Buffalo Cauliflower Wings (10 Ingredients)
These Buffalo Cauliflower Wings are made with ONLY 10 main ingredients and are the perfect for Game Day Snacks and Appetizers, and any occasion!! It’s crunchy and crispy on the outside and the perfect texture on the inside. To top it off, the buffalo sauce is a sweet and spicy kick that’s sure to be a crowd pleaser! Learn how to make these in HALF the time!!
It’s that time of year (all year to be honest) where I profess my undying love for all things cauliflower. These cauliflower cauliflower wings have continued my love affair. The spicy, crispy, sweet and savoury notes on this is out of this world!
Notes on Ingredients
Cauliflower: If you’re using a large cauliflower head instead of medium, definitely double it! It’s hard for me to guess the size of yours, so size up your ingredients accordingly! 🙂
Hot Sauce: It’s important to use a hot sauce that you like. It should also be suitable to your taste buds. Vinegar based hot sauces tend to blend perfectly with the melted butter so those are highly recommended.
Vegan Butter: Any Vegan butter works. Adding vegan butter aids in reducing the heat of the hot sauce.
Maple syrup: Adding this small amount of maple syrup also works to reduce the spiciness of the hot sauce and adds a lovely sweet kick.
Flour, breadcrumbs: these work perfectly any version of these ingredients! Regular or gluten free flour or breadcrumbs – the choice is up to you.
Vegan milk: For the vegan milk, any kind will work. If you want the best battering result, might I suggest a thicker one like soy milk or cashew milk?
How to Make Buffalo Cauliflower Wings (Step by Step)
This recipe uses easy to find ingredients to produce big flavour notes. The process involves standard dredging. There are step by step photos that can aid you along the way.
Using a knife, remove florets from the cauliflower (aka cut off the leaves and don’t use the stems). Chop the cauliflower into smaller pieces to resemble the size of the wings.
In a bowl, whisk the flour, vegan milk and sea salt, ground black pepper and garlic powder in a bowl to make the batter. If the batter is too thick, feel free to thin it out with some more milk and vice versa.
In a separate bowl, place the breadcrumbs. Line it up beside the batter bowl and the cauliflower (for a dredging station). Toss the cauliflower in the batter mixture (you can add them all at once), using a spatula or spoon to coat them all.
Transfer them to the breadcrumbs (you can do this in two or three batches) to coat completely.
Then place onto the baking sheet, giving each wing enough space. Repeat until all of the wings are coated. Bake for 22 minutes. While wings are baking whisk sauce ingredients together.
Toss the wings in the sauce (I like to use a spatula to move them around to get properly coated) then using tongs or a spoon, remove and place back on the baking sheet. Bake for 5 mins. Remove, cool slightly and enjoy!
Expert Tips and FAQs:
When cutting the cauliflower off of the stem, don’t make them too small. Think: hand held wing-like pieces! You can even leave a bit of stem on at the end to hold on to!
BTW, and it’s a big “by the way”, I completely hacked my own recipe! You don’t have to dip each cauliflower wing in individually (like I used to in the past). Like in the video, you can just toss them all at once! It saves SO much time and energy (and you get to eat them faster!)!
Although it isn’t recommended, it is possible to use frozen florets if it’s all you have/can find. To do this, the florets have to be completely thawed, then oven dried before you use it. To ensure that they are completely dry, bake them at 350°F for 5-10 mins. Pat dry after removing, then proceed with the recipe!
I highly recommend using a (affiliate link) silicone baking sheet for this. Nothing sticks to it, and it’s so easy to clean! This is the (affiliate link) one I use.
If you can’t have it, you can skip the cornstarch. But it does make the cauliflower extra crispy and crunchy by drawing out any excess liquid!
Serving Suggestions
These cauliflower wings pair well with my vegan ranch dressing. It’s the perfect way to cool some of that sweet heat.
The wings go great with chopped veggies such as celery or carrots.
More Vegan Game Day Snacks
As game day approaches, these cauliflower wings are must on the table. It works as a stand-alone or a treat to pass around to the family. The best part is that these cauliflower wings work perfectly with the other “wings” I have on the blog.
You can make a platter with your family by adding the following:
- BBQ Cauliflower Wings
- Lemon Pepper Cauliflower Wings
- Crispy Cauliflower Tacos with Chipotle Crema
- Sticky Spicy Sesame Cauliflower Wings
To find even more me approved cauliflower wings to mix and match, you can look through all my cauliflower recipes!
WHAT I USED FOR THIS RECIPE:
Enjoy friends! If you make this Buffalo Cauliflower Wings, please snap a photo and tag #jessicainthekitchen on Instagram! We’d also love if you would leave a comment below, and give the recipe a rating! Thanks so much!
Buffalo Cauliflower Wings (Vegan)
Ingredients
Cauliflower Wings
- 1 medium head of cauliflower, (if using a large head, you may need to double the batter and sauce quantities)
- 3/4 cup flour, (all-purpose gluten free flour or regular all purpose flour)
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3/4 cup vegan milk, (unsweetened) any kind works
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs , (gluten-free breadcrumbs works too) seasoned with sea salt and black pepper
Sauce
- 1/2 cup vinegar based hot sauce, such as Franks hot sauce, or any kind
- 1 tablespoon vegan butter
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup
To Serve With: The Dip (Ranch Dressing)
Instructions
Cauliflower Wings
- Preheat oven to 450°F/230° C.
- Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with a silicone baking sheet or greased foil (I highly recommend a silicone baking sheet).
- Using a knife, remove florets from the cauliflower (aka cut off the leaves and don't use the most of the stems. You can leave a little piece on at the ends to hold on to). Chop the cauliflower into smaller pieces to resemble the size of the wings.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cornstarch, vegan milk, sea salt, ground black pepper and garlic powder in a bowl to make the batter. If the batter is too thick, feel free to thin it out with some more milk and vice versa. In a separate bowl, place the breadcrumbs. Line it up beside the batter bowl.
- Toss the cauliflower in the batter mixture (you can add them all at once), using a spatula or spoon to coat them all. Transfer them to the breadcrumbs (you can do this in two or three batches) to coat completely, then place onto the baking sheet, giving each wing enough space. Repeat until all of the wings are coated.
- Bake for 22 minutes. Please ensure your oven is completely preheated and hot.
- While baking, prepare the ingredients for the sauce by whisking together.
- Remove from oven. Toss the wings in the sauce (I like to use a spatula to move them around to get properly coated) then using tongs or a spoon, remove and place back on the baking sheet. Bake for another 5 minutes for the sauce to soak into the wings.
- Remove from oven and serve immediately with a cool vegan ranch dressing (cooling agent is essential!). Enjoy!
Sweet Buffalo Sauce
- While the wings are baking, in a small pot over high heat, mix all the sauce ingredients. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 to 3 minutes, which helps to bring out more flavour notes of the ingredients. Remove from heat. Allow it to cool before putting it on the wings.Taste a little bit to decide if you need more sweetener to balance out the heat; if so, add a tablespoon at a time until your desired heat. Please note that especially depending on the hot sauce you use, these wings are HOT so take caution!
Notes
Disclaimer: Although jessicainthekitchen.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, kindly note that these are only estimates. Nutritional information may be affected based on the product type, the brand that was purchased, and in other unforeseeable ways. Jessicainthekitchen.com will not be held liable for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on nutritional information. If you need to follow a specific caloric regimen, please consult your doctor first.
I made these for the super bowl and they were amazing! We had a different recipe for cauliflower wings that we liked, but I decided to try these because they looked so yummy. This is our new go to recipe for cauliflower wings! Try them! You won’t be disappointed!
This recipe is great!! Easy to follow and delicious! Friends said they’d be happy eating these cauliflower wings all the time instead of meat ones.
Ok. It’s official. You can do no wrong!!! Literally every recipe of your’s that I try is un-be-liev-a-ble. These are so delicious! I’m not usually into cauliflower but I’m majorly into hot sauce so I gave these a try – so yum!!!! I’m a convert. Thanks for making my transition into veganism so smooth. No matter what I’m craving, you’ve got a delicious option for me x
These were spectacular! They came out crispy and flavorful. I doubled the sauce because I like to sauce my “wings” post plating in addition to pre-final bake. If you prep your cauli and batter ahead of time, these come together quickly. Will definitely make these for my next potluck get together (post-pandemic).
The best cauliflower wings I’ve ever made! The breading was perfect and made these wings truly seem like a dupe to a boneless chicken wing.
I had a few bottles of sauces to use up in the fridge so I didn’t make the sauce in the recipe. But good to note that a store bought sauce works well too!
I’m not vegan, but my daughter is vegetarian and we try to eat more plant based as a family. I had a craving for buffalo wings and remembered seeing this recipe when I tried one of your other cauliflower wing recipes They’re so versatile and simple. I ran out of hot sauce, so I ended up making half of my florets buffalo and the other half BBQ. So yummy!! Thanks for sharing this technique, it’s a great substitute to the meat and deep frying in traditional wings.
Wow Maria! Thanks so much, we’re so happy that you found that it worked for you and your family.
This recipe was absolutely perfect. They came out amazing! Seriously decadent savory sweet and spicy “wings” that were actually pretty easy to make. I haven’t eaten meat in 20 years, and still the flavor was exactly reminiscent of hot wings I remember having growing up. Crazy good.
Awesome Shivaan! We’re delighted that you like it.
These were so easy & amazing!! I cooked them in the air fryer and they were super crispy, 10/10
How long and what temperature in the air fryer?
These were delicious and fun to make. I left them in the over for a good 6 or 7 minutes longer than the directions, because I really wanted them to crisp up well and hold their own when I mixed them with the sauce. It seemed to work well. My only change for next time is that I will double the sauce, and will coat half of the “wings” at a time, to ensure they all get a nice coating. I was expecting them to look all red like the picture, but there wasn’t enough sauce go full coat all of them. Thank you for the great recipe! Oh, and I didn’t have the time to whip up the cashew based vegan ranch dressing, so I used this one instead and it came out great. https://thecheekychickpea.com/vegan-ranch-dressing/
Oh wow thanks so much for this review Joe! We really appreciate how detailed it is.