The FastDay Forum

This is cross-posted from my journal, apologies if you've seen it already. The amounts specified are what I actually used so some of them are a bit 'odd' for a recipe!

This will make either four medium-mini-pizzas to share between two, or six mini-mini-pizzas to share between three. If you make six mini-minis, two of these comes to 367 calories - a fast day feast methinks when served with a good leaf salad.

Quantities are given as:
......... amount used - calories - carbs(g) - fat(g) - protein(g) - fibre(g)

The cauliflower base is a tad adapted from http://detoxinista.com/2012/01/the-secr ... zza-crust/ .

"Pizza"
cauliflower, riced, cooked, dried 35c/C3.0/F0.9/P3.6/Fi2.5/100g
.........256g (raw weight) 89.60 7.68 2.30 9.22 6.40
eggs, brown, 151cal/C0g/F11.2g/P12.5/Fi0g/100g
.........~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
cream cheese, full-fat, 260c/C2.8/F25.0/P5.4/Fi0/100g
.........100g 260.00 2.80 25.00 5.40 0.00
parmesan cheese, 392cal/C0g/F28.4g/P33.0g/Fi0g/100g
.........10g 39.20 0.00 2.84 3.30 0.00
garlic powder; 2ml 0.00
italian herbs, schwartz; 5ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
Tomato sauce
tomatoes, tinned, chopped 15c/C3.0/F0.1/P1.0/Fi0.7/100g
.........296g 44.40 8.88 0.30 2.96 2.07
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
.........30ml 247.20 0.00 27.48 0.00 0.00
fennel seed, fresh ground
.........2ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
pizza base and tomato sauce total 761.94 19.36 63.97 27.63 8.47
FatDog's 1/3rd pizza base and tomato sauce total 253.98 6.45 21.32 9.21 2.82

Toppings
mature cheddar, lake district, grated, 416cal/C0.1/F34.9/P25.4/Fi0/100g
.........22g 91.52 0.02 7.68 5.61 0.00
mushrooms, cc, organic, sliced, 15cal/C0.4g/F0.5g/P1.8g/Fi1.0g/100g
.........8g 1.20 0.03 0.04 0.14 0.08
onion, fine chopped, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
.........10g 4.30 0.93 0.00 0.07 0.21
cherry tomatoes, 1/8thd, 20c/C3.1/F0.3/P0.7/F1.0/100g
.........20g 4.00 0.62 0.06 0.14 0.20
olives, black, sliced 134c/C0/F15/P0.5/Fi2.5/100g
.........8g 10.72 0.00 1.20 0.04 0.20
chilli, green, fine chopped, 40cal/Fa0.2g/Ca9.5g/Fi1.5g/P2.0g/100g GL4
.........3g 1.20 0.29 0.01 0.06 0.05
basil, dried; good pinch to each pizza 0.00
s&p 0.00
FatDog's toppings total 112.94 1.89 8.98 6.07 0.74
FatDog's pizza grand total 366.92 8.34 30.31 15.27 3.56

Method: 1. get the tomato sauce going first: reduce the quantity (and runniness) of a tin of tomatoes (400g) to 300g by draining off the juice (a use for which is pending), add the olive oil and fresh ground fennel and simmer, stirring now and again, to reduce to a rich paste consistency; 2. mix dried stuff* together with cheeses; 3. beat / whisk egg; 4. add egg to dried stuff and cheeses and fold in thoroughly; 5. dollop a well heaped tablespoonful (for four mini-pizzas to serve two, or somewhat less if you're stretching to six, to serve three) onto pre-oiled parchment on a baking tray; 6. flatten (1/3 rd to ½ inch thick) to form into a circle**; 7. cook 10 minutes each side in preheated oven at 200C; 8. slather the tomato sauce paste over each pizza*** and then add toppings and either grill or bake again until golden brown / bubbling

* This pre-supposes that you've managed to get the 'riced' cauliflower dry: I tried (bunged the cooked flower in the oven at a low temperature to dehydrate) but failed, so although my pizzas were solid enough to turn and hold up, like a biscuit, once heavily loaded with the topping they drooped precariously and needed a fork to eat (or a gallus disregard for stained trews). ** I used the back of the tablespoon to press the edges so that I had nice neat rounds with even depth (ish) - I've seen pictures of others' efforts and raggedy edges seem to burn. *** I inadvertently allowed the pizza bases to cool substantially before adding the tomato paste - I do not know if this had any effect on the outcome.

Enjoy, FatDog

Thank you @izzy. If your 'rice' is quite dry then it should be fine - mine was still 'damp' to touch so I knew it wouldn't 'crisp' as much as one might hope.

Next time, and there will be one (probably quite soon...) I might try adding a little nut flour - but that's purely experimental as I think the pizzas were pretty good as they were.

I stay away from any recipe that puts the word pizza in quotes (though I will eat "spaghetti" made from squash and "mashed potatoes" made from cauliflower)!

However, I do enjoy looking at your adventurous recipes! I plan to try your yogurt someday.

@5:24evr? - I was just trying to keep it 'honest'

I fully understand your view-point but, I promise, these are serious pretenders for the real thing!

I've google-stalked 'low-carb pizza' for a while and even some of the floppier looking efforts get pretty good reviews from those who've tried them (the comments on the original detoxina site for this recipe should give you confidence). And if I'd managed to get the cauliflower rice properly dry these wouldn't have sagged under the huge topping overload.

I did try to get decent critiques from my two victims guests but didn't want to appear to fish for compliments so desisted after a while: apart from satisfied grunts and the odd 'delicious', they did say they would not have known that the base was anything other than a proper base and that the texture / consistency was 'excellent'.

If you're not keen on the cauliflower base there's a few recipes out there using nut / flax meal e.g. http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2012/09 ... ust-2.html (the site is down just now so I can't check if this is the original or revised version, I'd go with the latter). I'm going to give this a try and maybe combine the ideas from the cauliflower and the nut meal ones...

Dear @izzy what is this Ninja thing that you zap cauliflowers in?

Happy cooking, FatDog..

Yay! Glad it worked for you @izzy. I think one could just dehydrate the 'rice' by bunging it in the oven at 40C to 50C (best with the door open) overnight - but I don't think that my OH would wear a) the heat or b) the electricity cost! I'll just have to get the OH wringing - and I'll remember the tip about old tea towels

Bet the ice-cream was good, I'm more of a sorbet girl... ohhhh - don't get me going: it's a fast day!!