Hawaiian Paleo Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe

This Paleo Hawaiian Cauliflower Pizza Crust recipe is a delicious way to satisfy your pizza craving without the guilt and it’s perfect if you’re on a low-carb and/or grain-free diet. Plus it’s a great way to sneak more veggies into your family’s diet without them even realizing it because this cauliflower pizza crust does NOT taste like cauliflower.

I first made a cauliflower pizza crust recipe several years ago when I was on a super strict diet. The diet was not fun at all, but the paleo cauliflower pizza made a lasting impression on me with how delicious it was while still staying within the diet guidelines.

I’ve played around with cauliflower pizza crusts for some time now and the recipe I’m sharing with you today is our confirmed winner.

I love that it’s pretty easy to make cauliflower pizza. You rice the cauliflower in a food processor (or for even faster prep, you can use already-riced cauliflower found in the frozen section), mix it with a few simple ingredients, and bake it. Honestly, the longest part is baking the crust. The whole process is really quite easy.

Time-saving tip: I like to purchase organic cauliflower on sale and typically get 4-6 at a time. I spend 20-30 minutes cutting them up and ricing them in the food processor. I then store the riced cauliflower in 2-4 cup quantities in zippered freezer bags, ready to pull out and defrost whenever we want a paleo cauliflower pizza or cauliflower rice.

The cauliflower pizza crust is just part of the pizza. The toppings are the next best part. This is where you can experiment and use whatever your family’s favorite pizza crust toppings are.

My family loves Hawaiian pizza with ham and pineapple tidbits and it’s one of my favorites too. That’s why I decided to share my cauliflower pizza crust recipe as a Hawaiian pizza. And it works so well together, we love it!

I use McKenzie Natural Artisan Deli for the ham topping on our pizza. I use their deli meat most of the time because they’re my family’s favorite.

That’s because McKenzie Natural Artisan Deli is so good. Every time we bite in a sandwich, whether it’s my Healthy Spinach Turkey Wrap or my 5-Minute Paleo Turkey “Sushi” Rolls, we can tell the difference. Even my kids. A month ago, I was in a rush and didn’t have time to go to Shaw’s where we find McKenzie Natural Artisan Deli. I picked up some other deli brand and one of my kids commented on it. I believe their exact words were “Mom, did you buy something different? This doesn’t taste as good as the one you normally buy.” Um, yep. They noticed.

I also appreciate these things about McKenzie Natural Artisan Deli:

• they never use growth hormones
• their animals are vegetarian fed, with no animal fat or by-products, and are humanely treated
• their food is gluten-free
• their food comes from family farms
• their turkey, chicken, pork, and beef are raised without antibiotics
• they’ve been around for over 100 years (since 1907); they know what they’re doing
• their turkey, chicken, roast beef, and cheese are naturally nitrate/nitrite free and their uncured ham is also free of nitrates/nitrites (except what naturally occurs in celery salt.)

Note: McKenzie Natural Artisan is working on removing nitrites and nitrates from other products because they listen to consumers. (Yes, please and thank you!)

McKenzie Natural Artisan Deli products include:

Buffalo Style Chicken, Rotisserie Seasoned Chicken, Oven Roasted Turkey, Hickory Smoked Turkey, Roasted Peppercorn Turkey, Herb Roasted Turkey, Maple Honey Turkey, Rotisserie Seasoned Turkey, Naturally Smoked Ham, Petit Naturally Smoked Ham, Black Forest Ham, Honey Ham, Rosemary Herb Ham, American Angus Roast Beef, and Non-GMO American Angus Roast Beef.

Plus, Uncured Cob-Smoked Bacon, Uncured Franks, Dinner Ham and 4 varieties of natural artisan cheese, made in small batches from small family farms – Provolone, Swiss, Maple Smoked Cheddar, and Vermont Raw Milk Cheddar.

Learn more about their products here.

Now that you know one of my favorite topping ingredients, let’s get down to making this cauliflower pizza crust.

How to make this Paleo Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe:

Cauliflower Crust ingredients

• 1 medium-large head of cauliflower
• 1 large egg
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• ½ tsp oregano
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• Pinch pepper
• ½-¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese or goat milk cheddar* (use the lower quantity if you’re going for fewer calories)

*We love goat milk cheddar cheese as my dairy-free kids can tolerate it and it tastes very similar to Mozzarella cheese.

Supplies:

• Cheesecloth (I’ll explain why you need this below. It is optional but definitely good to have.)
• Parchment paper
• Pizza pan or cookie sheet

Toppings

• 1-2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• McKenzie Natural Artisan Deli honey ham (or any ham) slices, torn into small pieces
• ½ of 29oz can pineapple tidbits, drained OR about 1 cup of fresh tidbit-cut pineapple

Cut the cauliflower into small pieces and discard the outer leaves.

Run half of the cauliflower (or ⅓ of the cauliflower if you have a large one) in a food processor until the cauliflower is chopped into small bits of “rice.” Don’t over process. If you have one single chunk of cauliflower, just remove it and process with the next batch of cauliflower. Set aside the ‘riced’ cauliflower and process the remainder.

Next, you’ll want to cook your riced cauliflower; there are two ways to do so.

My favorite is steaming it over the stove because it’s faster. Steam the cauliflower rice for 7-9 minutes.

OR you can bake in the oven at 375 degrees on a cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes.

Regardless of how you cook the cauliflower rice, you’ll want to let it cool for 5-10 minutes, then press the liquid out using cheesecloth.

The cheesecloth allows you to remove the excess liquid that will result in your cauliflower pizza crust being soggy. I haven’t noticed that this affects the taste either way. You don’t HAVE to use cheesecloth, but you will probably end up needing a fork to eat your pizza because it will tend to fall apart.

I recommend putting 2 layers of cheesecloth in a medium-sized bowl. Dump the cooked cauliflower in the cheesecloth, gather it together and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. If it’s too hot, handle with caution and/or wait a few minutes longer until it’s cool enough to handle.

Once you’ve squeezed as much liquid as you can, dump the cauliflower into a medium bowl and stir in the egg, salt, oregano, garlic powder, pepper, and shredded cheese.

Line a pizza pan with parchment paper (leave a little hanging out as it makes for easier handling later) and press the cauliflower mixture evenly across the pan in a circle until it’s flattened.

Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and using another pizza pan or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and carefully using oven mitts, flip the crust into the other pan. (This is SO much easier and less messy than trying to flip it over with a spatula as I used to try.) Discard the original piece of parchment paper. Adjust the new parchment paper if needed (if it became lopsided, etc.). Bake for another 5-10 minutes or until the crust begins to show a few golden brown streaks. It may get a little brown or even burnt on the edges and that’s okay; it doesn’t affect the taste.

Add your toppings. Start with the cheese. You can use as much or as little cheese as you prefer. Use less if you’re going for a healthier pizza or more if you want lots of cheesy deliciousness. Top with pieces of ham and drained pineapple tidbits.

Bake for another 5-8 minutes or until the cheese is fully melted.

Slice and enjoy your Hawaiian Paleo Cauliflower Pizza!

Note: This cauliflower pizza is best enjoyed the day you make it. If you do have leftovers, store them in the refrigerator and enjoy within 3 days for the best results.

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