Cauliflower Pizza Crust - The NEW THING
Pizza, a love/hate relationship. But now there's cauliflower crust pizza. Is this new vegetable based pizza crust foundation something to RAVE about?
Let's keep talking.
First off, why do people have a love/hate relationship with pizza to begin with? Well, pizza contains every mouth watering, eye loving component of the western comfort diet: white flour crust (just enough doughiness on the inside and crunchiness on the outside), salty, flavor loaded sauces (marinara, bbq sauce, pesto, Alfredo), savory melted cheese, and pretty much ANY topping you can imagine. What's not to love?
Well, in one 5" slice of typical take out pizza you have:
- Calories 325g, Protein 14g, Carbs 41g, Fiber 3g, Total Sugars 4g, Total Fat 12 g, Saturated Fat 5g, Cholesterol 21 mg.
So let's stop here and consider what these numbers mean.
This means two slices of typical pizza (an average American serving size/meal) you've consumed probably 1/3 of your daily calories, 60% of your recommended daily protein intake, 63% of your target daily carbs, and about 49% of recommended saturated fat.
This is TOTALLY FINE once in a while, especially if your other meals that day consist of leafy green vegetables, lean proteins, and high fiber grains.
BALANCE AND MODERATION ARE KEY
Where we run into trouble is when these two slices aren't balanced by a complimentary diet or they also come with sides of ranch, wings, and well, yeah you get the point--more foods high in fat and calories.
So cauliflower pizza crust starts popping up in grocery stores like Trader Joe's..BUT how does it compare?
Well for one thing, the word CAULIFLOWER attracts a large population --people who love their pizza fix but struggle to find a way to get in more veggies! And.. its gluten free (which is another discussion for another blog post).
So before I took a stab at making my very own cauliflower crust pizza (Of course opting for the low sodium marinara sauce (any brand), and part skim mozzarella cheese) I computed a serving size of pizza using 5" cauliflower crust, 1/4 cup low sodium marinara sauce and 1/8 cup part skim shredded mozzarella using a nutrition tracker and found 1 slice about the same size contains:
- Calories 233, Protein 6.5, Carbs 38.5, Fiber 3g, Total Sugars 4g, Total Fat 3.25 g, Saturated Fat 2.5g, Cholesterol 12.5 mg.
So compared to a regular slice of take out pizza; the carbohydrates are not significantly lower in cauliflower crust pizza HOWEVER the calories and fat grams drop a great deal!
So of course after I had to put myself to work I made this cauliflower pizza. AND...I LOVED IT.
The crust was so easy to make - baked in the oven for about 12 minutes. Removed from oven, added the toppings, threw it back in the oven until crispy and VOILA! A guilt free PIZZA.
So with substitutions like cauliflower crust, we don't have to give up our guilty pleasures AFTER ALL!!! --- just modify them a bit! (:
Leave a comment and let me know how your cauliflower pizza crust experience went!
** All nutrition information was computed using supertracker.usda.gov
