Low-Carb Deconstructed Pizza Casserole (Video)
Let’s start the year out right with this Low-Carb (and Gluten-Free) Deconstructed Pizza Casserole! This recipe is low-carb, Keto, low-glycemic, and gluten-free; use the Diet-Type Index to find more recipes like this one.
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I love the first day of a brand new year, and I know that’s when many of you are starting with a new or renewed commitment to more carb-conscious eating. So of course on that day I want to start the year with a new low-carb recipe on the blog. And since some people struggle with feeling deprived when they give up their carbs, if I can come up with a new recipe that can be considered low-carb comfort food, that really makes me happy.
This year I had another recipe in mind for January 1, but when the idea for this Low-Carb Deconstructed Pizza Casserole popped into my mind yesterday, I just couldn’t wait to make it. Then when the casserole was cooking I couldn’t wait to eat it, and after I tried it, I couldn’t wait to share the recipe with you! I can already tell this is going to be a repeater at my house, and I promise it will be a hit with anyone who likes pizza.
Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2016 is going to be a very delicious year for you in every way.
By the way, I have one more bit of news before we get to the recipe. Now you can get posts from this blog by e-mail without having to get lots of e-mails, just sign up for the new weekly e-mail digest that comes every Sunday morning and features all the recipes from the previous week. If you’re getting back on track this January, sign up here to get each week’s featured recipes by e-mail.
Dump a can of diced tomatoes into a colander and rinse; then spread them out to dry on a paper towel. Squeeze turkey Italian sausage out of the casings and brown well, then put it into a small casserole dish. Put the drained tomatoes over the sausage and season.
Wash the mushrooms, pat dry, and cut into thick slices. Saute mushrooms until they give up their liquid and are starting to brown, then layer mushrooms over the sausage-tomato mixture.
Cut pepperoni in half (I use kitchen shears.) Spread the grated mozzarella over the casserole and top with pepperoni. Bake at 400F/200 C about 25 minutes. (I baked mine a bit too long, don’t get distracted!)
Serve hot and enjoy! And I promise this will hit the spot any time you’re really craving pizza.
More Low-Carb Pizza Ideas You Might Like:
Low-Carb Pepperoni Pizza Chicken Bake ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Low-Carb Portobello Pizza ~ Lauren’s Latest
Low-Carb Egg-Crust Breakfast Pizza ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Sausage and Mushroom Pizza Bowls ~ Shutterbean
55+ Delicious Low-Carb and Gluten-Free Recipes with Pizza Flavors ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Weekend Food Prep:
This recipe has been added to a new category called Weekend Food Prep to help you find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!
Low-Carb Deconstructed Pizza Casserole
Ingredients:
- 1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes (do not use petite dice)
- 5 links (19.5 oz.) uncooked turkey Italian sausage (I used my favorite turkey Italian sausage; use pork sausage if you prefer.)
- 2 tsp. + 2 tsp. olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste (I didn’t use much salt.)
- 8-12 oz. fresh mushrooms, washed and cut into thick slices (I used brown Cremini mushrooms.)
- 1 1/2 cups grated Mozzarella cheese (I used part-skim mozzarella)
- 15 slices pepperoni, cut in half (I used regular pepperoni, but for less fat you can use turkey pepperoni if you prefer)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Spray an 8 inch x 11 inch glass casserole dish with non-stick spray or olive oil.
- Pour the diced tomatoes into a colander placed in the sink and rinse with cold water. Let tomatoes drain a minute or two, then spread them out on paper towels to dry (or blot dry with another paper towel on top.)
- While tomatoes dry, heat 2 tsp. olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan, squeeze the sausage out of the casing, and cook sausage over medium-high heat until it’s nicely browned, breaking it apart as it cooks. (I use an old-fashioned potato masher to break the sausage apart.)
- While sausage cooks, wash mushrooms, pat dry, and slice into thick slices.
- When the sausage is done make a layer of sausage in the bottom of the casserole dish and top with the drained tomatoes, spreading them out over the top of the sausage. Season with dried oregano, salt, and fresh-ground black pepper. (I didn’t use much salt.)
- Rinse out the pan if needed, then heat the other 2 tsp. of olive oil over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot add the mushrooms and cook, stirring a few times, until all the liquid is released and the mushrooms are starting to brown. Layer the mushrooms over the sausage-tomato mixture.
- Cut pepperoni in half. Sprinkle the grated Mozzarella over the top of the casserole and lay the pepperoni pieces on top of the cheese, spacing them evenly so the whole top is covered with pepperoni.
- Bake about 25 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown. Serve hot.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
If you’re following the South Beach Diet, they would recommend using turkey Italian sausage, turkey pepperoni, and reduced fat Mozzarella for this recipe. With those ingredients, this would be approved for any phase of South Beach. Other types of low-carb or low-glycemic diet plans may prefer pork sausage and pepperoni and full-fat cheese.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.</>
Nutritional Information?
If you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you. Or if you’re a member of Yummly, you can use the Yum button on my site to save the recipe and see the nutritional information there.
I think there are some kids in my family who would eat this in a heartbeat! What a fun (and low carb) way to start the new year!
Thanks Lydia! I am seriously thinking about eating some of the leftovers for breakfast; it was so good!
Nice idea, I like it.
Thanks Amy; hope you enjoy!
I made it, was very very tasty !!
Glad you liked it!
thank you for this recipe. I try to really eat low carb these days. I will make this for next week when I go back to work after taking some time off for the holidays. Please keep posting low carb meals.
Thanks Maria, glad you like it!
I like to serve my family low carb meals 2 or 3 times a week, and this sounds amazing, especially since we're crazy about pizza. Since I always put a few rings of green bell peppers & onions on my homemade pizza, I'll put a thin layer of (diced & sautéed) green bell peppers and onions over the tomato layer, and I'll definitely use turkey pepperoni. Thanks for this recipe, and Happy New Year to you and your family.
Thanks; Happy New Year to you too! Glad you like it. I think the peppers and onions sound like a nice addition.
Oh, wow, this looks wonderful! I absolutely love pizza, and even as a kid wished I could have the toppings only with no crust (Mom: Don't be wasteful, there are children starving in China!). Question, though, do the tomatoes add enough moisture like sauce does, to kind of bind everything together?
It's really the cheese that melts down and binds it together, just enough that you can cut it into pieces. Definitely you need to eat with a fork.
Do you think that this could work with ground beef or turkey substituted for the sausage? I have one picky eater in the family!
It will work, but truthfully a lot of the flavor in the dish comes from the sausage so I don't know if it will be as good that way. Maybe if you season the meat a bit more than I did?
This sounds amazing, can't wait to try!!
Thanks Betti, hope you enjoy!
Yum gonna try it this week!
Hope you enjoy Sommer!
It won't let me sign up for weekly recipes. Keeps saying invalid email address. 🙁
Beth if you e-mail me at kalynskitchen (at) comcast (dot) net (convert to regular e-mail format) I will forward your e-mail address on to Feedblitz. Can't imagine what is happening; haven't ever heard this before.
Why "rinse" canned, chopped tomatoes? What remains? Never seen that one before.
The reason for rinsing the tomatoes is so that the finished dish doesn't turn out watery. You can try it without rinsing if you prefer, but I thought the results were great with the rinsed tomatoes.
Looks delicious and this is on the menu at the Winn's this week. 🙂
Hope you enjoy Jenn!
This is a delicious recipe! I think you could customize the toppings to your own family. I had turkey breakfast sausage so I used that and omitted seasoning the meat. Yummy! Next time I will double the recipe so we have extra.
I found your site last year when we needed variety on South Beach. Thank you for posting your ideas. I don't feel very creative some days so I love what you have come up with. Thank you so much.
As a side note- I visit Salt Lake regularly as I have a son living there. I have tried the Red Iguana, it is delicious. I may try some of the restaurants you recommend. Thanks again!
Thanks Shayna, so glad you have been enjoying the recipes ! I love, love, love The Red Iguana. Have fun visiting Salt Lake.
Hi – do you think you could add spinach? Can't wait to try this
I'm not clear where you'd put the spinach? As a topping? Mixed in with the meat?
Maybe I missed it somewhere in the recipe but how many carbs per serving?
I don't count carbs, so if you need that information you'll have to calculate it yourself. Immediately after the recipe I have a link to Calorie Count where you can copy the recipe and enter it and it will calculate that information.
This is a wonderful idea that absolutely tastes GREAT! It is my husband's favorite new low-carb recipe! I cooked the sausage with onions and bell peppers because we like that on our pizza too! I am sharing this recipe with all of my friends! Thanks so much for making pizza easy and low carb!!
So glad you're enjoying it!
I'm not a fan of mushrooms. Any suggestions on what I can substitute with instead? Or can I just omit them?
It would be quite thin without the mushrooms; I'd replace them with another type of vegetable that you like on pizza.
I love this recipe! But, I made it the other night and didn't like how the bottom part fell apart, so this time I combined ground Italian sausage with ricotta cheese, a couple of raw eggs and some Parmesan to help it hold together, and pressed that into the bottom of my greased casserole dish. I also added some veggies (chopped green pepper, green chile, and some red onion and sliced tomatoes on top) and sprinkled the whole thing with Parmesan. I'll come back and let you know after tonight how it turned out. 🙂
KT, sounds like it might work if you want a more pizza-like dish. I considered it a casserole, so I was eating it with a fork and didn't mind that it didn't stick together.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this recipe! My family has been missing pizza. 🙂 I did make a few changes the second time I made it. I decided to make the bottom layer hold together by adding ricotta cheese, 2 eggs, and some parmesan and Italian herbs to the sausage and tomato mixture. I also added some additional veggies – green pepper, green chile, red onion and sliced tomato and added some more parmesan over the top. Yum!:)
Oops, sorry for the duplicate post. Feel free to delete at will. I didn't realize I'd submitted earlier yesterday.
No worries; glad to hear it worked out like you wanted!
This looks amazing! Do you think if I used a jarred tomato sauce, it would be too watery? Do the diced tomatoes help hold it together somehow?
Yes, I do think sauce from a jar will be too watery unless you cook it down for quite a while to thicken it. Even then I can't say for sure how it will work since I haven't done it that way, but that's why I rinsed the tomatoes.
For those who do count carbs, the only things in the recipe that contain carbs are the diced tomatoes and maybe the Italian sausage. A can of Hunt's contained 21 grams of carbs, or 14 grams if you subtract the fiber. A cup of mozzarella cheese had one gram. My Italian pork sausage had 2 grams (from corn syrup) per link for a total of 10. So 25 grams for the whole dish and then divide by the number of servings.
When the carbs are that low, if you feel you want more of a crust, you could serve it on a low carb pita or flatbread.
Some comments on actually making the recipe.
For a "small casserole dish," I used a Pyrex 7" x 10" which worked well. Bigger than that and there wouldn't be enough diced tomatoes to make a layer that covers the sausage. I'm sure an 8" x 8" would work.
I found the amount of sausage to be pretty high and overwhelmed the other ingredients a bit, and I only used 16 grams of sausage in comparison with the recipe's 19.5 grams. I'll reduce to 12g the next time. I drained the sausage with paper towels, and that went a long way to reducing the grease.
Since the pepperoni gets cooked on top the the casserole, all its grease cooks into the cheese. I think next time I'll either try to find low fat pepperoni or cook it down between paper towels in the microwave and throw it on top of the casserole with 5-10 minutes left to bake.
I didn't wash the tomatoes, but used 8 of the "choose-a-size"
paper towels to dry them. Worked fine, and they came out pretty close to tomato sauce, but without all the sugar.
This casserole captures the flavor of pizza really well, and if you're feeding it to pizza lovers, I wouldn't anticipate getting many servings (or ANY leftovers) out of it. I think you could add any pizza toppings you like. I'd soften some sliced onions with the mushrooms next time.
Good job Kalyn!
Glad you liked it; interesting to hear how you adapted the recipe.
I used hot Italian chicken sausage and added the egg mixture talked about above but used cottage cheese instead of ricotta. I am incapable of cooking anything without onions and garlic, so added those with the mushrooms. I thought it sounded quite weird, but wow, it turned out fantastic. Even hubby liked it. I watch calories and am gluten free. I was shocked when I calculated the calories how low it was. Thanks for a great recipe!
So happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Does this freeze well?
I haven't frozen it but I don't think it will freeze well, sorry.
Can't wait to feature this on my Friday Five list tomorrow! 🙂
Thanks Kara; glad you like it!
This is absolutely delicious, I put mine on top a lay of baby spinach.
Carolyn, that sounds good to me; so glad you enjoyed it!
Made it today. Simply delicious. How many calories and carb pet serving?
Kim so glad you enjoyed it. I don't calculate nutritional information (too hard to do it accurately and I already spend 8-10 hours on each recipe). But if you look in the post where it says "Nutritional Information" I have two suggestions for how you can get that information if you need it.
Just made this tonight with a few changes and it was so good!! I used trader joes refrigerated pizza sauce instead of diced tomatoes, I did cook it down a little before adding it, and I would definitely use turkey pepperoni next time there was a little too much grease with regular pepperoni. I added onions, green peppers and black olives to the mix, and I used a mix of mozzarella and trader joes quarto formaggio mix. It definitely satisfied my craving for pizza (better than anything else I've tried) Thanks for such a great recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I have this in the oven now! Used ground turkey for the base meat, thought I had turkey pepperoni but the boyfriend must have ate it all! So deconstructed cheese pizza it is 😉
Hope you enjoy!
Made this tonight without mushrooms but with bell pepper and onion, and a mix of ground beef and chicken Italian sausage, with a few shakes of crushed red pepper and some sliced green onions to finish. Wonderful!! When we're not feeling so carb-conscious, I would definitely serve this over corkscrew pasta. Appreciate this versatile recipe. Thanks, Kalyn!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! I love hearing how you adapted!
This was just ok, I think regular turkey sausage should work, and more than just one can of tomatoes. I think next time I'll add more toppings and use a sauce instead. But thank you for the foundational recipe!
It was definitely more than just okay for me; hope you can adjust to your liking!
. I'm low carb and gluten-free. Nice to have a pizza like substitute to satisfying a craving.
Janet, hope you enjoy!
I am a pizza lover but had weight loss surgery nearly a year ago. Someone shared this recipe with me tonight and can't wait to try it! Thank you!
Hi Ruth, hope you enjoy!
Kalyn, I just made this after I had a pizza craving and it was delicious! I added onions and peppers and served it with zucchini noodles. Perfect! Thank you so much!
Thanks Alexa; so glad you enjoyed it!
Does this recipe freeze well after being cooked?
Cierra, I've never had any left to freeze, but I am guessing it will freeze well if it's in a container with a tight lid.
This recipe is a life saver! I have Gestational Diabetes and was craving pizza. But was told the sauce and crust was not good for me. My favorite happens to be pepperoni with Mushrooms. I made this, and it squashed the craving. My numbers were good too! I might have to make this a few more times. My 3 year old and hubby love it too. Thank you so much for this!
SO glad it worked for your blood sugar and that you enjoyed it! Good luck with the pregnancy. Mu niece had gestational diabetes but now she has a beautiful baby girl; hang in there!
Hi there. I'm Sheri. Will be making this for the 2nd time tonight. We are eating low-carb and this really satisfied my craving for pizza. Now if you can just come up with something to satisfy my need for cheese enchiladas, rice and beans….
Hi Sheri, so glad you enjoyed it! I do have a few mexican food casseroles if you want to do a search for casserole, but no cheese enchiladas. (Sounds so good though!)
Looks great can you tell me how many carbs there are per serving?
For a variety of reasons I don't calculate carbs, but if you look immediately after the recipe where it says "Nutritional Information?" I have two resources where you can get that information if you need it.
What about using ground sausage instead of links? Maybe adding some onion, thinking purple onion?
I squeezed the sausage out of the links to cook it, so it was ground sausage. The ground turkey Italian sausage that come in packages would also be great, and definitely add red onion too if you like.
I made this last night and added whole grain spaghetti to the bottom for an extra twist and it turned out fantastic! I do not have a place big enough for an oven, since I live in Japan, but I used my toaster oven and it cut the cooking time in half, which was even better! Great recipe! Super easy to make and I will definitely make it again. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it, and how fun hearing from someone in Japan!
Thank you! This was sooo good!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Can this be made the day before, then heated up the next day for lunch?
Yes it can definitely be re-heated. Be sure not to overcook in the first place if you know you'll be reheating. Hope you enjoy!
This was really good. One of the hardest things for me on South Beach is giving up pizza. Making "pizza" with some vegetable as the base doesn't quite work for me, and making cauliflower crust seems like too much effort. This was easy, and I got all the flavors I'd been craving. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it! I always love hearing that!
This was absolutely delicious – I made it with ground beef (I don't like sausage) but loaded it with Italian seasoning, and bought Italian Style diced tomatoes so that helped. I also added a little bit of Boboli pizza sauce for some extra flavor.
As a newly-diagnosed diabetic, I've been CRAVING pizza and went looking for recipes when I was just ready to bake some mozz and sauce and pepperoni and eat it with a spoon. Thank you for having an alternative!
Glad you enjoyed it!
making this for dinner tonight for my husband and myself…we are eating low carb…trying a low protein version of this for my kids (they have PKU)…no meat…just mushrooms, and diced veggies..and their special cheese
…it sounds awesome…thank you so much…sounds wonderful…
Hope everyone enjoys it!
Hi there! Thank you for posting such wonderful recipes. We have to eat a low carb diet due to some medical needs my one year old has and time and again I find myself cooking recipes from your website!?
My question is, could I use fresh tomatoes from our garden for this recipe or do they need to be canned?
So glad to hear you're enjoying the recipes!
First, I haven't made it with fresh tomatoes, so I can't say for sure how it will work. The biggest issue would be the water content. If you cut up the fresh tomatoes, then cook then (maybe with some dried oregano and basil) until they're quite dry in the pan, that might work. Would love to hear how it works if you try it! I think the fresh tomato flavor would be great in this.
Love this recipe and so does my husband who usually doesn't like things that are "different" from the original (like pizza!). He doesn't eat mushrooms so I substituted sliced black olives and green peppers to make up for the bulk. It was delicious! We ate it for dinner and then both took it in our lunch the next day. My husband says this has to become a "regular" in the dinner rotation. I do have one question: why do you specify not to use petite diced tomatoes? I didn't because I always like to try a new recipe exactly as written the first time, but I always have a few cans of those on hand and just wondered what problem it would cause to use them.
Thanks so much for your site and all of your delicious recipes. They enable me to manage my weight and eat really good food at the same time!
So glad you both enjoyed it. About the tomatoes, I was concerned about the tomatoes making the finished dish watery, so I felt that larger chunks of tomato would be easier to rinse and drain, leaving big relatively dry pieces of tomato. But you could try petite dice and see what you think.
That makes sense. I am going to try sundried tomatoes next time just to see how they work. I love them and put them on pizza as a topping frequently. But I will probably do a half and half so if it doesn't turn out well, I will still have another delicious side to eat! AND, I am going to make the experimental side with mushrooms because I love them even if my husband doesn't. 😉
I did make this dish using sun-dried tomatoes and it was a winner! It made a "drier" casserole in that there wasn't really juice in the bottom like I have experienced with the canned tomatoes (even drained). But not dry like hard to swallow. We liked it very much. Thanks so much for this recipe Kalyn! It has become a favorite that gets prepared at least every couple of weeks at our house.
Thanks for reporting on that; I will have to try it too!
Made this last night and oh my was it delicious! Hubby just texted me and he is having it again for lunch. I will definitely be making this again. Hubby cooked the Sweet Turkey sausage and the mushrooms in advance. He also chopped up some onion and a red pepper to go with it and threw them in baggies. I made mine into an individual small casserole. Hubby built his on a tortilla. Baked both at the same time. Just fabulous! I did use Italian died tomatoes. Drained thoroughly in a colander, but not rinsed. Since all ingredients were already prepared and in the fridge when I got home. All I had to do was drain the tomatoes. This came together in NO TIME. We started to watch our TV show after we built our dinner and it was cooking away in the oven. Oh the smell was divine! This will for sure satisfy any pizza craving. Plus we still have leftover toppings, cheese and sausage and could make omelets!
SO glad to hear you enjoyed it so much! Love the idea of using the leftovers for omelets!
I have made this twice already. It s delicious and the whole family enjoys it. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
My pleasure; so glad you are enjoying it!
It would be nice if you would include the nutrition information with the recipe and not make everyone manually enter it to figure it out. You can still include the links for what you use to calculate it, but having everyone have to go and figure it out for themselves to see if it will fit their count before they make this to see if it is really low carb enough for them is like dropping the ball at the end of this post.
I'm sorry you feel that way, but there are numerous reasons I don't feel I can do that. First, I already spend 8-10 hours on every recipe by the time I have tested it several times, take photos, edited photos, and written the recipe. Second calculating that information accurately is very difficult because it's hard to tell what specific ingredients people will use or exactly how much they will eat. Third, (and maybe the biggest consideration for me) there are over 2,200 recipes on this site. So while you complain about the time to enter and calculate one recipe, you're asking me to do 2,200 recipes. I will never be able to do that, and I know that once I have it on one recipe people will expect to see it on every recipe. I realize some bloggers include it, but those people started blogging long after me and have far fewer recipes to deal with. And I cannot and will not dedicate any more of my life to this blog than I am already doing. Thanks for understanding my dilemma.
Kalyn, I am so grateful for the VAST number of recipes and information and tips about preparing those recipes that you include You obviously put a lot of time and effort into making sure your recipes are of good quality and accurate in ingredients, etc. There are MANY calorie counters on the web where one can enter recipes. We all have to take some responsibility for the information we need and be thankful that we live in an age where so much information and recipes are available at our fingertips! Kalyn, thanks so much for all you do to make it easier to eat delicious AND healthy food. I appreciate your photos and the details you include. It has really added a lot of variety to our meals over the years. Thanks a million!
Thank you so much GeeAnn. I simply can't do it, that's all. I already spend far too much time on the site! Glad you are enjoying the recipes!
Seriously, people are not your servants. Consider showing a bit of gratitude for the fact that Kayln provides so many recipes. I noticed your snarky comment is “Anonymous”. Good idea, best for people not to know your narcissistic tendencies. Do you realize how hard these bloggers work??? Do you think the world is at your beckon call? This shows a character defect you may want to work on.
Thank you for that Tina! I really can’t add one more thing to my workload so unless I hire someone to do it, adding nutritional information is not an option at this point. And with over 2,000 recipes, hiring someone would cost a huge amount.
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