i’m back!!!  my husband and i were in chicago this past weekend for a wedding and i have returned with new inspiration.  lucky you.

chicago…also known as chi-town; home of the cubs, air that is windy, and best of all… deep dish pizza!! i’m a total thin crust girl, but i’ll definitely be making an exception any time i’m ever in chicago again!

this is giordano’s famous stuffed pizza. seriously, you can only eat one piece!

the entire time i was eating it, my brain was churning about how i could remake this beast of a recipe into something healthy.  then it hit me…cauliflower!  i may be a little late on the cauli-pizza-train, but i had heard of people making this and never experimented with it myself.  now was the time.  i read several different variations of recipes online but decided to go rogue. (shocker!)  in addition to the “cauli-rice” and mozzarella that were a staple in most of the recipes i saw, i used coconut flour, parmesan, & nutritional yeast to pump it up a bit (chi-town style) with out making it too heavy.  and…it totally worked! :)

this is definitely eat-with-a-fork type of pizza…but i say “when in chicago…”

chi-town cauliflower crust pizza

• 1 cup cooked cauli-rice (just learned how to use the “shredding” feature on my food processor…ahhh-mazing!! double shred for the best results!)
• 1/2 cup skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp organic raw coconut flour
• 2 tbsp bragg’s nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp organic milled flax seed
• 2 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 c egg whites (mix above ingredients first, then add in egg whites)

• pizza toppings: my favorites are ground turkey, mushrooms & jalapenos!
• mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 c strained** marinara or pizza sauce

• **straining ~ my first attempt at this was slightly soggy due to the excess liquid often lurking in sauces…so i put the sauce through a wire/mesh strainer to get a thicker paste.  this step is totally optional, but definitely recommended!

• preheat oven to 450
• process crust ingredients in a food processor (i guess this step is optional since i didn’t see it in any of the other recipes i read, but i found it makes the dough a lot smoother…like real pizza dough)
• shape dough into a circle on sprayed pizza pan or cookie sheet covered with parchment paper*
• bake for 15-20 min. (20 min for a more firm, crispier crust…just watch it those last 5 min to make sure it doesn’t burn!)
• top pizza with cheese, your choice of toppings, and pizza sauce (in that order for chicago style pizza)
• switch oven to broil and place back into the oven for about 3 minutes or just until cheese is melted… negligence will probably result in a burned crust!  (you could also just leave oven at 450 & bake for an additional 8-10 minutes.)

• *warning: parchment paper may burn on broil setting (see below). i swapped my pizza onto a square piece of foil for broiling with the toppings.**
• **warning about the warning: i got lazy and thought i would just use foil for the entire baking process to save me the trouble of swapping out the paper. boo. it traps in a bunch of excess moisture and sticks to the bottom of the foil.

update: just took leftovers up to the gym…cold.  even a day old & cold, they were a total hit…and i was pleasantly surprised to find out that no fork was even necessary once the pizza had cooled down! great success!! :)

okay, okay, okay…i know you’re just dying to see a few pics from this weekend. here you go…

and one last picture of the chi-town native bride…for without her, there would be no chicago wedding or chi-town cauli crust pizza recipe.  congratulations heather & ty. thanks for a great weekend! :)