Attempted Recipe: Fail

I became all inspired to attempt a cauliflower-pizza “dough” recipe , only slightly disheartened by the number of recipes that used cheese or egg as a binder. Quick recap:

I’m currently not eating:

-dairy
-egg
-nuts
-yeasts
-gluten
-peas
-soy
-beans
-lentils
-rice
-potatoes
and for some reason
-cabbage

As you can see, my options are limited in regards to what I can use for the bottom of a pizza. Nevertheless, I persisted. And, at least this time, it was a fail. I have an idea for trying again, but it makes it more time-consuming and this was already time-consuming enough. Ultimately, it is the cauliflower to blame. And further to that point, also my non-dairy cheese, which is okay when sprinkled in soup, but not great on a pizza-type dish.

Cauliflower pizza dough failure

The first thing I did was toast quinoa. Why? Because I made quinoa flour to help fill out the dough. So, I toasted then ground.

Next I shredded the cauliflower. We have a handy attachment to the food processor (best use of Air Miles ever). Another option would be to use a ricer and rice the cauliflower. I don’t have one of those things.

I also didn’t cook the cauliflower because I wanted to try the base made from raw cauliflower first.

Then I sifted the quinoa (top right photo), mixed it into the cauliflower, added rosemary, basil, and salt, and two “eggs.” I used Bob’s Red Mill egg substitute, which uses no gums, and it seemed to work really well for the purpose of binding. I included a close-up of the ingredients.

Then I flattened it out on a baking sheet (on parchment) and baked it for 20 minutes at 400F.

First pic is what it looked like after 20 minutes, unflipped. Second pic is what it looked like after being flipped and cooked an additional 20 minutes.

All this is to say, DON’T TRY THIS WAY AT HOME.

The cauliflower was way too pungent. It held together well, so the substitute egg mix worked. It might have been crispy if it had been flattened thinner. But the smell and the taste – too strong for me (and the next day, the house will still smell like cauliflower cooking)(in case you were wondering).

I read about using shredded chicken as a base instead (which would get crispy, and much less work). I might try that next. Or I might try cooking the cauliflower and wringing out the water (but oh! what a pain that sounds like!)