If you can make a pizza crust out of cauliflower, why not make miniature pizza crusts out of cauliflower? Unless we're talking about burgers, it's my opinion that most food is better in bite-sized form. Mini foods are cute, easy to manage, and make you feel less guilty about devouring the whole batch… am I right?
One of the main challenges with cauliflower crust is that it tends to be on the soft side – not quite crunchy enough for most people. Downsizing the crust size allows it to crisp up a bit more, which is a definite crowd pleaser. These are fun to make and customize with whatever ingredients you prefer. I like to think of them as pizza rolls or bagel bites – but healthy.
Waaaaayyy back when we started planning our March recipes, the idea of cauliflower pizza bites was discussed. We couldn't squeeze them into March, so it was unanimously decided that they HAD to happen in April. Coincidentally, this just so happened to fit in perfectly with NoshOn.it's #PizzaWeek festivities – it was meant to be!
Since the day we posted it, our original cauliflower pizza crust has been one of our favorites, and one of our most popular recipes. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we repurposed the recipe and made bite-sized crusts. They are so much fun to shape, sauce, and top – and they're definitely easier to get crispy.
If you're a pizza lover [and who isn't?], you simply have to head over to the official round-up page for #PizzaWeek. We're sharing the Wednesday limelight with three other fantastic blogs: The Kitchen Prep, Dine & Dish, and FoodieCrush.
At NoshOn.It, you can see all of the blogs who are participating in this week of carby, herby, saucy, cheesy, crispy goodness and check out their take on pizza. The recipes range from dessert pizza, to vegan pizza, to pizza casserole, to cornmeal crust pizza – there is something for every pizza palate.
Mini Cauliflower Crust Pizza Bites
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 18 1x
Description
Healthy bite-sized pizzas that are easy to make and perfect for snacking.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups food processed and drained cauliflower
- ½ cup almond meal
- 1 ½ tablespoons ground flax seed (for flax eggs)
- ⅔ cup water (for flax eggs)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- black pepper to taste
- Toppings:
- pizza sauce
- cheese
- spinach
- mushrooms
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 420º and place a pizza stone inside to preheat.
- In a small bowl, combine flax and water and mix using a fork. This is your flax egg mixture.
- Add cauliflower to a food processor and pulse until well ground. Pick out the larger, unprocessed pieces. Squeeze out the excess water from the processed cauliflower using cheesecloth.
- Combine all ingredients into a large bowl including the cauliflower. Add in flax eggs and stir using a wooden spoon.
- Remove pizza stone from oven and cover with parchment paper. Form 2" pizza crusts and place onto the stone.
- Pre-bake the crusts for 15 minutes.
- Remove and add sauce and toppings. Bake for 8-10 more minutes until cheese is melted or toppings are cooked. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Category: Main
- Cuisine: Pizza
Hi! I tried making this and my cauliflower dough just sticks to the parchment paper and doesn't get off :( What am I doing wrong?
Hi Sania! I have a couple of guesses at why your cauliflower dough is sticking – 1. You may need to squeeze more water out of the cauliflower/the mixture may be too wet. Or 2. I recommend using a preheated pizza stone (instead of parchment-lined baking sheet). This causes the dough to start cooking immediately upon contact, which helps it to stand up better. I hope this helps!
Nothing I make every turns out :( I follow directions and the crust never gets crisp and falls apart.
Hi Kristy –
Sorry this recipe didn't work out for you. Cauliflower crust never gets quite as crispy as traditional crusts, but if it was crumbly, I would recommend trying to squeeze out more water – as much as possible – before combining ingredients.
i LOVE pizza and i recently became Gluten-Free because of my low thyroid and other health issues, so thank you for making such a yummy recipe that my picky boyfriend will eat! anything hes not used to he hates, so this recipe got 2 thumbs up from him!
Could i switch Flax seeds for chia seeds?
I think that would work - chia seeds become gelatinous like flax when water is added. That's a great question, and now I'm dying to know! Glad that you liked it the first time around. :)
Hi! I wanted to try these since you published the recipe. Today was my lucky day. Tasty, however, they weren't as crispy. They may have been to thick? Do you make them really thin and they crisp up better? I also made the chocolate avocado pudding! Yummy!!!
Flax eggs are in the recipe for cauliflower pizza crusts, but aren't listed in the ingredients! What are flax eggs?
Flax eggs are made by mixing ground flax and water together in a bowl. They mimic the consistency of eggs when combined. :)
Is the cauliflower supposed to be steamed first or left raw? Thanks!
Just left raw - the easier, the better!
How did you make the mini size crust? What did you use?
We just shaped them with our hands into small discs. :)
These sound delish, any idea whether you could freeze them?
We haven't tried it. They would probably be fine, as long they are sealed airtight. :)
Is it possible to substitute the almond meal for something else due to allergies?
Thank you
I'd definitely like to try these. I have one question though. When the recipe calls for food-processed and drained cauliflower, is that steamed cauliflower that's then run through the food processor? Were you starting from fresh or frozen cauliflower? Thanks so much!
We used fresh cauliflower, and not steamed. Just washed, chopped, food processed, and drained with cheesecloth to remove the moisture that cauliflower naturally has.
I love these beautiful little bites!
So yummy! Can we trade pizzas -- we wanna try yours!