Crispy gluten-free baked buffalo cauliflower makes an easy snack, dinner, or appetizer to share with guests.
<3M and I love the buffalo cauliflower that’s served at the Alamo Drafthouse. It’s the ‘healthy’ vegetarian appetizer we can easily agree upon. I love the spice, the crispy florets, and the creamy blue cheese-ranch dressing they serve with it.
Knowing how much we both love the dish, I had toyed with the idea of making it at home myself but it wasn’t until a pregnant friend asked if I had a recipe for it that I really decided to research a method for making crispy gluten-free baked buffalo cauliflower at home.
It starts with the batter
While looking at an assortment of recipes, there was always a common thread — some kind of flour and milk-based battered cauliflower floret baked at a high temperature. Now, I chose to make my buffalo cauliflower gluten-free using a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour substitute but you can 100$% make this with all-purpose flour. You can also substitute plain non-dairy milk for cow’s milk, though I wouldn’t recommend coconut because it would add sweetness.
After reading comments on multiple recipes, I also decided adding a little egg white to the batter would help with the stability and provide added crispness. Lastly, to maximize the flavor, I threw in a bit of spice to the batter including garlic salt, onion powder, and paprika.
Baking requires active participation
When baking the crispy gluten-free baked buffalo cauliflower, you need to participate in the process. This means spreading each battered cauliflower floret out evenly on a baking sheet so that each floret has a little breathing room — we don’t want any of them touching. Lastly, when you bake it in the oven, you need to be sure to flip the individual cauliflower florets over halfway through.
If you’re doubling this recipe, you’ll need to spread the cauliflower out on two sheet pans and rotate the pans top to bottom and bottom to top halfway through the cooking time too to ensure everything crisps up evenly. If you do not have a convection bake option, then I’d recommend rotating the pans every 10-minutes throughout the duration of the cook time but only flipping the cauliflower florets at the halfway mark.
Toss and serve immediately
As you can imagine, as soon as you add the wing sauce on top of the crispy cauliflower, it’s going to start losing its crispness. My recommendation is to portion out the cauliflower florets so you only toss the cauliflower you want to eat immediately and put the rest of the florets back in the oven (that is now turned off) so it can stay warm and crisp from the residual heat.
Serving Crispy Gluten-Free Baked Buffalo Cauliflower
I served these just like traditional buffalo wings with a side of carrots and celery but mixed blue cheese crumbles into ranch dressing for dipping. I made these for the family as they were visiting and took them to a NYE party. Everyone who ate them, even after they sat for a bit and lost their crispness thoroughly enjoyed them. We definitely plan to make these again in the future.
Looking for more cauliflower recipes? Check out my Roasted Mediterranean Cauliflower with Harissa and Tahini or my Indian Curried Cauliflower recipes.
- For the Cauliflower
- 1 medium head cauliflower, chopped into bite-size florets
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup milk
- 2 tablespoons egg white (about 1 egg white)
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup buffalo-style wing sauce
- For Serving
- celery & carrots
- ranch dressing,
- blue cheese crumbles
- Preheat oven to 450°F (use convection bake if available on your oven).
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or foil (spray foil with cooking spray so wings don't stick)
- Whisk together the flour, milk, egg whites, and spices in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add cauliflower florets and toss to coat. Gently shake excess coating from cauliflower and place them on the prepared pan. Space out the cauliflower so they don't touch. If needed, use a second pan.
- Bake the wings for a total of 40-minutes. Flipping the wings halfway through.
- If using two large pans, be sure to rotate the pans (moving top pan to bottom and bottom pan to top) every 10 minutes throughout the full cook time and still flip the cauliflower halfway through so both sides are fully cooked. The wings should be
- Once wings are cooked place half the wings in a large bowl and drizzle with ¼ cup wing sauce. Toss lightly with a spoon. Repeat with remaining wings. Serve immediately with ranch, veggies, and blue cheese crumbles.
- TIP: Only toss the wings you will eat immediately with the wing sauce and keep the others warm & crispy by leaving them in the OFF but the still warm oven.
