Buffalo cauliflower bowls with vegan cashew ranch dressing. An easy, healthy game-day inspired meal or appetizer… for any night of the week! Gluten-free and paleo.
This recipe was updated on November 1, 2020.
Love buffalo sauce 🙋🏼♀️? This one is for you. Even though real, crispy wings are beyond my at-home cooking capabilities, these buffalo cauliflower bites are a satisfying, healthy substitute. You can enjoy them on your own (though I highly recommend serving with some sort of ranch – recipe below) or… in bowl/salad form. I like these buffalo cauliflower bites with quinoa, a little red onion, avocado, and cherry tomatoes, but anything works!
When I first posted these buffalo cauliflower bowls on Loveleaf Co., I used gluten-free flour in the breading, but over the years I’ve realized that almond flour works better in terms of texture. Plus, it makes them paleo if you’re into that!
The breading process is a little tedious, but nothing unmanageable. I like to make these on weekends (hi, quarantine-style Friday), but if you have a little time they are totally doable on a weeknight. Simply prep the ranch and/or other bowl ingredients while the cauliflower bites are baking.
These are best enjoyed right away. If you’re saving some for later, just skip the buffalo sauce and store the breaded cauliflower in the fridge in an airtight container. When ready to serve, reheat in the oven until crispy and then coat in the sauce.
Let’s talk sauce. For the buffalo sauce, I looooveee the classic Frank’s red hot (clean ingredients!) but this one is good too.
For the cashew ranch – if you have all the ingredients on hand, this is the easiest dairy-free ranch dressing. Simply add everything to a blender and voilà! If going the store-bought route, I like the Tessemae’s line of ranch dressings.
To turn these buffalo cauliflower bites into bowls, simply serve them with your favorite bowl ingredients! I like quinoa, scallions, cherry tomatoes, red onion, avocado, and maybe some greens if I’m craving a salad. But you do you! Anything works.
Buffalo Cauliflower Bowls with Vegan Ranch
- Prep Time: 25 Minutes
- Cook Time: 25 Minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Buffalo cauliflower bowls with vegan cashew ranch dressing. An easy, healthy game-day inspired meal or appetizer… for any night of the week! Gluten-free and paleo.
Ingredients
Buffalo Cauliflower
- 1 head of cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 3 eggs
Buffalo Sauce
- 1/3 cup Frank’s hot sauce
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil or grass-fed butter, melted
Vegan Ranch (Optional, See Notes)
- 1 cup raw, unsalted cashews, soaked and drained (see notes)
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- a few tablespoons fresh parsley and/or chives, optional
Bowls (Optional)
- quinoa, cherry tomatoes, scallions, avocado, red onion
Instructions
Buffalo Cauliflower
-
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.
-
Make the cauliflower breading by combining the almond flour, garlic powder, and onion powder in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl, whisk the eggs.
-
Dip the cauliflower florets in the egg, allowing the excess to drip off before coating the cauliflower in the almond flour mixture. Repeat until all the cauliflower florets are breaded, arranging in a single layer on the baking sheet as you go.
-
Bake for 20 minutes, carefully flip the florets, and bake for another 15-20 minutes more until just golden brown.
Buffalo Sauce
- In a large bowl, whisk together the hot sauce and melted oil or butter.
- Right before serving, add the baked cauliflower to the bowl with the hot sauce and gently toss to coat.
Vegan Cashew Ranch
-
Add all ingredients to a high-speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
Bowls
- Serve with desired bowl ingredients!
Notes
Cashews. Soak the cashews while you make the buffalo cauliflower (at least 15 minutes). Drain the liquid before blending.
Vegan Cashew Ranch. If you’d prefer a store-bought option to save time, I like this clean ranch dressing (not vegan). The vegan cashew ranch recipe above might make more than you need for the buffalo cauliflower bowls. But it’s delicious on everything; I especially like it on shredded kale salads or on this barbecue chickpea socca pizza.
Storage. These are best enjoyed right away. If you’re saving some for later, just skip the buffalo sauce and store the breaded cauliflower in the fridge in an airtight container. When ready to serve, reheat in the oven until crispy and then coat in the sauce.
Keywords: buffalo cauliflower, buffalo cauliflower bowls, gluten-free buffalo cauliflower, vegan ranch, vegan ranch dressing, cashew ranch
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Sky says
The buffalo cauliflower itself was delicious! I was not as huge a fan of the vegan ranch. If you think about it, regular ranch is fairly creamy and doesn’t really have any strong vinegar or lemon taste. I made my own vegan ranch by blending the soaked cashews with coconut creamer, a smaller amount of apple cider vinegar and lemon juice, a tiny bit of hot sauce, and some preferred spices. I omitted the maple syrup since coconut creamer already has creamer in it. After blending thoroughly, I found that the mixture still wasn’t quite as smooth as I’d have liked, so I put it through a strainer, set aside the liquid, re-blended the small cashew bits until they became creamy, then re-united them with the previously strained liquid and blended one final time to mix them. The resulting mixture was much smoother/creamer than initially (I think the thick texture of the coconut creamer was especially helpful for making it creamy). This vegan ranch + the buffalo cauliflower in this recipe were amazing together!
Ally Milligan says
So happy you love the cauliflower! Your ranch idea sounds delicious. I’ll have to try that!
Sandra says
I loved it all together! The ranch is so good & balances out the spiciness in the cauliflower. I made some changes added 1 teaspon of paprika to buffalo cauliflower & subbed almond milk for water. I added the hot sauce to cauliflower & baked for another 15-20min to add crispiness. The ranch sauce is good with carrots too.