Spicy & Crispy Baked Cauliflower Wings (vegan)
(*ad: in cooperation with pandoo)
Let me say this first; wings made out of cauliflower do not magically taste like chicken. BUT they don’t have to, either! I, at least, am perfectly fine with them being nothing more (& nothing less!) than the most perfect combination of crispy, spicy and even slightly juicy on the inside! Also; you’ll find no better way to get your daily veggies in that effortlessly!
Ok, real talk though: Even I wasn’t all too convinced when I first came across this recipe trend online (mainly because you have to bake these delicious little cauliflower florets twice and I have literally 0 patience when it comes to savory foods), BUT now I have to say; this beauty of a finger food / snack is worth all the baking time in the world. I promise!
and here comes the recipe for these:
Spicy & Crispy Baked Cauliflower Wings
Ingredients:
for the base:
1 small head fresh cauliflower*
for the crispy coating:
100g unsweetened cornflakes
5 tbsp flour
100ml plant milk
100ml water
a pinch of each garlic & paprika powder
a pinch of black pepper
for the spicy marinade:
2-4 tsp gochujang paste*
8 tbsp nut butter*
80ml water
8 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
6 tbsp maple or rice syrup*
2 tbsp tomato paste or ketchup
salt, garlic & paprika powder and black pepper to taste
1-2 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
spice mixes of choice (optional)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 220°C.
Place Cornflakes into a blender and blend until you get a breadcrumb-like consistency.
Wash your cauliflower, remove leaves and stem and cut into smaller florets that have the rough size of regular wings. Then place the florets onto a clean kitchen towel and pat them dry.
Combine flour, plant milk, water and spices in a bowl and stir until you get to a liquid-creamy consistency.
Now dip each of the cauliflower florets in the flour-water mix first, then toss in the blended cornflakes and place onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. You can leave the little stems of the florets untouched if you’d like, so that they look more like regular wings.
Bake all the coated florets for about 25mins and in the meantime start preparing the marinade.
For that combine all marinade ingredients in a clean bowl and add spices to taste.
After 25mins, take the wings out of the oven and dunk into the marinade (be careful, the wings can be very hot!). Leave the oven on while doing this.*
Place the wings back on the baking tray and bake for another 10-15mins.
When the wings start to become golden brown, take them out of the oven and serve right away on top of a salad bowl or together with some potato wedges!
The best way to eat cauliflower!
*Notes:
I used a fairly small cauliflower for this recipe. If you happen to make more or have a bigger head of cauliflower, you might want to adjust and maybe double the coating and marinade measurements!
Gochujang is a spicy, korean red pepper paste. You can find it at many asian grocery stores but if you can’t find it, any other chili paste or even barbecue sauce should also work fine!
It doesn’t really matter which nut butter you’re using for this recipe, just make sure it’s a natural and unsweetened one! However with that in mind you can simply use you’re favorite kind of nut butter.
It also does not matter which sweetener you want to use here. I used both maple and rice syrup but also agave or even regular sugar will work fine.
Spice mixes can often be vegan, even if they’re labeled as “chicken seasoning”. I like to use fries seasoning in a lot of savory recipes as it gives just the right amount of spiciness and additional flavor!
If you have some leftover marinade after dunking the wings in, you can use it as an additional dip or sauce in the end! Yum!
Did you make this recipe?
leave a comment or tag me on Instagram @choartemi