Another Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Adventure: Cauliflower-Crust Mini Pizzas

Using my recipe for the cheesy cauliflower "breadsticks" as my guide, I made mini pizzas.  Here's a photo tour of what I did.

Once again, I got too excited about mixing everything together and completely forgot the step where you cook the cauliflower and then squeeze out all the liquid.  I skip ahead to the part where you add the egg, cheese, and seasonings, and then I try to microwave it a tiny bit (but don't cook the egg!).  These still turned out pretty good even with that error.

If you want to make this vegetarian, definitely use vegetarian-friendly toppings.  

The ingredients.

This time I couldn't find an important part for the chute attachment on my food processor like I used for the breadsticks, so this time I used the cup part and chopped up the cauliflower that way.  It works quite well! 

I jumped the gun, that's not cooked cauliflower!

A big bowl of cauliflower mixture.

Even though I forgot the step of cooking the cauliflower before adding the cheese and egg and seasoning, I went ahead and scooped out spoonfuls of cheesy, seasoned cauliflower mixture.  Flatten them out a bit but try to ensure all the pieces are touching so they form a cohesive structure when the egg cooks.

shaping out rounds

Pre-cook the cauliflower crusts for a few minutes (until lightly browned).  I really don't recall how long, but it was longer than I expected.  Probably because I missed that first step in the microwave and left the mixture too wet! 

After some initial cooking, add sauce.

Add sauce and toppings after that initial stint in the oven.  Pick your favorite ones and customize! We used chopped up pepperoni, onion, bell pepper, black olives, shredded mozzarella, and sliced pepperjack.  Oh, and mushrooms on mine. 

cute mini pizzas waiting to go back in the oven.

Put them in the oven for a few minutes until they're done to your liking and the cheese is melted.

Browned and waiting to go in my belly!

Verdict

Sonny D barely touched his, he might have had a single bite, but I don't think it was because he was suspicious about what it was made of, but rather because he's a toddler and sometimes they just don't eat much.  Husband Jeff and I ate them and enjoyed them, but I'm sure they would have been better if I had done the first steps properly so they would brown up more and be a bit more solid.  I can't believe I did it wrong twice (for the breadsticks and for these mini pizzas)!

There is barely a touch of cauliflower-ness to them.  I like cauliflower and so it wasn't an issue, but if you served this to a cauliflower-hater, they might not like them much.  But really, it's a vehicle for the toppings.  I would definitely stick with stronger-flavored toppings, like sausage, pepperoni, etc.  If you went with something bland, the cauliflower flavor might come through even more.

I have to recommend NOT chopping up an entire head of cauliflower, because it ends up being way more than you think it will be.  I ended up freezing the remainder of the chopped up cauliflower mixture and putting it into other things.