The secrets to cauliflower-crust pizza that you'll want to devour
When it comes to trendy foods, I'm no early adopter. It took me years to get past my quibbles with quinoa, to dive into the mysteries of chia pudding and, most recently, to tackle a cauliflower pizza crust.
As with the first two items on that list, the cauliflower pizza I tried a couple of years ago was so disappointing (soggy), I dismissed the entire concept as not worth the time. But then I got on the cauliflower rice bandwagon, making it virtually every week and playing around with various spices and add-ins. I had come around to the fact that cauliflower is super versatile, so I was a little more open-minded when my fiance, trying to cut down on carbs, mail-ordered frozen crusts from a California company (Cali'flour Foods) and asked me to try them out.
When I made them as instructed, they tasted good. But I didn't like the soft texture, which couldn't stand up to any toppings. When I cooked the crusts a lot longer, they became crisper, holding up better under caramelized onions, roasted squash and blue cheese that I added in a second round of baking.
So my first lesson was to push the baking time. Next, when I tried making the crusts from scratch, I learned another crucial step: squeezing the cauliflower in a kitchen towel to get rid of as much liquid as possible. That helps avoid sogginess.
That technique was from a recipe in "Eat More Greens" by Zita Steyn (Quadrille, 2017), and it included one final tip. I followed her instructions to avoid baking the toppings on the crust at all.
Between her approach and mine, we have a winner.