Indian Low Carb Pizza

I like eating thin crust pizza, like most of you, I guess. So I tried the cauliflower crust pizza. While it was sufficiently appreciated and enjoyed by the husband and the thambi, I wasn’t enthralled about it. It’s good, but not great. So, when I saw the option without the cauliflower, I had to try it. I did and I loved it. It’s easy to make and tasty as well.

The original recipe is in the following blogs: Cooky’s creations, Fat-Head pizza and Ditch the carbs

Healthy: It creates a much lower blood-sugar levels (a high carb pizza would create a high blood-sugar surge ??). And no indigestion problems – no belching, no rushing to the toilet immediately after the meal, and no stomach discomfort.

Satisfying: When I eat a high-carb pizza, I feel like I’m full… but very soon, I’m hungry enough to eat another slice, and another… and another. At the end of the meal, I feel stuffed and guilty. You don’t have this problem with a low-carb pizza; it is satisfying. A couple of slices, and you’re done. Happy 🙂

… and cheap: I calculated the cost of a Domino’s pizza. Since this is a bare pizza, I had to add extra salami and cheese (to equal the amounts I used in my recipe) and the extra toppings.

Cost comparison in Indian rupees

Ingredients

Crust

• Grated mozarella cheese – 170gm (1¾ cups approx)
• Cream cheese –  2 tbsp
• Almond flour/meal – 85gm (¾ cup) IndianLCHF Tip#1 Make your own almond flour/meal. Grind almonds (with skin for almond meal; without skin for almond flour) in mixie till it becomes a flour. If you grind it too much, it’ll become almond butter)
• Egg – 1

Topping 

These are the quantities and ingredients I used. Feel free to use whatever and how much ever you like.

• Capsicum – 1
• Chicken salami – 250gm
• Onions – 3  medium sized (Indian size)
• Mushroom – 200gm
• Mozzarella cheese – around 150gms

Pizza sauce

• Tomato – 3
• Fresh cream – 2 tbsp

Spices & herbs

Any or all or none of the below

• Coriander powder
• Cumin powder
• Fennel powder
• Chilli powder
• Chilli flakes IndianLCHF Tip#2 Grind dried red chilli coarsely in mixie to get chilli flakes
• Oregano
• Rosemary

Procedure

Crust

1. Grate mozarella cheese and measure out required quantity.
2. Mix it with the cream cheese.
3. Melt in microwave for 1 min.
4. Take it out and stir it.
5. Keep it back in microwave for 30 seconds.
6. Cool the mixture for about 5 – 8 minutes stirring every minute or so. Don’t let it cool too much that it becomes solid.
7. Mix in the egg and the almond flour. Your dough is ready.
8. Roll it our between 2 non-stick surfaces (parchment paper, non-stick baking sheet or silicone baking sheets).
9. Place the crust on oven tray lined with parchment paper, non-stick baking sheet or silicone baking sheet. Or you could use a pizza tray. IndianLCHF Tip #3 Don’t use wax sheets. The crust will stick to it, and you’ll have to eat pizza with the paper.
10. Bake in OTG oven at 220°C for 15 mins or till the crust is brown, flipping once in between.

Pizza sauce

1. Grind 3 tomatoes (with or without skin) and 10 cloves of garlic.
2. Sauté in oil till you get desired consistency.

IndianLCHF Tip #4 Make a desi sauce pizza sauce. Use chutney of your choice – mint, coriander, curry leaves or a thuvaiyal – peerkangai thol thuvaiyal (ridgegourd peel thuvaiyal), paruppu thuvaiyal (daal/lentil thuvaiyal), nila kadalai thuvaiyal (peanut chutney)… come up with creative ideas. If your topping is a meat gravy, you may even skip the pizza sauce.

Topping

1. Sauté desired toppings in fat of your choice (list of acceptable fats – here)
2. Any meat that you add must be cooked beforehand.
3. You can use regular toppings like pepperoni, salami, sausages etc.

IndianLCHF Tip #5 Make desi toppings like meat in its gravy (thick, viscous gravy, not liquid curry), shredded previous day’s meat, any meat varuval, mince meat dishes. Get creative!

Assembling

1. Spread the pizza sauce on the crust.
2. Layer the toppings any way you want.
3. Cover it with shredded mozarella cheese.
4. Bake in OTG oven for 5 mins.

Your very own special Indian low-carb pizza is ready!