Keto Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza Crust (Gluten Free)
This amazing, thin crust, cauliflower pizza recipe needs just 5 ingredients and it’s low carb, gluten free, nut free, keto and I promise you, does not even taste like cauliflower! 2 slices equals 3 g net carbs!
Keto Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe
Cauliflower can me made into some amazing things! If you’re on a low carb or keto diet, this cauliflower pizza crust recipe will satisfy that pizza craving! It’s quick, easy and delicious!
I’m here today sharing my take on the cauliflower pizza that truly curbs that greasy pizza craving you so desire and it does not even have a hint of cauliflower taste!
I’m sure some of you have attempted a cauliflower pizza before in hopes it would satisfy that carb loving craving. And I bet you’ve been disappointed. Even a store bought keto pizza crust will not compare to my recipe for cauliflower pizza crust!
Grams of Carbs in Keto Cauliflower Pizza Crust versus White Flour Pizza Dough
Traditional pizza dough made with white flour will have 26 grams of total carbs per slice, and that is not including any of your favorite toppings, just the regular pizza crust.
My cauliflower crust recipe has just 4 total carbs per serving. One serving is 2 Slices which is amazing and perfect for those following a low carb and/or keto diet.
It curbs that craving and you don’t feel deprived at all! It passed the test with my picky children and hubby and the teenager who hates anything cauliflower ate a piece.
Can I Swap the Parmesan Cheese?
When I’ve made cauliflower pizza in the past, most recipes always seem to include mozzarella cheese.
I have these tasty Cheesy Cauliflower “Bread Sticks” that use mozzarella, but weren’t strong enough in my opinion to use as a pizza in order to add toppings other than cheese.
So I decided a change in the cheese was in order. If you think about it, mozzarella is a moisture rich cheese and that is why any cauliflower pizzas that include it, are never going to have that ability to actually pick up with your hands and eat it.
I decided a hard dry cheese was needed to create that texture I so desired, that ability to truly eat this pizza with your hands, not a fork and knife. Parmesan cheese was my choice!
So the answer to swapping parmesan cheese with a softer cheese, is a firm No!
Crispy Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza Crust
After it cooks if you want to firm it up even more before diving in, you can cut it and place the pizza slices on a wire rack. This will help it not to get soggy on the baking pan before you dig in.
How to Make Perfect Keto Cauliflower Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
Fresh cauliflower florets or riced cauliflower
Parmesan Cheese
Onion powder and garlic powder
Egg
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Place cauliflower in a food processor and pulse until crumbly and rice like. You can skip this step if you purchased cauliflower rice. Just thaw it in a large bowl and squeeze out excess water before using.
Heat the cauliflower rice in a dry skillet over medium high heat, stirring often to remove as much moisture as possible, about 10 minutes. Once it looks somewhat dry, add parmesan cheese and seasonings.
Continue to cook cauliflower mixture on medium heat until the parmesan is melted.
Remove from the heat and stir in the egg.
Use parchment on a 12 inch round pizza pan or baking sheet pan and spray with olive oil cooking spray. Spread out the “dough” and flatten as best you can.
Use another piece of parchment paper on top if it’s too sticky for your hands to spread and make the edges slightly higher to form a crust.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Add your favorite pizza toppings and bake another 10 minutes. Cut your low-carb pizza crust into 8 large slices and serve for pizza night!
Best Tips for Perfect Cauliflower Crust Pizza
You can buy a small head of cauliflower and pulse it in a food processor until it has a rice-like consistency.
A small head is about 4 cups florets, once riced if you have more than 10 ounces in weight, do not include. Make sure to weigh out the 10 ounces on a scale. The raw cauliflower does not need to be precooked.
You could also just buy cauliflower rice in the frozen section in Walmart and other supermarkets. My frozen cauliflower rice was a perfect 10 ounce bag which will be a time saver in the making of this pizza.
I recommend buying parmesan and grating it yourself for best results.
Nutrition info does not include the tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni, it’s for the crust alone.
My Quick Marinara sauce is fabulous for this pizza along with some Italian seasoning!
I used a 12 inch in diameter round pizza pan.
How to Store Cauliflower Low Carb Gluten Free Pizza Crust
Please store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Can I freeze this keto pizza recipe?
Yes, you can make this cauliflower pizza crust and freeze as is before baking. Keep on the round pizza pan and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for up to 3 months.
When ready to serve, remove frozen crust and thaw on counter for 30 minutes then bake as directed. It may take a 10-15 minutes longer than a fresh unfrozen pizza.
Alternately, to save time, you could bake the crust as directed, allow it to cool completely then wrap and freeze. When you are ready to reheat, it won’t be as long in the oven to enjoy your low carb crust.
More Low Carb Keto Cauliflower Recipes
Keto Low Carb Pizza Crust Recipe
Keto Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza
Ingredients
- 10 ounces cauliflower rice or 4 cups florets
- 1 cup parmesan cheese grated
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 egg large (1/4 cup liquid)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Place cauliflower in a food processor and pulse until crumbly and rice like.
- Heat the cauliflower rice in a dry skillet over medium high heat, stirring often to remove as much moisture as possible, about 10 minutes. Once it looks somewhat dry, add parmesan cheese and seasonings.
- Continue to cook on medium heat until the parmesan is melted.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the egg.
- Use parchment on a 12 inch round pizza pan and spray with olive oil cooking spray. Spread out the “dough” and flatten as best you can. use another piece of parchment paper on top if it’s too sticky for your hands to spread and make the edges slightly higher to form a crust.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Add your favorite toppings and bake another 10 minutes. Cut into 8 large slices and serve!
Notes
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
Made this last night and it was amazing. The whole family loves it. Thanks you!
I made this tonight and it was soooooo delicious we also had to eat it with a fork but we loved it so much. We just started the keto diet and I hope we can find more recipes like this. Thank you so much for posting this.
This is such a great recipe especially since it does not use creamed cheese like most do! But since I’ve made the original recipe so many times I’ve tweeked it a bit. After you cook the riced cauliflower to evaporate the water let it cool and squeeze it in a cheese cloth. You can’t imagine how much water it will release which results in a crispier crust. I also add additional seasonings to the crust such as garlic powder and red pepper flakes to give the crust more seasoning. Also if you pre heat a pizza stone in the oven and transfer the pizza on it for step 2 it also helps crisp the crust. Love this recipe its a keeper!
I love this pizza! I’ve made it like a dozen times.
If you cook it longer the crust gets crispier also,
I add a fourth of teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes to it.
Trying this recipe tonight! Do you know if “dough” can be frozen and eaten later? Perhaps half-cooked, like other pizza doughs? Thanks in advance!
I’m very curious to know this as well. I’m facing the possibility of hospitalization for bed rest and looking for keto recipes that I can make now for my husband to get him through the month I’ll be out of comission if it happens. Keto has basically cured his type 2 diabetes and I’d hate to see him get unwell again. Yes he’s a grownup and can theoretically cook for himself … But realistically he’d be back to Domino’s every night within a week like when he was a bachelor lol.
I have been making cauliflower pizza crust for years. This is by far the easiest and best tasting recipe I have ever tried. We’ had it twice this week and I plan to make some for the freezer. Thank you!
Thank you so much!
Made this tonight. Very good. The bad…I aren’t the whole thing.
What do I need to do differently to have a crispy crust? I had to eat mine with a fork. I just cooked it in my non-stick skillet in the oven.
Omg! I was on Keto for a week ( lost 8 pounds woohoo) and I wanted to make celebratory cauliflower pizza. I found your recipe and my boyfriend and I loved it! It’s so good 🙂
Omg I just made it and it came out amazing . Very easy to make and I’m not even a cook I’m so surprised. 5 stars
I added the egg while the mixture was in the skillet and I think that’s why it took longer to stick together and it came out a bit too salty for my taste. It was my first time making this but overall I think it’s ok. I did burn it a little lol but i like it extra crispy. I think next time i’m going to add half a cup of parmesan instead next time.
A little confused with step 6. What I interpreted it as, was to put parchment on pizza pan, oil it, spread the mixture on top, and put another piece of parchment paper on top to flatten it, then remove the top parchment paper and then bake?? I had issues with the crust sticking to the parchment paper even after baking. Maybe because we made it too thin? I’m not really sure. I’d like to try this again, any recommendations would help!
Maybe you just need to grease it a whole lot more. It is sticky and you may need to peel it off the parchment or use a spatula under it to really get it off the parchment. If you allow it cool a bit before trying to remove it from the parchment that will help too.
Instead of parchment paper I used non-stick aluminum foil without olive oil and it slid right off.
going to try tonight – can crust be made ahead of time? Thanks
Maybe if you bake it then let it cool, refrigerate and then when ready to have it for dinner reheat about 5 minutes, add toppings and cook to melt cheese on top.
Hello, I was just reading recipes for cauliflower pizza dough and whoever it was talking about it says she cooked the crust as in the recipe, about 20 minutes, but then flipped it over for another ten minutes in the oven…exact crispiness, I hear! I’m going to try this today for our dinner.
The flavor was great, but the crust remained mushy despite cooking it for an additional 5 minutes. Could it have been due to using dairy-free parmesan cheese?
What an AMAZING recipe! My family and I thank you to the moon & baaaaaack! It tastes like thin crust yummy pizza! We use stoneware and leave iton a little longer, but otherwise it’s perfect! Thank you for sharing this ???
I found leaving it whole on a rack to cool down left mw with a crispy crust pizza.
Hi,
I made this to spec and unfortunately I wasn’t able to pick it up and eat it. I had to use a fork and knife. Any suggestions?
Thank you
I did too!!
I loved this! I hate trying to squeeze the cauliflower through a towel … no need with this recipe! Thank you so much! PS First time the crust stuck togather too!
Thank you Nancy!
I made this today, it was spot on, delicious, didn’t have a taste of caulflower at all. It was a perfect pizza I am amazed. Thank you so much! I will try your other recipes. Would you say is this acceptable to eat once a week? :3
Absolutely! thank you!
How much Parmesan by weight rather than volume? Different graters can produce very different volumes for the same weight.
Thanks for the recipe! I made it today and enjoyed the flavor. I didn’t use parchment b/c I have a cast iron pizza pan. My pizza turned out ‘floppy’ perhaps b/c of the pan. I’ll try it again with the parchment and perhaps longer in the oven.
Any tips on making it ‘non-floppy’ would be appreciated!
Thanks!
-L
The pan has to be preheated along with the oven so it is already hot when you place the crust on. Should come out crispy.
Agree! This recipe wasn’t good. Crispy on the outside and soggy in the center. Had to eat it with a knife and fork, I like to pick my pizza up by the hands. Probably need some sort of flour perhaps almond flour? Also one bag of Couliflower rice made a very small personal size pizza.
Wjat would you suggest when using fresh, not cooked cauliflower?
*What
Hi Laura, not sure I understand your question since I am using fresh non cooked cauliflower in this recipe.
Any suggestions on what to use instead of Parmesan cheeses for a dairy free option?
I wonder if nutritional yeast might work?
Go veggie parmesan cheese
Also, using parmesan cheese makes it Non keto. You can’t call it a keto recipe since keto is “cheese free”.
I’m not sure where you’ve gotten info on keto but keto is definitely NOT dairy free unless one chooses to be as a personal choice.
Absolutely correct. That person must be confusing paleo with keto, which have many similarities, but no dairy in paleo but allowed in keto.
Yes. You can. Not all Kind but there are a lot Of choices!
Keto is most definitely NOT dairy free! Who told you such a thing??
KETO IS NOT DAIRY FREE AND YOU SHOULD REALLY MAYBE BE INFORMED ON WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT BEFORE YOU POST IT
Be nice. No need to yell ?. People are learning all the time.
You can use 1/2 cup cornmeal like I just did. It’s in the oven, so excited!
Corn meal in addition to the recipe or replacing something in the recipe?
I really want to try this… quick question – if using frozen riced cauliflower do you thaw it first or just cook from frozen?
Nope I’ve used it straight from the freezer when I tried it, and let it cook on the skillet for about 10 minutes until it looks less wet.
Excellent thanks. This was going to be my question!
Wow, looks delicious. I’ll be making this on Friday.
I heard a helpful tip for making riced cauliflower: Put fresh cauliflower pieces into a blender jar and add lots of water, to an inche above the cauli pieces. Pulse a few seconds until it resembles rice, then strain out the water. If also using the stem, do it separately as the stem parts take more pulsing. Thanks for the recipe!