A vegetarian version of a favorite appetizer, these buffalo cauliflower bites are baked, not fried. Lightly coated in whole wheat flour and tossed in buffalo sauce , these crispy and spicy, guilt-free buffalo bites will be your new go-to game day food.
When you think of game day food, I’m sure buffalo wings comes to mind. Well… it does for me. We love the flavor of buffalo sauce and have had our fair share of buffalo wings and dips. During our summer vacation, we ate at this restaurant that had buffalo cauliflower ‘wings’ on the menu. Of course we order it and it was amazing! However, it wasn’t any healthier than traditional boneless chicken wings. It was breaded, fried, and heavily coated in sauce.
First bite in I knew I wanted to create a healthier version. These cauliflower bites are lightly coated in whole wheat flour, panko bread crumbs, buffalo sauce, and baked to crispy perfection. My carnivore husband devoured these and said that he wouldn’t mind eating these over the breaded chicken variety 😮
My little noshers also gave them two thumbs up! I love that you can control how much buffalo sauce you use to coat the bites. When they are enjoying game-day food with us, I will serve a small batch with no sauce or lightly sauced for them. Although I typically serve it with cut celery and ranch dip, I think it would be delicious to enjoy them on top of a salad or in a wrap!
Tidbits-
Buffalo Sauce- I use a combination of melted butter and hot sauce (Frank’s RedHot) as my buffalo sauce. I’m somewhat of a wimp when it comes to spicy food, so I like my ‘wings’ to be lightly coated in the sauce. Double the recipe if you like yours to be extra saucy. If doubling the sauce, I would do the final bake with half the sauce and serve it with remainder. This will help keep those bites crispy! If you have a favorite buffalo sauce, you can definitely use that instead.
Panko- I use whole wheat panko bread crumbs to add extra crunch to each bite. If you do not want to use the panko bread crumbs, use a total of ½ cup of flour instead of the combination of ¼ cup panko and 1/3 cup flour.
Wet Batter vs Dry Rub– You may have noticed that a lot of other buffalo recipes uses a wet batter prior to baking. I use a dry seasoned flour mixture instead. This is because cauliflower contains a lot of water to begin with, by adding a wet batter to it you could end up with soggy buffalo bites. I don’t know about you, but I like mine to be crispy! So I rinse the cauliflower pieces under water before adding it to the flour mixture. This helps the flour mixture stick on to the cauliflower bites with out adding too much moisture. The results- crispy perfection!
Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
Ingredients
- 1 large head of cauliflower cut into bite-size florets and discard the core
- 1/3 cup white whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs*
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
Buffalo Sauce *see notes
- ½ cup hot sauce I use Frank's RedHot
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Rinse cauliflower with water.
- In a large resealable bag or bowl, combine the flour, panko (if using), garlic powder, smoked paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper.
- Add the wet cauliflower to the bag/bowl and toss until the cauliflower is coated evenly.
- Arrange the cauliflower in a single layer among the two prepared baking sheets. Make sure the cauliflower pieces are not overlapping. This well help them get all crispy.
- Bake for 25 minutes, flipping the florets half way through the baking time.
- Meanwhile, prep your buffalo sauce. Combined melted butter and hot sauce. Set aside.
- Remove the cauliflower bites from the oven and gently toss in the buffalo sauce until evenly coated. To keep it crispy, you want the cauliflower to be lightly coated in the sauce, not dripping in sauce. I like to do this in two small batches.
- Return cauliflower to the baking sheets and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
- Serve warm with your favorite dressing.