely let me know if you do!
I made this for dinner tonight, worked out perfectly!! It was super tasty, couldn’t believe it was cauliflower. I used thinly sliced eggplant, pumpkin, mushroom, zucchini and capsicum for the toppings, really don’t need much more cheese on top.
thanks for sharing this great recipe will definitely be making again
I made this for dinner and it was wonderful. We found it flavorful and filling. I made two single servings with this recipe as my spouse and I enjoy different toppings. I topped mine with peppers, mushrooms, black olives and a little cheese. My spouse topped his with mushrooms , cheese, meat, and black olives. I am looking forward to making this again but would spread my “dough” thinner next time. Also, would there be a way to make this crust crunchy? Thanks for the recipe. It didn’t feel
like a low carb meal at all!
Yay for gluten free pizza! This was awesome! I used my Pampered Chef pizza stone as well, but I found it stuck a little… maybe mine isn’t seasoned properly? Anyway, we used pesto for our sauce and a light layer of mozzarella cheese, topped with thinly sliced tomatoes and it turned out great! Thank you for sharing
As you can see in the picture, our stone is seasoned a ton so that might be the reason I had no trouble with sticking. So glad that you liked the pizza anyway.
Hello quick question how much fat do you think the whole pizza had
I will never buy pizza again, this was beyond my expectations and next time i am going to make a bigger one.
Thank you so much for this recipe, my kids also enjoyed it
Yay! So glad that you loved it.
This recipe is so easy and always turns out so well! Thanks so much for posting! My boyfriend and I even used it to make a vegetarian taco pizza last night. Yum!
DELICIOUS RECIPE! Although I was sceptical at first because I’m not a big fan of cauliflower, the flavor of the crust was subtle and delicious. I made a vegetarian version and eating it was totally guilt-free. I’ve posting the link to this recipe on my FB page and in a nutrition group. Thank you for sharing it!
This was insanely good.
I ended up eating the whole thing *hides*, but I’d just gotten back from a long run and was starving, so. 
I’ll be a little more measured next time. Still, that just goes to show how tasty it was! Thanks for the recipe!
This sounds amazing! Do you think this can work as a crust for mini quiches, made in muffin tins?
Hey,
I want to try this. Would you know of something to use instead of the egg for a vegan?
You can probably use a flax egg. I think it’a 1tbsp of flax to 3 tbsp of water for 1 egg
You could try using flax eggs and nutritional yeast. Definitely let me know if you do!
You could use the egg replacer brand. You can get it at whole foods. If youre a vegan and dont know about this you really really should go buy it!
This was delicious!! I goofed up and forgot to cook the cauliflower the first time and I didn’t even notice a difference tonight when I actually cooked the cauliflower! Both were great – such an incredible recipe. Thank you! This will be a regular meal now!
So glad you liked it Stephanie. Good to know that it can be made with cooked or uncooked cauliflower.
Just found you and soo glad I did. Thanks so much for sharing but have a crazy idea for you
Did you ever think of making a few of your great recipes and selling in the frozen section of a store ( for those culinary challenged ) I think it would be a big seller ! the quiche sounds great too
Hi there!!
I’ve just made this pizza and I’ve to say it’s DELICIOUS! I put 2 cloves of garlic in the base and it was SO yumi, added some tomatoe/basil sauce and some roasted vegs (pumpkins, sweet potatoes) + tomatoes and ham. Wonderful! Thanks for sharing this recipe, I love your website, it’s such an inspiration for me and I’m looking forward to reading more of your recipes!
Céline from France
Just made this. Looked great, tastes like crap. What a waste of an hour and ingredients.
Sorry you didn’t like it Nicole.
How would you consider this a waste of time? You try things that are healthier for you, and sometimes you don’t like them. Sometimes you do. Spending the time to find out what you like or dislike is worth it.
I made this recipe and I am in LOVE!!! Thank you so much for sharing! It came out perfect.
Delicious. Made it the other night and will definitely make again. I doubled and it made a good sized 12-inch pizza. Also doubled the garlic because we love garlic.
My stone wasnt seasoned enough so as it was almost done I scraped it off and put on a cookie sheet and make little mini pizzas.
Thinking of making little mini breadsticks and dipping in marinara for this Friday!!
Thanks for the great recipe!
So, I kind of stumbled upon your recipe as I have recently been focused on eating without flour and sugar, and I just have to say, you have convinced me that great pizza is possible with cauliflower. Simply amazing.
This recipe is the greatest discovery ever. I LOVE pizza but regular pizza is not on my diet. This is the 3rd time I’m making it. And it’s really filling, I can only eat about half as much as I could eat with regular pizza.
Question: was thinking of trying this tonight for dinner but don’t have any shredded mozzarella cheese on hand, can I use other cheese in replacement? Would it mess up the cauliflower crust? Cant wait to try this!
Hey Teresa. I can’t say for sure because I’ve only made it with shredded mozzarella. Let me know if you ended up trying it with a different cheese.
do you have to cool the cauliflower before making dough?
You can let it cool a few minutes but I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary if you’re in a rush.
Just had this for dinner. Delicious!
Oh, forgot to mention that I don’t eat dairy so I replaced the mozzarella with “mozzarella style” almond cheese and tasted great. May help Teresa above.
I’m so glad that you liked it Christine! What brand was the almond cheese? Or did you make it yourself?
Wish I could say I make my own cheese, haha! It’s made by Lisanatti Foods. Whole Foods sells it. my litte ones (6 & 8) also thought it was pretty tasty! Yay!
Found this post while doing a search for cauliflower pizza crust, but am intrigued by the kale, tofu and quinoa skillet you mentioned…have you posted that recipe yet?? Excited to make this pizza tonight!
Hello,
I am just wondering when you said “the pizza crust of cauliflower isn’t as hearty as most dough-based crusts”, I am confused. I thought this was healthier, as you said Pizza can be healthy as the beginning of the article? Isn’t the point of cauliflower crust to be healthy?
Hi Joanna,
When I said “hearty” I was referring to the ability for the crust to hold a ton of toppings and be held in your hand like most regular dough based crusts. Hope this helps explain it.
Hi Brittany,
Thank you for clarifying that to me! I didn’t know hearty could be used that way. It certainly tasted like a hearty/healthy pizza crust!
Joanna
Quick question: Do add the cheese in the crust mix or only after once you’ve put the veggies? By the look of this picture, it looks like there isn’t any cheese on top.
You add the cheese in the crust mix. I only put a tiny amount of cheese on top since the crust has quite a bit.
I just made this and it is AMAZING. Better than pizza dough in my opinion. I eat gluten, but I was trying this recipe for my gluten free father and it is just fantastic. I will make again and again, thank you! How did you come up with this?
This is amazing… so excited to see a healthy version of pizza. Heading to the grocery store to get the missing components. Excited for Pizza tonight!
I hope you enjoyed it!
This crust looks amazing – have you tried a non-dairy version? I’m thinking of using Daiya – wonder if I could skip the egg or use flax meal – I’ll try it if no one else has and let you know!
Looked like a great time at the Jamba Juice Fit Event – was following another great healthy food and fitness blogger and that’s how I got to your site – you all have a wonderful community!
I used your recipe to make the pizza just now. LOVED it! I added fresh rosemary and oregano leaves to the cauliflower as it chopped in the Vitamix. Then, sauteed on LOWish heat slowly before putting it back into the bowl with the egg. Then, I sprayed my pizza plate with LOTS of olive oil (I didn’t want sticking); then, placed the cauliflower mix into a pizza shape, placed in the oven and cooked. It didn’t get brown enough, so I ended up putting it into the broiler. After browning, I put on fresh tomatoes, jarred pasta sauce, crushed red pepper and Daiya (vegan cheese). Then I put it back into the oven.
The taste was LOVELY. But, it really stuck to the pan. Did I take it out too soon? I’d also like to find an egg substitute so that it can be entirely VEGAN? I have another smaller “crust” in the oven now. I’m going to save it for another day … I ATE the WHOLE thing!
Thanks for sharing your recipe! Any tips would be great!
If you make a Vegan one please post that recipe! Can’t wait to try it!
Just had pizza without the crust due to the carbs. Now I have this recipe I must try! Thanks a million for sharing
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