Portobello Pizza

We love pizza in this house. When we went gluten free a couple years back, we tried all kinds of pizza alternatives. My favorite is Capellos brand almond flour crust, but nothing compares to the real deal. This pizza is not trying to trick anyone into making them believe they’re eating something they’re not, but rather gives the flavors of pizza in a small, gluten free package. This is low carb, keto friendly, can easily be adapted for vegetarians, meat lovers and picky eaters, and is easily prepared, cooked and assembled in almost no time at all!

Preheat your oven to broil high. You don’t want your top rack right below the burner, or you will need to adjust the cooking times. I have mine about a quarter of the way from the top. When making this keep an eye on it when it’s in the oven as all ovens are different.

To get started, you will need one to two mushroom caps per person. You’ll want to pop the stems off. If you just grab and gently twist close to the base of the mushroom, the whole thing should pop right off. The gills of the mushroom are edible, but they tend to release alot of water, and I just prefer the taste and texture of these pizzas without the gills in tact. I usually scrape them gently with a spoon. Try to be gentle as you scrape near the edges of the mushroom because that area is thinner and more prone to breaking. It’s fine if you break the edges of your mushroom, but do try not to pull off chunks of the edges when scraping because this will give you less surface area to add your toppings. Gently wipe the tops of your mushrooms with a damp cloth to remove any dirt. You don’t want to clean them under running water because they will absorb and later release excess water.

Once your mushrooms are cleaned, add a few drops of your favorite cooking oil (we use avocado oil) and rub it onto the tops of the mushroom. Place on a foil lined sheet pan, gill side down, and broil for 5 minutes. Flip, to gill side up, and broil for 5 minutes more. You will have excess liquid in your mushroom caps after broiling gill side up. Just tilt excess water off either onto the sheet pan (it will evaporate as you cook) or into a bowl or sink. While the mushrooms are broiling, this is when you’ll want to prepare your toppings.

When your mushrooms are precooked and drained, you can start to add your toppings. First a tomato slice, lightly salted with just a pinch of salt. Next, a slice of fresh mozzarella. We like to buy the Belgioso mozzarella logs from costco. They are pre sliced. Lightly salt and pepper the mozzarella with just a pinch of each. Put under the broiler for 10 minutes. This step will melt that fresh mozzarella. Once the timer goes off, tilt the pan to allow any excess liquid (mainly from the fresh mozarella) to run off.

Now, add 2-4 tbsps of grated mozzarella cheese. Now is the time to add any toppings you may want. Veggies or pre cooked meats would be a great addition, or set up a topping bar and allow each person to make their own pizza creations. Broil the pizzas one last time for 7-8 minutes keeping an eye on them to ensure they don’t burn.

Lastly, once the mini pizzas are done cooking, we always top ours with a simple arugula salad. Arugula, or rocket, as it is sometimes referred, is our favorite green. I simply rub oil, and a couple pinches of salt onto the arugula, then serve on top of the pizzas. It’s good to note that once you salt and add oil to arugula, you have a short period of time to enjoy before it becomes soggy, so please only dress what you intend to use that night, and wait till you’re just about ready to eat to do so. If you’ve never had arugula, it has a bitter taste, and is not loved by all, but we absolutely adore it! The first time we had arugula we hated it, and didn’t touch it again for years. When we tried it the second time, we tolerated it, and it has taken us a while to get to the point now where we put it on anything we can. Enjoy!