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Vegan Nashville Hot Cauliflower Bites. These Nashville Style Hot Cauliflower wings are flavorful, hot and Delicious! Serve with vegan ranch or other dips. Add to wraps or bowls. Vegan Nutfree Soyfree Recipe. Glutenfree option Jump to Recipe
Weekend fare some days for events, potlucks these days is some gardein strips with various hot sauces. One of those times, I made this nashville style peppery hot sauce that hubbs loved. I mean gone in 10 seconds kind of loved. So I decided to use it with some crispy Cauliflower!
Cauliflower florets get tossed in a simple batter. No dipping each floret one by one! Just dump into the bowl and toss to coat, then spread the florets in baking dish and bake. Then toss in the sauce and bake again. The Nashville sauce is HOT! It doesn’t feel that hot when you start eating the cauliflower, but just wait for 5 mins. Boom! You can adjust the overall sauce to be less hot, add more tang(vinegar), some more oil, garlic and sweet paprika instead. Serve with cooling dips such as vegan ranch. You can also add these bites to tacos, wraps or bowls!
More Cauliflower Recipes
- Taco Spice roasted Cauliflower
- Spicy Pepper Cauliflower Bites
- Mango Sriracha Cauliflower
- Aloo Gobi – Baked
- Cauliflower Fried Rice
- Cauliflower Red pepper Soup
- No Bake Cauliflower Gratin
Step by Step Photos
Chop the Cauliflower, make the batter. Toss well for a minute to coat.
Spread the florets on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 mins.
Make the Nashville hot chickin sauce. Add in the baked cauliflower and toss gently to coat.
Spread on baking dish and bake again. Serve with pickles and cooling dips
Adjust the heat, omit the oil
- You can reduce the heat of the sauce by reducing the cayenne, black pepper and hot sauce. Add more sweet paprika instead, add more tang(vinegar), some more oil or aquafaba for volume.
- You can reduce or omit the oil in the sauce by using aquafaba instead. Omit the oil from the batter. If possible, use a light spray for extra crispyness.
How to make Crispy Hot Cauliflower Wings
- Cauliflower loses a lot of moisture as it sits after cooking, so bake these close to serving time.
- Bake the bites till the batter coating is nicely crisp.
- When you add a sauce on the coating, you lose some crispyness. So for super crisp wings, sprinkle some breadcrumbs on the battered cauliflower then bake, and then serve the baked florets with the hot nashville style sauce as dip on the side.
- You can use the above method to serve with various hot sauces such as buffalo sauce, firecracker (see everyday kitchen book), or some sriracha bbq.
- I like making baked cauliflower in a thick ceramic or stoneware baking dish for even cooking. Baking trays work too, but tend to cook the bottoms and edges of the bites faster.
Vegan Nashville Hot Cauliflower Wings
Ingredients
- 1 medium head of cauliflower, chopped into florets
Batter:
- 1/3 cup non dairy milk, such as almond or soy milk
- 1 tsp hot sauce
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup flour, (all purpose, or use rice flour for gluten-free)
- 3 tbsp starch, (I use cornstarch, arrowroot or potato starch works too)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp oil
Nashville style hot chicken sauce:
- 1 tbsp oil or melted vegan butter
- 1/2 tsp cayenne, , use 1/4 tsp for less heat
- 1 tsp black pepper, , use 1//2 tsp for less heat
- 1 tsp sugar, or maple syrup
- 1 tsp sweet paprika, , use more if omitting cayenne
- 2 tbsp hot sauce
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning, ( or use sage + onion powder)
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Chop the cauliflower and set aside. Line a baking dish with parchment. Preheat the oven to 425 deg F ( 220 C).
- Make the batter by whisking all the ingredients under batter. The batter will start to thicken after half a minute, so work quickly.
- Add cauliflower florets and toss well to coat. It will take a minute for the thick batter to coat the florets well. Some uncoated cauliflower edges are ok. Drop on parchment lined baking dish. Spray oil on top. (You can also sprinkle 2-3 tbsp breadcrumbs on the florets in the dish for extra crispyness).
- Bake at 425 deg F for 25 mins (35 mins if serving the bites with hot sauce on the side) . In the meantime, make the nashville hot sauce mixture in large bowl. You can double this sauce easily for larger cauliflower.
- Remove the dish from the oven and cool for 5 mins. Add the baked cauliflower to the sauce bowl and gently toss to coat.
- Drop back into the baking dish and bake for 15 mins or longer at 400 deg F. Serve with cooling dips such as vegan ranch and some pickles.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi! I happily discovered your recipe recently and am excited to try it. Wondering if the cauliflower can be baked an hour or so ahead of time and then baked with the hot sauce just before serving? Many thanks!
I would not recommend baking ahead as the bites will get moist as they sit.
I have yet to make this but it sounds fabulous.
I do wonder, however, how you think the average vegan would be interested in having something called ‘chicken sauce’ on their menu. Can you just call it hot sauce?
thanks
Thank you for the feedback! We find that using common names for ingredients is helpful to our readers.
This was outstanding. Consider doubling the recipe, because one head of cauliflower didn’t produce a lot of cauliflower bites. I made this in my air fryer, and it was crispy and delicious.
excellent!
I’ve made this a couple of times now, I make it hotter each time, instead of using garlic & onion powder I’m dicing each & adding to the batter.
This is a great finger food as well, hot or cold.
wow! 🌶️🌶️
Made these for a get together. They went so fast that I didn’t get a chance to try them. Made a double batch the next day and now I understand why — delicious!
Sometimes the cook eats last!
is it possible to make these in a glass baking dish? If so would you still line it with parchment paper?
Yes – and yes – stick (or unstick,hahaha) with the parchment – otherwise you’d have to use a lot of oil
Definitely 5 stars. I did adjust the heat the first time following the recommendations.
Awesome!! Do leave a rating too!
So easy and delicious! We had a pretty big cauliflower so doubled both the batter and the sauce.
Awesome !
Made this in an air fryer and came out amazing. Only 10 to 12 min for the fresh battered state then 3 to 5 once covered in hot sauce.
Found this recipe and a bunch of others from your site here https://www.mealgarden.com/recipe/vegan-nashville-hot-cauliflower-wings/ – cool partnership!
I don’t have a partnership with them. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll investigate