Baked Battered Buffalo Cauliflower

These Baked Battered Buffalo Cauliflower bites have a crisp exterior, a tender interior and a coating of buttery hot sauce.  Dip them in blue cheese dressing, if that’s your thing (it’s mine) and you will be oohing and ahhing. It is unlikely you will be missing the chicken in this healthier take on Buffalo Wings, but if you are, check out my Crispy Baked Gluten Free Buffalo Wings.  It’s always great to have options, right?

Batter Up!

The batter is light and creates a thin crispy crust over the cauliflower.  I have made roasted cauliflower with buffalo sauce without battering them, and it is still good, don’t get me wrong,  but adding the crispy crust definitely makes them tastier. The crust holds more sauce and provides extra flavor and texture.  The batter is easy to make too. Just stir the ingredients together, coat the cauliflower and bake. Make sure to cut your cauliflower into pieces that are all about the same size so they cook evenly.  Then flip them halfway through the baking time.

Make it Saucy

There isn’t anything complicated about the sauce.  Just put all 3 ingredients into the microwave, heat it up until the butter melts and give it a good stir. Then pour that rich, spicy sauce onto those delectable little baked bites. Serve them with a side of blue cheese or ranch dressing and some celery sticks if you’d like.

Give it Company

Anything that has the word “Buffalo Sauce” in it makes me think of a game night.  So if you are serving Baked Battered Buffalo Cauliflower for a crowd, some other yummy bites to serve with it could be Fresh Avocado Salsa, Fully Loaded Guacamole, Tostones or Coconut Lime Shrimp Ceviche.

Baked Battered Buffalo Cauliflower

5 from 3 votes

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Servings: 4 servings

Calories:

Ingredients  

2x3x4x

Battered Cauliflower

• 1 head cauliflower - cut into florets
• ¼ cup Gluten Free flour blend - I use Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ½ cup unflavored seltzer water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• pepper to taste

Buffalo Sauce

• 6 tablespoon butter - or dairy free alternative
• 3 tablespoon hot sauce - I use Frank's Red Hot
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• blue cheese dressing & celery - for serving (dairy free dressing if needed)

Instructions

For the Cauliflower:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a large baking sheet (or two) with aluminum foil and grease well with oil or butter.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, seltzer, olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add cauliflower florets and stir well to evenly coat each piece. Place coated cauliflower in a single layer on baking sheet(s). Try to leave room between each piece to allow them to “breathe” and get crispy. If they are too close together, they may steam cook and may not get crispy. If you need to use two pans and can’t fit them on the same rack, the best option is to cook in batches otherwise the tray on the bottom won’t brown and may not crisp as well. Disregard this concern if you have a convection oven:-)
• Bake the cauliflower for 20 minutes, flipping them half way through so they don’t burn on one side. Remove them after 20 minutes and return them to the large bowl (that has been cleaned). Pour the Buffalo Sauce (instructions below) on top and stir them to evenly coat with the sauce. You can reserve some sauce for dipping if you’d like, there should be more than enough. Put the cauliflower back on the sheet pan(s) and return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes.
• Remove from oven and serve with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks.

For the Buffalo Sauce:

• While the cauliflower is baking, combine all ingredients for the sauce in a microwaveable bowl. Heat for 1 to 2 minutes until the butter is melted. Stir well to combine the ingredients until they no longer separate.