Buffalo Cauliflower Wings are a healthy appetizer that taste and look just like chicken wings. Baked full of zesty flavor, vegetarian, gluten free, and absolutely no guilt of extra calories.
Created in a Southern California pub, dunk these buffalo wings into your favorite dipping sauces like blue cheese dressing or buttermilk ranch for the perfect game-day snack with a cold beer...
Buffalo Cauliflower Wings Recipe
- Cut your cauliflower florets with some stem into small bite size pieces about 1- ½ inches long, similar to a chicken wing size.
- Preheat oven to 425F. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or spray the pan well with coconut oil non-stick spray.
Cauliflower Batter Coating Instructions
- Make the batter mixture. Add milk (or almond or plant based milk if you prefer), water, flour (or rice flour to make it gluten free), salt, and pepper in a large mixing bowl until the batter is thick and is able to coat the cauliflower. It's important the batter is thick to cling to the cauliflower.
- Dip all the cauliflower pieces in the batter, shake off excess batter as you remove each piece of cauliflower and lay on a sheet pan or baking sheet in a single layer on parchment paper.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 425F.
Buffalo Sauce Coating
- Meanwhile, while the cauliflower is baking, on low heat, make the buffalo sauce. Simply melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan, and 1 cup of Frank's RedHot® Hot Sauce. Just as it starts to melt, remove it from heat, stir it together and set aside.
- Once the cauliflower is baked for 15 minutes, remove them from the oven, leave the oven on, and dip all the “wings” into a large mixing bowl with the buffalo sauce. Return cauliflower to the sheet pan and bake in the oven for another 15 minutes or until reached desired crispness.
- Once baked, arrange hot buffalo cauliflower “wings” on a platter, with a bowl of ranch dip, or blue cheese dressing, celery sticks, and garnish with fresh herbs. Enjoy!
Why This Recipe Became A Global Craze...
- Well, they taste and look like Buffalo Chicken Wings!
- Vegetarian Plant-Based Recipe
- Not FRIED with panko or breadcrumbs
- Gluten-Free, jus swap out the regular flour for rice flour
- Healthy ; ) and can be Vegan and or dairy-free
- Lighter Football Party Food option for Game Days
- Simple inexpensive ingredients
Buffalo Cauliflower Top Tips
Cauliflower: Cut your cauliflower florets with some stem into small pieces about 1- ½ inches long, similar to a chicken wing size.
Baking: Your oven needs to be HOT for this recipe, set the temp to 425 degrees to get your cauliflower wings to be crisp and have the right texture. If they are soggy, it might be due to the oven temp being too low!
Batter: When you mix the batter, dip in a piece of cauliflower, it should hold onto it but the extra should drip off. Adjust your batter to thicken or thin if necessary.
Buffalo Wing Sauce: Easy to make, just melted butter and Franks Hot Sauce - that's it. Then toss the hot baked cauliflower wings in the sauce.
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Serving: Bake and serve these hot right from the oven to your guests with some celery sticks, and a cool creamy dip like ranch or blue cheese. Or your favorite vegan ranch dressing!
Cauliflower Wing Dipping Sauces
- Extra Buffalo Sauce like Frank's Red Hot brand is great by itself or even better, combine ½ cup of Franks Red Hot Sauce, 1 tablespoon melted butter, 2 tablespoon brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon garlic powder.
- Blue Cheese Dressing Dip is slightly chunky and loaded with flavor.
- Whisk up this delicious Buttermilk Ranch Dressing, it is amazing on salad, to dip fried food, or with wings!
- Remoulade Sauce is a popular condiment and dipping sauce, with deep amazing flavors.
- Or dip crispy hot buffalo cauliflower bites in a Creamy Balsamic Horseradish Sauce.
Buffalo Cauliflower FAQ
The Buffalo Cauliflower craze all started in an Echo Park pub in Los Angeles, California call Mohawk Bend. Serving elevated pub food, "to satisfy our cravings for punchy, bold buffalo wings, but with a vegan twist." They were created with gluten-free breading (no traditional bread crumbs or frying) and served with their house-made vegan blue cheese.
Yes! To make it gluten-free, substitute rice flour instead of all-purpose flour.
It is best to enjoy them while hot out of the oven, you can reheat them on a sheet pan in the oven for about 10 minutes at 375. Microwaving them will make them soggy.
Speaking of healthy cauliflower recipes, people RAVE about this Cauliflower Alfredo sauce, which goes so well on fettuccini or any pasta you love. And the alfredo is made from you, guessed it...cauliflower!
More Light & Healthy Appetizers
Make a batch of low-calorie Baked Parmesan Zucchini Chips and scoop them into a garden-fresh lemon-dill yogurt dip. This is a clean wholesome appetizer and healthy snack idea.
Delightfully fresh Meyer Lemon Tapenade (olive tapenade) is one of the fastest appetizer recipes, and has many other uses in your cooking! Serve with mini bell pepper scoops for an even healthier snack!
Chilled Cucumber Soup is a cool and refreshing light soup. Serve as a light lunch or clean appetizer or side dish.
Rainbow Rolls with Sesame Ginger Dipping Sauce, are a clean option rather than traditional egg rolls as an appetizer and are a tasty option on hot summer days.
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Buffalo Cauliflower Wings Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 head of cauliflower about 5 cups of 2-3” florets
Cauliflower Batter
- 1 cup milk or almond/plant based milk
- ½ cup water
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour or sub rice flour (gluten-free flour)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
Buffalo Wing Coating
- 1 cup Frank's red hot sauce
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Cut your cauliflower florets with some stem into small bite size pieces about 1- ½ inches long, similar to a chicken wing size.
- Preheat oven to 425F. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or spray the pan well with coconut oil non-stick spray.
Cauliflower Batter Coating
- Make the batter mixture. Add milk (or almond or plant based milk if you prefer), water, flour (or rice flour to make it gluten free), salt, and pepper in a large mixing bowl until the batter is thick and is able to coat the cauliflower. It's important the batter is thick to cling to the cauliflower.
- Dip all the cauliflower pieces in the batter, shake off excess batter as you remove each piece of cauliflower and lay on a sheet pan or baking sheet in a single layer on parchment paper.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 425F.
Buffalo Sauce Coating
- Meanwhile, while the cauliflower is baking, on low heat, make the buffalo sauce. Simply melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan, and 1 cup of Frank's RedHot® Hot Sauce. Just as it starts to melt, remove it from heat, stir it together and set aside.
- Once the cauliflower is baked for 15 minutes, remove them from the oven, leave the oven on, and dip all the “wings” into a large mixing bowl with the buffalo sauce. Return cauliflower to the sheet pan and bake in the oven for another 15 minutes or until reached desired crispness.
- Once baked, arrange hot buffalo cauliflower “wings” on a platter, with a bowl of ranch dip, or blue cheese dressing, celery sticks, and garnish with fresh herbs. Enjoy!
Notes
Cauliflower Wing Dipping Sauces & Dressing Ideas
- Extra Buffalo Sauce like Frank's Red Hot brand is great by itself or even better, combine ½ cup of Franks Red Hot Sauce, 1 tablespoon melted butter, 2 tablespoon brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon garlic powder.
- Blue Cheese Dressing Dip is slightly chunky and loaded with flavor.
- Whisk up this delicious Buttermilk Ranch Dressing, it is amazing on salad, to dip fried food, or with wings!
- Remoulade Sauce is a popular condiment and dipping sauce, with deep amazing flavors.
- Or dip crispy hot buffalo cauliflower bites in a Creamy Balsamic Horseradish Sauce.
These are so amazing and taste just like buffalo chicken - packed with so much flavor. I love that they are a healthier option!