Zucchini Pizza Crust

August 26, 2017 By Whip & Wander 31 Comments

A better grain-free pizza

If you’re grain-free like me (most of the time), you’ve probably gone through a period where you mourned the loss of a good slice of pizza. Thankfully, grain-free pizza crust is not especially hard to come by these days, especially in the Portland area. Unfortunately, quite a bit of it has the taste and texture of cardboard or relies too heavily on processed starches, which I try to limit.

Home-baked grain-free crust recipes also abound, and many are super tasty, but I’ve never found one that produced a pie that doesn’t realistically need to be eaten with a knife and fork. Unless you’re a preternaturally orange politician or a Seinfeld character, I’d guess you probably expect to pick up your slice and eat it with your hands.

The key element for a stable zucchini pizza crust

This Zucchini Pizza Crust is not only tasty but should produce a pie that you can actually pick up and eat without fear of it falling apart. It’s also a great way to plug some green veggies into your diet or use up some of the ample garden crop that zucchini plants often produce all at once.

Did you know that zucchini is roughly 95% water? It’s true! If you’ve ever made spiralized zucchini noodles or used them as a noodle alternative in lasagna, you’ll know that you’ve got to sweat the excess liquid out before you start cooking, or you’ll end up with a liquid mess and limp, soggy noodles. This process, known as disgorging, uses salt to pull the excess water out of your vegetables or fruit and is the most essential step in making a good Zucchini Pizza Crust. Thankfully, disgorging is a super simple process if you’ve got a good layer of cheesecloth and some salt.

How to disgorge

Start by shredding or mulching your zucchini. I like to roughly chop mine and then blitz it in my food processor because it’s the quickest method, but you can also use a julienne slicer or a traditional cheese grater if you prefer to work for it.

Cover the shredded zucchini in a healthy dose of good sea salt, but not so much that it will make for a super salty dough. For this recipe, around 2-3 tsp should be plenty!

Now step away from the zukes, pour yourself a big glass of wine, and get out of the bloody kitchen for 20 minutes. The salt will do all the work.

After 20 minutes, transfer the now swampy zucchini into a few layers of good cheesecloth and start squeezing. I usually just squeeze it over the sink, but sometimes I’ll squeeze the shreds over a bowl because it’s interesting to see how much water comes out. You should end up with a lot of liquid dispelled and a much smaller pile of zucchini shreds that are now perfect for making Zucchini Pizza Crust.

Pro tip

Let your crust cool on the pizza pan before loading it up with sauce and toppings, and let it cool just slightly again before slicing and eating. This will help prevent the crust from becoming soggy with toppings and help your crust stay together so you achieve a good consistency for picking it up and eating by hand.

A note for special diets

This Zucchini Pizza Crust is grain-free, gluten-free, and friendly for Keto and SIBO diets.