Whenever Aldi sells cauliflower crust pizzas, they usually incite some curiosity. People wonder if cauliflower crust pizza is any good? Is it healthier than regular pizza? Does it have fewer carbs? Is it gluten free? Does it taste good?
Aldi has offered several types of cauliflower crust pizzas over the years, usually as limited-time Aldi Finds. Most recently, I decided to try a take and bake style cauliflower crust pizza that is actually a newer addition to the year-round Regular Buy selection at Aldi. If you’ve ever tried any of the other take and bake pizzas from Aldi, you know they’re really good, and they often rival pizzas you might get at takeout chains.
Mama Cozzi’s Take & Bake Uncured Pepperoni Cauliflower Crust Pizza cost $6.79 for a 17-ounce, 12-inch pizza at the time of publication. It’s made with real cauliflower and is advertised as a “prepared cauliflower crust topped with sauce, cheese and uncured pepperoni.” Aldi also had a veggie-topped take and bake cauliflower crust pizza, which I might try later, but my kids lobbied to try the meaty version first.
As mentioned above, this is a Regular Buy that is sold all year at Aldi. You can find it in the refrigerated section with all the other take and bake pizzas.
It is certified gluten free by the National Celiac Association. If you’re watching out for allergens, it contains egg and milk.
Mama Cozzi’s Take & Bake Uncured Pepperoni Cauliflower Crust Pizza nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
Crust ingredients are: cauliflower, low moisture mozzarella cheese, rice flour, water, egg whites, rice starch, milled flax seeds, yeast, sugar, salt, spices, and cultured brown rice. You can view the full list of pizza ingredients in the photo below.
There are three servings per pizza, with one serving netting you 360 calories, 19 grams of total fat (24% DV), 9 grams of saturated fat (45% DV), 45 mg of cholesterol (16% DV), 990 mg of sodium (43% DV), 28 grams of total carbohydrates (10% DV), 3 grams of dietary fiber (10% DV), 5 grams of total sugars, 1 gram of added sugars (1% DV), and 22 grams of protein.
With that said, this is not really a healthy food. It’s loaded with fat and sodium. While it might have slightly fewer carbs than some (but not all) traditional pizzas, many people on strict keto diets would probably not consider this low carb. However, if you want a gluten-free pizza, this is a winner.
The unbaked pizza in the box, still wrapped in plastic. I spread the pepperoni out before baking.
To prepare this pizza, preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the pizza from the packaging and place it directly on the oven’s center rack. Do not bake the pizza on the cardboard tray. (I opted to bake my pizza on a metal pizza pan with holes specially designed to cook pizza crust.) Bake for 9-10 minutes or until the cheese in the center is melted and the crust is golden. Carefully remove from the oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes before slicing.
The pizza after baking and slicing.
I took my pizza out of the oven after about 9 minutes because it looked done on top, but when I went to slice it, I discovered the crust was still very soft. I popped it back into the oven for about 3 additional minutes. That helped some, but I think this pizza simply has soft crust. I realize that baking it directly on the oven rack rather than on a metal pizza pan with holes might have helped to crisp up the crust, but I really don’t like cleaning my oven, and several Aldi Reviewer readers have commented that their Aldi cauliflower crust pizzas have soft, flimsy crusts even when they follow the directions and bake directly on the rack.
The soft crust was not off-putting to my family, and this pizza didn’t last long. The crust is flavorful but doesn’t really taste like cauliflower, and I don’t always eat the outer edge of pizza crust, but this crust had crisp and flavorful (slightly cheesy-tasting) edges and I ate it all. There is plenty of sauce, cheese, and savory pepperoni atop this pizza. Just be sure you have forks on hand if you don’t want to get your hands messy and greasy with droopy slices.
The Verdict:
Mama Cozzi’s Take & Bake Uncured Pepperoni Cauliflower Crust Pizza is a good gluten-free option but not necessarily a low-carb pizza. The crust comes out of the oven on the soft side, and baking it directly on the oven rack may or may not alleviate that issue, but my entire family liked this pizza and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it again. Just keep napkins and utensils handy.
I put this pizza directly on the gas grill, at about 400 degrees. Turns out perfect crispy thin crust pizza. Delicious! And after reading about the fat and sodium, well, it’s a splurge – but I only get the veggie version.
We tried this a couple weeks ago and thought it was pretty good; in fact we like it better than pizzas we term as “cracker crust” pizzas. As far as salt goes, taking a small potassium supplement removes any water retention, and as far as fat goes, as long as it’s not hydrogenated fat, we are fine with that because we don’t believe in the fat and heart disease myth. We would buy it again for a quick n easy meal served with a salad.
I put a sheet pan in the oven while it is preheating so when I put the pizza in there is a nice hot surface for it to cook on. Similar to a pizza stone.
I tried it for the first time. It’s amazing and the ingredients are surprisingly decent. My hubby is a Heggie’s lover and even he thought this was excellent.
I was very pleasantly surprised at just how good this pizza was! I loved that the crust was very crispy and the ingredients were very good tasting. I was, however, very upset when I found out that the carb count on this great pizza was so high! Doesn’t matter to a diabetic if it is gluten free, it’s all about the carbs!!