Boy am I mighty excited about this one. 

As you can tell, I’ve been eating a lot of pizza lately, and whilst this is probably not doing any favors for my diet, it’s doing all kinds of things for my tastebuds! Melting caramelised onions, sweet sweet barbecue sauce and a cool avocado dressing that takes it over the edge. I don’t know about you but I’m sold! 

The icing on the cake is that this pizza is 100% vegan! Is it really a pizza without cheese? The answer is YES in all sense of the word. The crust is still as soft as ever, the toppings are ever as delicious and the number of calories is a lot less. 

Roasted Cauliflower BBQ Vegan Pizza
Ingredients

• 250g cauliflower, chopped into florets
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• ¼ tsp oregano
• ¼ tsp onion powder
• ¼ tsp ground cumin
• 1/8 tsp each salt and black pepper
• 1 red onion, sliced thinly
• 1 yellow pepper, sliced thinly
• 1 pound pizza dough, homemade or storebought

For the barbecue sauce: 

• ½ cup tomato paste
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp molasses (or honey if not vegan)
• ¼ tsp oregano
• ¼ tsp onion powder
• ¼ tsp ground cumin
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

For the green sauce: (optional) 

• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 cloves garlic
• a handful of chopped parsley
• a jalapeno pepper, deseeded
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup water

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200°C/400°F. Line a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine the cauliflower, olive oil, oregano, onion powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Toss well to ensure the cauliflower is coated evenly in spice. Lay the cauliflower in an single layer on the baking pan and roast for 20 minutes, or until lightly toasted.
2. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a large saucepan on medium-high. Add the sliced red onion and fry for 2 minutes before reducing the heat to low. Cook until moderately caramelised, about 20 minutes. The onions should be very soft and starting to turn golden on the edges. A good indicator of their doneness should be the taste, if the onion is still too bitter, then return the pan and cook for another 5 minutes or until palatable. Set aside once done.
3. Whilst the onions are caramelising, prepare the barbecue sauce. Add all the ingredients for the barbecue sauce in a medium saucepan and whisk to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Once the cauliflower has roasted, toss with the barbecue sauce to coat in sauce.
4. Increase the heat in your oven to the highest it will go (this is about 250°C for me). Roll/stretch the pizza dough into a circle (or a rectangle if you’re me). Transfer the dough to a pizza stone or a baking pan lined with parchment. Cover the base with the barbecue cauliflower, leaving a border of about ½ inch. Make sure that the sauce completely covers the area within the border. Top with the caramelised onions and the yellow pepper. Bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. To really amp up the crust, combine 1 tbsp of maple syrup with 1 tbsp of water and brush the crust with the runny maple syrup when done. Serve immediately with the green sauce if desired. Enjoy!

To make the green sauce:

Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend until combined. Drizzle over the pizza! Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.