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I originally posted this recipe back in 2011, when I learned the secret to making a cauliflower pizza crust that isn’t soggy. (Hint: you need to squeeze out the moisture from the cooked cauliflower before making your crust!)
Now that we’ve been making this pizza crust for over a decade, I’ve learned some time-saving tricks, like using frozen cauliflower to skip the initial cooking process. Sometimes you can even find frozen riced cauliflower, which lets you skip using the food processor.
Be sure to read all the tips below if you’d like to make a frozen pizza crust for future use or need to make any substitutions.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Featured Review
“I have tried a few different cauliflower crust recipes and this is by far the best one! I have made it exactly as the recipe indicates many times and it always turns out perfect.” – TP
Cauliflower Pizza Crust Ingredients
- Fresh (or Frozen) Cauliflower. While you can certainly make this recipe with fresh cauliflower florets, it’s 100% easier to start with thawed frozen florets. (You can either let the bag thaw in the fridge overnight or warm it up to thaw it faster.) Your life will be even easier if you can find frozen, riced cauliflower at the store. I’ll walk you through all the variations I’ve tested below.
- Egg. This adds protein and holds the crust together. I don’t recommend using an egg substitute for this recipe, but I have tested a vegan Cauliflower pizza crust if you need an egg-free recipe.
- Cheese. Even if you’re not the biggest fan of goat cheese, soft goat cheese (also known as chevre) creates the best texture for cauliflower pizza crust. I highly recommend trying the recipe as written, but other varieties of cheese will work as well. Read the comments below for feedback on mozzarella or Parmesan.
- Spices. I think pizza crust tastes best with a little extra flavor. Adding oregano and salt boosts the overall flavor so you don’t feel like you’re eating a crust made mostly of cauliflower.
How to Make Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 400ºF and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. If you’re using fresh cauliflower, place one pound of cauliflower florets in a food processor fitted with an S-blade. (Mine is a 12-cup size.)
Briefly pulse the florets until they have a rice-like texture.
Note: You can skip this step if you start with riced cauliflower from the store. If you end up using a little more or a little less cauliflower, that’s okay, too. This recipe is quite forgiving.
Step 2:
Transfer the cauliflower rice to the prepared baking sheet and spread it out into an even layer. Place it in the oven to soften and cook for 15 minutes.
Alternatively, you can place the cauliflower in a covered microwave-safe bowl and cook for 4 to 5 minutes on high to steam it. Or, you can cook it in a large skillet with a 1/4 cup of water for 8 to 10 minutes, until it has softened and the water has evaporated.
Once the cauliflower has cooked, let it cool for 10 minutes, or until you can safely handle it without burning yourself.
Note: You can skip this step if you start with a 16-ounce bag of fully thawed frozen cauliflower. Previously frozen cauliflower has the same tender texture as if it were cooked! All you have to do is rice it in a food processor, then skip to the next step.
Time-Saving Tip
If you can find frozen riced cauliflower (like the Trader Joe’s variety below), you can skip the first two steps. Just let it thaw fully, then proceed to the next step, where you’ll squeeze out the excess moisture.
Step 3:
Transfer the riced cauliflower to the center of a clean dish towel or cheesecloth. Arrange the towel (filled with cauliflower rice) over a small bowl, then squeeze as much liquid as possible from the cooked cauliflower.
It might not feel like there’s excess moisture at first, but you may be surprised by how much liquid is released! (There should be at least 3 to 4 tablespoons of liquid in the bowl.)
It’s okay if the cauliflower looks like a small ball of mush when you’re done.
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Step 4:
Transfer the cauliflower rice that you just squeezed into a large bowl, then add in 1 large egg, 1/3 cup soft goat cheese (chevre), 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of black pepper, if desired.
Use a spatula to stir well until the cauliflower mixture looks relatively uniform. It won’t feel like regular pizza dough, so don’t worry about that.
Step 5:
Arrange a fresh piece of parchment paper on the large baking sheet, if needed, then transfer the cauliflower mixture to the center of the pan.
Use your hands to gently press the cauliflower pizza dough into a round pizza crust, about 10 to 12 inches wide. Be patient, as it will feel weird and slightly sticky to work with!
Make the crust as thin and flat as possible without leaving any holes. The pan in my photos below is 16 inches by 14 inches for reference. So the crust can fill the pan quite a bit!
Note: Get your hands wet if the crust is sticking to your fingers; wet hands help prevent sticking!
Step 6:
Transfer the pan with the cauliflower crust to the oven and bake for 30 minutes at 400°F, or until golden brown. There’s no need to flip it. Once the top looks dry and golden, it’s ready for toppings!
Add a thin layer of pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and any toppings you love, like pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, fresh basil, or olives.
Return the pizza to the oven to bake until the cheese has melted, about 10 more minutes. You can turn on the broiler and watch closely if you want the cheese to turn golden even faster.
Let the pizza cool for 5 minutes, then cut it into slices. Because you took the time to remove excess moisture, the crust should be easy to pick up with your hands!
Storage + Reheating Tips
Leftover pizza slices can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Or you can freeze them for up to 3 months.
You can reheat individual pizza slices in the air fryer at 350ºF for 3 minutes. Or, if you want to freeze a whole crust to cook later, check out the tips below.
Cauliflower Pizza Crust (With the Best Texture!)
Ingredients
- 1 pound cauliflower florets (or thawed from frozen; see notes)
- 1 large egg , beaten
- ⅓ cup soft goat cheese (or grated Parmesan)
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. If the cauliflower isn't already riced, add the cauliflower florets into a food processor and pulse briefly, until it has a rice-like texture. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, then spread the cauliflower rice out in a single layer. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender.
- If you're using frozen cauliflower, be sure that it is completely thawed, and process it into a rice-like texture using a food processor. (Alternatively, you can start with frozen cauliflower rice that has been thawed, to skip the food processor step.) There is no need to cook thawed frozen cauliflower so it will save you time! Tip: You can use up to 1 ½ pounds of cauliflower if you want to use two 12-ounce bags. This crust will still hold together well!
- Once the riced cauliflower has been cooked (or thawed), transfer it to a clean, thin dishtowel. Wrap up the steamed rice in the dishtowel, twist it up, then SQUEEZE all the excess moisture out! (Be careful if your cauliflower is still hot; let it cool before handling.) A lot of extra liquid will be released, which will help you avoid a soggy pizza crust.
- In a large bowl, mix up the squeezed-out rice, egg, cheese, oregano, and salt. It won't be like any pizza dough you've ever worked with, but don't worry, it will work!
- Press the dough out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. (It's important that it's lined with parchment paper, not wax paper, or it will stick.) Keep the dough about 1/4-inch thick. Wet your hands to prevent sticking, if needed.
- Bake for 30 minutes at 400ºF or until the top looks dry and golden.
- Add your favorite pizza toppings to the crust, such as sauce and cheese, then return the pizza to the 400ºF oven. Bake an additional 5-10 minutes, just until the cheese is hot and bubbly. Slice and serve warm.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
More Low-Carb Recipes to Try
- Cauliflower Fried Rice
- Zucchini Lasagna
- Chicken Vegetable Soup
- Zucchini Hummus (no beans)
- Cottage Cheese Dip
- Mexican Chicken Soup
- Healthy Chicken Burgers
If you try this Cauliflower Pizza Crust recipe, please leave a comment and star rating below, letting me know how you like it.
Serving size is one gram?
The nutrition information is calculated based on a quarter of the whole crust. So there are 4 servings in one whole pizza crust, depending on how filling your toppings are and what sides you’re serving it with. I could easily eat half of the pizza if I’m not eating much else with it.
CAN YOU SUB WITH AN EGG REPLACEMENT THANK YOU PAT
You might want to check out my vegan cauliflower pizza crust recipe. It requires a few more ingredients to hold together, but it can be done egg-free! Extra cheese could also possibly work as a binder, but you’d have to experiment with it a bit.
Does this freeze well? Ty!
Yes, if you bake the crust first it does freeze well!
I love your recipe!! I use the frozen bag of rice cauliflower & I substitute parmesan cheese for the goat cheese. It makes an amazing crust. I love my pizzas with everything so I put mushrooms, onions, black olives, green peppers, pepperoni, crumbled & cooked hamburger. I use marinara marinara sauce for the sauce. For the cheese I use mozzarella or provolone & cheddar with parmesan on top of that. I have made this recipe so many times. I absolutely love how good it all tastes! I have posted my before baking & after baked pictures of my pizza & always get comments about how great it looks. People are always asking for the recipe & I direct them to your pizza recipe.
Was easy to make with frozen version.
Great crust and pizza…I didn’t use sauce, just veggies and meat and parm…yum!
First time I made a cauliflower crust so it was all new to me. It came together super easy! And we loved the flavor. I added sauce, veggies and mozza and then fresh tomatoes after cooking. Probably best not to add the fresh tomatoes. We picked them off and ate separately as they seemed to add too much moisture. We will have this again..Will try adding garlic to the crust next time. Yummy!
I used exact ingredients + 1 egg, different process, was fantastic!
I microwaved 1 lb of florets until tender, cooled and drained them. Riced in a food processor. Scooped into cheesecloth in 3 batches, squeezing with twisting, then put the lump (still in cheesecloth) into another cloth and pressed down, turned over, pressed down again. Result: dry, crumbly riced cauliflower.
I added 2 eggs instead of 1 to make it bind much better plus more protein! Rather than hands, since this isn’t flour dough where you need to stretch it, I used the back of a large spoon to smooth it into a circle 1/4″ thick on parchment paper. Then I ran the spoon around the edges, pushing them up slightly above the flat part. Then on the inside of the rim, I made an indentation all around so it looks like crust ready for sauce and toppings. I would send in a video on this technique if I knew a way, but this turned out quite nicely, with no messy hands needing extra water.
This was so good! Key to success is really Squ out as much water as possible. Thanks for that! So delicious! I have this once a week.
I wanted to make pizza for an in-law who adores pizza but can’t eat wheat. As a one-armed chef myself, I can’t wring out wet cauliflower in a towel as per this recipe, so my first attempted work-around was to put the cooked riced cauliflower (one whole head fresh) in my food dehydrator. MISTAKE. It came out like hard brownish crumbly dirt, and I was just ready to throw it out, but then had the idea to put it through my food processor and turn it into cauliflower flour. Brilliant! So I I bought more cauli (24 oz. frozen riced this time), cooked it in the microwave and then let it gently steam for awhile in a low oven. Then I mixed it with the “flour” from mistake #1 and mixed with 2 eggs, 1/3 C goat cheese, 1/3 C Parm, 2 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder and a Tbsp EVOO for good measure. Perfect. This made four 6-inch diameter personal- size pizza crusts. They smell and taste delicious. Lesson: don’t let mistakes defeat you!
I noticed that there are two different temperatures to cook the crust. In your pre recipe notes you say cook for 30 minutes at 350 but in the actual recipes it says 400. Which is it?
Have you tried making the recipe with shredded cheese instead of the goat cheese? Curious how it compares! And would chèvre work? Ty!
It was our first time to eat and bake cauliflower pizza. It was delicious!! Will be a staple from now on. I used parm cheese because I had it but will try goat cheese next time. Thank you for the recipe!!!