Cauliflower pizza...what?

Oh yeah, Cauliflower pizza! Eating Paleo consists of approx. 80% of my diet. My choice to go out and eat pizza is normally at the very bottom of my list, so finding an alternative is music to my ears.  

The first time I ate cauliflower pizza was a couple weeks back when visiting my friends Aleem and Farrah for dinner. Aleem’s wife Farrah is such an amazing cook and freestyles the crap out of every meal. Since she knew my boyfriend and I were coming over, she made cauliflower pizza.

It was honestly such a perfect substitute to a thin crust pizza. The consistency, the taste and texture replicated a regular pizza crust and I knew I had to try it out for myself.

I adapted my recipe below from this website, tweaked it and made it simpler to follow. I do not provide a recipe for the toppings since there are a million ways you can top a pizza! I want you to be creative but have a great veggie base to start with. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Paleo Eggplant Lasagna/Shepherds Pie

Last week I invited my girlfriend over for dinner. I didn’t have much in my fridge, but had eggplant, veggies and ground lamb and thought I would to try my hand at a lasagne. After many searches online for an eggplant lasagne, the only thing I took away from it was how to prepare the eggplant, and that was mainly because I was too lazy to read the recipes (you will know why when you read the steps below, however, making the recipe is worth it!). So with the ingredients I had at home, I came up with this beauty. The recipe below is written in steps because this recipe is a little bit labour intensive. Lastly, I also call this a Sheperds pie after a debate with my boyfriend. He said it looked more like a pie than a lasagne with the sweet potatoe on top, hence the two names. See below for recipe.

Quinoa, Adzuki and Mung Bean Veggie Medley

Ingredients:

2 cups quinoa cooked (1 cup uncooked)

½ cup adzuki beans soaked and cooked (1/4 cup uncooked)

½ cup mung beans soaked and cooked (1/4 cup uncooked)

½ cup chickpeas soaked and cooked (1/4 cup uncooked)

1 small red onion diced

2 leaves of kale chopped

¼ cup of flat leaf parsley

2 cloves garlic minced

2 tbs coconut oil (or olive oil)

1 tbs spoon of maple syrup

¼ cup of cranberries

Cayenne pepper to taste

Salt and pepper to taste