Easiest Ever Buffalo Cauliflower

Name: Easiest Ever Buffalo Cauliflower
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 cup water; 1 cup flour; 1 tsp garlic or onion powder; Salt & pepper, to taste; 1 head cauliflower; 2/3 cup buffalo sauce; 3 tbsp melted butter; Ranch dressing; Blue cheese dressing; Chives, chopped; Carrot sticks and celery

1/13/20

This Easiest Ever Buffalo Cauliflower is a perfect healthy appetizer or snack idea for football season, and these cute bites are made healthier in the oven. Jump to Recipe

Ingredients in Buffalo cauliflower

Of course, your main ingredient for this appetizer is a head of cauliflower. You’ll get the same great Buffalo taste as Buffalo wings but with fewer fats and calories. It’s a great choice when some of your guests are vegetarian or vegan. You can still offer a fun party finger food, but everyone regardless of diet plan will be able to enjoy it.

Always choose a head of cauliflower that is firm to the touch and tightly closed. Any areas that are soft, discolored or starting to shrink are a sign that the vegetable is past its prime.

Other ingredients you will need to make Buffalo cauliflower are pantry staples:

Flour
Garlic or onion powder
Buffalo sauce
Butter

How to make Buffalo cauliflower

The first thing you will need to do is cut your cauliflower. You want pieces that are about equal in size you so don’t have a mixture of over or under cooked cauliflower.

To cut the cauliflower easily, follow these steps:

Cut the head of cauliflower in half and then quarters through the core.
Run your knife between the florets and the stem. Once you do this, all the florets will fall apart.
Cut or use your fingers to break the large florets into small pieces.

Now in a few quick steps, you can finish preparing your baked Buffalo cauliflower.

Combine flour, garlic powder and water
Toss the cauliflower pieces in the mixture
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and put the cauliflower on it. Keep them in a single layer so they can bake evenly
Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Bake at 500F for 15 minutes
Mix Buffalo sauce and butter and toss with cauliflower
Bake for another ten minutes

What to serve with Buffalo cauliflower

If you are serving this for a party, you want a variety of dips to go with the Buffalo cauliflower wings. Offer any or all of these:

Ranch
Blue cheese
Nacho sauce
Salsa
More Buffalo sauce
Hot sauce

I also like to serve veggies on the side, just like you would get with Buffalo chicken wings. To keep it vegetarian friendly, I recommend:

Chives
Carrot sticks
Celery
Cucumbers
Radishes

What type of Buffalo sauce?

Buffalo sauce is a combination of hot sauce, Worcheshire sauce, vinegar, butter and seasonings. It’s easy to make your own, but there are lots of options on the market for just purchasing a bottle.

The original special ingredient in Buffalo sauce was Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. Some choices will have more hot sauce and some will have less. The biggest factor is how spicy you want your Buffalo cauliflower bites to be.

You can control that even better if you make your own.

If you find a combination that you really like, you can make a big batch of it. Homemade Buffalo sauce will last for about a month in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator. You can make it once and eat the Buffalo cauliflower bites for every football game!

Storing and reheating

Without a doubt, these Buffalo cauliflower bites are best straight out of the oven.

However, you can store them in the refrigerator for four to five days.

To reheat Buffalo cauliflower wings, put them back in the oven for five to ten minutes. If you heat them in the microwave, the batter on the cauliflower will get soggy even if they still taste great. You want it to have a nice crisp texture.

If you have extra Buffalo cauliflower, you can use it in lots of other dishes. Try some of these ideas for using up the extra florets:

Filling for tacos
In a pita
Crumbled on a pizza
On a salad

Can I freeze Buffalo cauliflower?

You actually can freeze this Buffalo cauliflower!

Let it cool completely then put the cauliflower florets on a baking sheet in the freezer. Try not to let any of the pieces touch. After an hour, you can put them in a freezer safe container. This will keep the pieces from sticking together in the freezer.

Reheat the Buffalo cauliflower from frozen. Put them on a prepared baking sheet and cook at 375F for 15 minutes.

How to make it gluten free

With one simple substitution, you can make this Buffalo cauliflower appetizer gluten free for your guests who can’t eat wheat.

Substitute almond flour or cornstarch for the wheat flour. Use the same amount as the wheat flour listed below.

Why use butter?

Butter may seem like an unusual ingredient to add to Buffalo sauce, but there is a reason!

I use butter to cut the Buffalo sauce. It makes the flavor of the sauce richer and increases the flavor of the final product.

More cauliflower recipes

Meal prep tools for this recipe

Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning this recipe into leftovers
This is the buffalo sauce I use
Freeze this recipe in glass microwave-safe bowls up to 3 months

Meal prep challenge

If you'd like some more help with meal planning, then you'll love my free 5-day meal prep challenge! It's basically a free course that will teach you how to meal prep and cook healthy meals at home with some PDF bonus materials. Sign up for free below:

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote