Gluten-Free Cauliflower Pizza Bento

Gluten-Free Cauliflower Pizza Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Hello people! Remember the first gluten-free pizza crust I made over in this bento last month? It was from a mix, and it was okay. It had that gluten-free background flavor, not like real crust. Well, this time I wanted to try something totally different, and I found this cauliflower pizza crust idea floating around. I saw it at RecipeGirl's site first, but she noted that lots of others had tried similar variations. All you do is grate a head of cauliflower, mix it with egg and cheese, form a crust and bake. Sounds crazy? Actually I thought, there's no way this is going to stick together to make a crust. So I added some rice flour and some flaxmeal. Did I ruin it? Who knows? Let's just say this does not turn out to be what you think it'll turn out to be. It's basically a cheese cracker with some cauliflower bits mixed in there. Nothing wrong with that, but I mention it just so you'll know. Now, I love a cheese cracker. Salty, crispy, and yes - greasy - goodness is hard to argue with. So of course my little girl loved it! But if you try it, I'd caution you to use a nonstick pan, or parchment paper.

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Cauliflower Pizza Crust (from Recipe Girl)

1/2 large head cauliflower (or 2+ cups shredded cauliflower)
1 large egg
1 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
[not in original recipe but I added 2T rice flour and 2T flaxmeal]

Directions:
1. Grate the cauliflower into small crumbles. You can use the food processor if you'd like, but you just want crumbles, not puree. I used a box grater. You'll need a total of about 2 cups or so of cauliflower crumbles (which is about half a large head of cauliflower. Place the cauliflower crumbles in a large bowl and microwave them (dry) for 8 minutes. Give the cauliflower a chance to cool. They'll be nice and soft.

2. Prepare the crust: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Spray a cookie sheet or pizza pan with nonstick spray (or use a nonstick surface). In a medium bowl, mix the cauliflower crumbles (about 1 1/2 cups since they shrink after cooking) with the remaining crust ingredients. Pat the "crust" into a 9 to 12-inch round on the prepared pan. Spray the crust lightly with nonstick spray and bake for 15 minutes (or until golden). Remove the crust from the oven and turn the heat up to broil.

3. Add toppings of your choice and return pizza to oven to broil for 5 minutes or until toppings are hot and cheese is melted and bubbly.

For this pizza I used chopped mushrooms, sliced zucchini, pepperoni, and diced capsicum in varying colors, then topped with shredded mozzarella. The pizza came out nice and crisp, since I pressed the crust as thin as I could manage. It doesn't stick together very well, so a thin crackery crust probably works better than a thicker crust which might break. I packed some in her Keroppi sandwich box, and placed some refreshing fruit and veggies in the lower tier. Pretty successful as a gluten-free pizza, but my search continues...
Added to What's For Lunch.