Greek Cauliflower Crust Pizza

To Celebrate My Engineered Nutrition's 2nd Birthday, I'm bringing it back with another Cauliflower Crust Pizza! The first recipe I started the website with, enjoy!

Greek Cauliflower Crust Pizza | My Engineered Nutrition

Can you believe that My Engineered Nutrition just turn TWO on May 5th?! 

If you are thinking "Wow! No I can't believe it!" you are in good company, as I couldn't believe it either. So much so, that the actual birthday came and went before I even realized it...

Greek Cauliflower Crust Pizza | My Engineered Nutrition

But after shortly realizing it was my baby website's birthday, I got to the kitchen and created something I hope you love as much as I do. It seemed fitting to celebrate the 2nd year of my blog with an original: Cauliflower Crust Pizza. That's right, I love my original BBQ Chicken Pizza so much I had to do a spinoff! While I would love to take credit for coming up with this idea all on my own, it was actually a recommendation by my bestie. I often turn to her to ask her what I should make next because she's made many of my recipes and we share similar tastes (i.e. we both love food...a lot). 

She mentioned that she's been into making Greek pizzas lately and I knew I had to copy that. I am part Greek after all, and I grew up eating this familiar profile of flavors. There is no traditional pizza sauce to be found on this pizza, instead the cauliflower crust is topped with olive oil and fresh garlic. Then, it is really a free form of whatever toppings you are feeling or have on hand! For this little number, I used feta cheese, artichoke hearts, kalamata olive, pepperoncini, red onions, grape tomatoes and basil...whew, that's a mouthful. You'll notice I don't have exact measurements for the ingredients below - let's not overcomplicate things. I've made things extra simple too with my step-by-step guide to making the Cauliflower Crust

Greek Cauliflower Crust Pizza | My Engineered Nutrition

Seeing that it IS My Engineered Nutrition's 2nd birthday, I figured I'd share some fun stats! I am an engineer after all, and I love nothing more than looking at analytics and numbers.

In total, I've had over 104,000 page views in the last 2 years. Wow. Just wow. THANK YOU to everyone who supports me in my fun little hobby. It means the world to me.

My Top 10 Recipes over the last 2 years were:

  1. Pumpkin Protein Donuts (over 18,000 views!!)
  2. Cajun Baked Salmon
  3. Sweet Potato Stacks
  4. Fluffy Protein Pancakes
  5. Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Muffins
  6. How to Build an EPIC Cheese and Charcuterie Board
  7. Coffee Cake Protein Muffins
  8. Roasted Chicken Breast
  9. Chocolate Coconut Protein Donuts
  10. BBQ Chicken Pizza with Cauliflower Crust

Some of these really surprised me for being in the Top 10 and others I'm not surprised at all. I did slow down at posting and only brought you 14 new recipes this year. I'm hoping to be more regular this year and my goal is to post at least two recipes per month! 

As always, I'd love to hear your suggestions for recipes! Shoot me an email at myengineerednutrition@gmail.com

Greek Cauliflower Crust Pizza | My Engineered Nutrition

Greek Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Prep Time: 20-25 minutes

Bake Time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients

For the cauliflower crust

  • 1 small to medium head of cauliflower, yielding about 3.5 cups flowerets (350g)
  • 1/3 cup shredded fat-free or low-fat monterey jack cheese (1.5 oz)
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tbsp coconut flour
  • 1 tsp italian seasoning (equal parts dried oregano, basil, thyme and rosemary)
  • 1/4 tsp salt

For the pizza toppings

  • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp fresh garlic, minced
  • Salt
  • 1 oz feta cheese, crumbed
  • Artichoke hearts (about 2 whole canned, sliced)
  • Red onion, sliced
  • Pepperoncini, sliced
  • Grape tomatoes, halved
  • Fresh basil, sliced
  • Kalamata olives, halved

Directions

First, start with the the cauliflower crust. You can follow my step-by-step instructions here: Cauliflower Crust How-To

  1. Preheat oven to 450°F. 
  2. Chop cauliflower into small flowerets, discarding of leavings and stem. Place cauliflower into food processor and pulse until you get a "cauliflower rice" constancy.
  3. Transfer cauliflower to a microwave-safe dish and microwave on high for 3 minutes. This steams the cauliflower.
  4. Once cooked, transfer cauliflower again to a tea towel lined bowl. Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes. When cool enough to handle, gather up the towel and squeeze the cauliflower into a ball -- and continue to squeeze! I can't stress enough how important it is to squeeze ALL the liquid out of the cauliflower. You should have about 1/2 cup of liquid when you are done. The end result is a ball of cauliflower "flour".
  5. In a mixing bowl combine cauliflower, shredded monterey jack cheese, egg white, coconut flour, seasonings and salt. Mix with hands until ingredients are well incorporated.
  6. On a parchment lined baking sheet flatten out dough, shaping into a thin round disk, about 1/4" thick.
  7. Bake in a 450° oven for 10-15 minutes or until it begins to turn golden.

Assemble the pizza.

  1. Once baked, rub olive oil, minced garlic and salt over the crust.
  2. Add the remaining toppings to the pizza..
  3. Bake again at 450°F for 10 minutes or until cheese has melted slightly and onions have cooked.
  4. Remove pizza from oven and allow to cool slightly before slicing.

Nutrition Information (approximate for 1 whole pizza):

330 calories - 20g Protein, 31g Carbohydrates (11g Fiber), 14g Fat

Posted on May 8, 2017 and filed under Recipes, Vegetables/Sides, Baking.