Two years ago, I went through this phase of making pizza crusts with anything but actual pizza dough. It all started with this cauliflower pizza crust from Nutrition Stripped, and I thought was a genius idea to sneak it more vegetables to one of my favorite comfort foods. Then, I ventured over to other vegetables, like zucchini and spaghetti squash, which, by the way, was a total waste of time. Between waiting for that squash to cook and then wringing out liquid from the flesh, the spaghetti squash crust took nearly 2 hours make. Plus, the flavors didn’t exactly blow my mind either. That’s a recipe I’m never digging up again.
I played around with alternative pizza crusts a bit more, and by some lucky experiment, I discovered that plantain crusts are the way to go. I know, it sounds a bit strange, but stick with me here. It’s a bit like having a slightly sweet cornbread pizza crust, except it’s made with plantains instead. And, in case you’re wondering/slightly worried, this crust does NOT taste like bananas. There’s nothing but tastiness going on here.
I decided to revive this old plantain crust recipe on the blog and made a little video for it, too. Originally, I was going to do a pepperoni pizza, but I just fell in love with this three cheese version. Hope you’re enjoying my videos, and be sure to give this recipe a try!
By the way, if you’re looking for more ways to eat plantains, try my plantain fried rice or chicken fajitas with fried plantains!
MASTER MY MISTAKES / COOKING NOTES
- Make sure to use black plantains: You want to use very ripe plantains for this crust because they’re easiest to peel and mash. I’ve tried making a crust with a yellow plantain, and I could barely mash it with my potato masher! Usually, the plantains I see at the grocery store are green or just barely turning yellow. Pick up one of those and leave it on your counter for about a week. They should turn black by then.
- Substitutes for almond meal/flour: If you don’t have any of that around, just use gluten-free or regular all-purpose flour.
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Three Cheese Plantain Crust Pizza
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 ripe, black plantain
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup (30g) almond meal or flour
- 2 TBS mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- pinch of salt
Toppings
- pizza sauce
- shredded mozzarella cheese
- shredded parmesan
- diced cherry tomatoes
- ricotta cheese
- chopped basil
- ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mash the plantain. Mix in the rest of the ingredients for the crust. Pour mixture on prepared baking sheet, and spread to a circular shape.
- Bake the plantain crust for 10 minutes, until the crust is firm to touch.
- Remove crust from oven and bring heat up to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
- Spread on pizza sauce. It’s up to you how much to use. I used about 3 tablespoons. Sprinkle on mozzarella cheese, parmesan, and diced tomatoes. Dot ricotta cheese all over the pizza.
- Bake at 400º F for about another 10 minutes, or until the cheeses have melted. Serve immediately.
Kasey says
I made two of these for an in-home date night tonight and they were so good! I’ve tried lots of alternatives to crust like you have, and I haven’t even had luck with cauliflower–no matter what I do to reduce the moisture it still turns out soggy and tastes like egg. Others have led to an assortment of failures. But this recipe is fantastic! I was out of almond flour so I used einkorn and it worked just fine. And to other readers, if anyone is thinking of using a silpat instead of parchment paper, definitely get the parchment paper. Ours stuck to the silpat and I was able to perform surgery with minimal damage before putting on the sauce and toppings, but that could have been avoided. But they were really good!
Lisa Lin says
Kasey, thank you SO much for leaving me this comment! I’m so glad that you enjoyed this! And yes, cauliflower crusts do take a lot of work. I used a silpat during my trial run, too, and it took me a while to scrape it off! This comment made my day!
zainab says
awesome
Naomi Mol says
Hi there! Could I substitute the almond flour for coconut flour?
Lisa Lin says
Yes, absolutely!
Ana says
Could this be done without an oven?