Clean Eating | Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Ever since discovering the numerous clean-eating substitute recipes made possible by using cauliflower, from 'rice' to 'mash potato' - it's pizza that I've been the most anxious to try for myself!

Calories | 555

INGREDIENTS

Base
1 Cauliflower

1 Egg
15g Cheese

Sauce
6 Plum Tomatoes
1/4 Red Onion

Toppings
1 Courgette
1/2 Avocado
20g Cheese

The World is Pizza Crazy!

A photo of the Earth may as well have pepperonis on it, because we are pizza mad! Did you know that pizza is considered the most popular meal in the world? Over 5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year - which is colossal, but also makes me realise just how much food there is available for everyone in the world :(


   The USA are pizza-eating machines, consuming 100 acres of pizza a day - that's 350 slices a second! 

Are we addicted? Science would say so. Apparently pizza is the most addictive food of all...yup, more so than chocolate. It seems highly processed foods, like pizza as most of us know it, share certain characteristics with addictive drugs! For example, both tend to be consumed in concentrated doses and both are absorbed quickly by the body.


Refined Flour is Dangerous for Your Health

Of course pizza healthiness varies, but for the most part we are consuming a factory product, high in carbohydrates and saturated fat. It contains refined flour and studies show that any excess of this contributes to obesity, increases cholesterol, and can raise sugar levels in the blood over time. Is it worth it?

A recent study I read looked at several pizza restaurants, pizza varieties and major pizza chains in order to analyse dietary information across the board. Unbelievably the study showed that for most vendors, a single pizza slice contained more fat than an average cheese burger!

So Why on Earth am I Making Pizza??

Clean eating is good for your body, and I find it much more fun trying to re-create our guilty pleasures, than eating leaves. I decided to make an unprocessed, flour-free pizza that doesn't pose a health risk. Win-win!

The Method

1. Turn up the Heat
Pre-heat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas Mark 6

2. Blitz Your Cauliflower
Get yourself a fresh cauliflower, chop it up and whizz it in a NutriBullet or other type of food processor.

     

You may find you have to keep stopping the NutriBullet to give the container a shake to move the pieces around, but keep going and you'll end up with a 'rice-like' consistency

3. Cook your cauliflower
I normally cook it over the hob with a little coconut oil until it's soft, but you can also microwave it


4. Drain Your Base!
This is important, you need to drain the blitzed cauliflower of water, or your pizza base will be super soggy. 

I recommend either squeezing the water out through a muslin cloth, or perhaps trying to use a sieve to push water through. You could also try to boil off some of the water too.

5. Grate it
Grate your cheese, be sure to separate some for base and topping!

6. Mix it
Mix an egg and the cheese into the cauliflower. Of course you can opt for a 'flax egg' to keep it vegan! I'm a big fan of this alternative and often use flax seeds to help with texture of the base anyway, ground almonds works a treat too!

I often use lactose-free cheese, but I think as this is the only naughty ingredient in the whole recipe, you can pick your favourite - of course to keep this vegan you can omit the cheese, you can find alternatives, such as 'cashew cheese' here.

7. Shape Your Base
Pat the base mix onto a tray covered in baking parchment and brush lightly with coconut oil. I usually make mine about 5mm thick

8.  Bake Your Crust

Pop it in the pre-heated oven for around 15 minutes, or until it's golden brown and starting to crisp at the edges 

9.  Prepare Your Sauce & Toppings!

Whilst your crust is baking, prepare your sauce and toppings! You can be as creative or plain as you like here. For this pizza I opted for tomato sauce, courgette, chives, cheese and avocado.

Tomato Sauce Base

You're welcome to use your favourite tomato base sauce here, however in the spirit of clean eating, it's always best to know what's going into your body! I simply blitz the plum tomatoes, red onion and seasoning to taste

         

The Courgette & Avocado

I fried aubergine in coconut oil and sprinkled them with some black pepper and chives. For the avocado, I just simply cube half.

10. Take out Your Base

Take your base out and leave it to cool for a few minutes

11. Turn up the Heat

Turn your oven up to 240C/220C Fan/Gas Mark 8

12. Assemble Your Pizza!

Onto your baked crust, add the tomato sauce, courgette and cheese. I leave the avocado until after!

13. Bake Your Pizza

Pop your pizza in the oven and bake for around 10-15 minutes

14. EAT

Take your pizza out the oven, leave to cool, add your cubed avocado and EAT!

I really hope you enjoy this clean-eating recipe, it may take a couple of attempts to perfect, but is so worth it. I'd love to see your delicious attempts - be sure to leave a comment or of course tweet me @laurajreeves! 

Bliss or Miss | The Alto Lounge

I always enjoy taking the trip back to my hometown (Reading, UK) to visit my friends and family and a couple of days ago I had the opportunity to visit one of my favourite little treasures, the under-stated ‘Alto Lounge’ in Caversham with my Mum.

The Alto Lounge provides a quirky, unique feel with its cosy, rustic and relaxed atmosphere. The menu absolute sings to me with everything from cinnamon french toast, to burgers, hotdogs, curry and tapas.

There’s something for everyone and the most important facet of all, they are so flexible and accommodating. My Mum unfortunately has coeliac disease (and so can’t eat gluten), and the staff ensured my Mum that they would bake her fries in the oven instead of frying them to ensure zero cross-contamination. Brilliant. A really refreshing change from the dumbstruck look she normally gets.

Sitting in the candle-lit ambience, my Mother was able to relax in the knowledge that she would be enjoying food that is safe for her and I searched the menu, spoilt for choice.

Typically I couldn’t decide what to have, this time it was between Macaroni Cheese and a Hot dog. But then I came across, ‘The Real Mac’ - ‘A pork frank topped with truffle mac and cheese, sautéed portobella mushroom, onions and Swiss cheese’. Perhaps peculiar for some, but it completely suited me, so was an easy choice.

Customer service was impeccable and the food was delicious, I simply had to try a dessert and opted for the warming, sticky toffee pudding. The menu described, ‘Sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream’, I asked if I could have custard instead and of course this was not a problem for them. I was not disappointed, it was indulgent bliss.

The Alto Lounge is an absolute hidden treasure in Reading, the family-friendly, flexible customer service and quirky, ornate decor may fool you into thinking you’ve stumbled across a one-of-kind, independent hang-out. But there are in fact over 40 lounges over the UK - I’d love to visit a few others to see how similar they are and I implore you to find your nearest: thelounges.co.uk The website is actually really cool too.

Without a doubt, bona fide, bliss

Be sure to check out #blissormiss on Tumblr