What Are Cauliflower Buffalo Wings?
They’re essentially buffalo wings, but cauliflower florets are used in place of chicken. This cuts down on calories and makes the wings much healthier overall. The florets are battered and baked in an oven before being covered in a sauce made of butter and buffalo sauce.
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Them
You’ll need cauliflower florets, and either a buffalo wing sauce, or the ingredients to make a sauce. You’ll also need some pantry staples, like flour and sugar.
Cauliflower: Freshness, Size and Shape
For this recipe, you’ll need to use fresh cauliflower. Frozen cauliflower will contain too much water and will be too flimsy.
However, if you can find pre-cut florets, you’re welcome to use those. They’re actually what I recommend, if you can find some that are all the same size and shape. Speaking of…
The dimensions of your florets don’t matter as much as making them all roughly the same size. The cooking time will vary of course, but it usually does anyway. As long as they’re cooked through and the bottoms are browned, these will be great.
Pre-made vs Homemade Sauce
The recipe lists everything you need to make a sauce at home. However, a pre-made sauce works just as well. That said, a homemade sauce is more customizable, and probably cheaper.
Note that when I say pre-made sauce, I’m specifically talking about a wing sauce – not just plain buffalo sauce. If you cover the wings in plain buffalo sauce, they’ll be very acidic and probably not too good.
How to Make Them Vegan
To make these vegan, you just need to replace the butter. Any kind of vegan butter substitute should work, as well as margarine and maybe coconut oil.
What to Serve With Cauliflower Buffalo Wings
Any dipping sauce of your choice would be great. My choice would be either blue cheese or ranch, but it’s really up to you.
You could also serve them with a salad; preferably one with a less acidic dressing. Mashed potatoes would also be great, as well as anything that reigns in the vinegar-heavy sauce.
Conclusion and Recipe
Below I’ve listed the ingredients, ingredient amounts and steps for making these wings. If you like this recipe, consider following me on WordPress or Pinterest.
For another great oven-baked vegetable recipe, check out my oven-roasted zucchini.
Ingredients
For the wings:
2 cups cauliflower florets, 236 grams
1/2 cup flour, 77 grams
2-4 oz water, 57-114 grams*
1/4 tsp kosher salt, 1 gram
For the sauce:
1/2 cup buffalo sauce, 120 grams
3 Tbsps unsalted butter, 42 grams
1 tsp sugar, 5 grams
1/2 tsp kosher salt, 3 grams
pinch of garlic powder, about 1/4 tsp
Preparation
Preheat your oven to 400 f (204 c). Add the flour, water and 1/4 tsp of salt to a bowl and mix well.
Cover the florets in the batter, then place** on a greased baking sheet. Bake for ~20 minutes or until the bottoms are well-browned.
In the meantime, make the sauce by combining all ingredients in a small sauce pan.
Heat on medium-low until the butter is melted. Stir, then turn off the heat and set aside.
Add the cooked wings and sauce to a large bowl, then toss to combine.
Notes
* This heavily depends on how much flour you use. Even if you’re weighing the flour, I still recommend starting with 2 oz of water and working up from there.
You want the final result to be liquid, but not too thin. If you’ve ever battered and fried something, you should know roughly what to aim for.
** The batter will spread out a bit on the pan, which is fine. It’s the part that gets the crispiest, so the extra surface area is beneficial, if anything.
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