A couple of weeks ago, Rachel emailed me about this amazing vegetable dish she tried at a local restaurant in LA. Intrigued by the dish, I decided to recreate it.
Buffalo wings may not be the most healthy option, but no one can deny how tasty they are. Instead of deep dried chicken wings, this dish uses roasted cauliflower!
Mohawk Bend, a cool gastropub in Echo Park inspired this dish. It takes all the components and flavors of traditional buffalo wings and transforms it into a vegetarian dish. In the case of Mohawk Bend, they serve a vegan version that uses butter alternative and dairy-free (soy) cheeses. Since those ingredients can be difficult to find, I have used regular butter and traditional blue cheese.
Buffalo sauce is surprisingly easy to make. Its simply hot sauce and melted butter.
I roasted the cauliflower to give it more of a rich, savory flavor. You can add a little blue cheese dressing, but I prefer to crumble a little blue cheese on top. If you want to make it look like a restaurant dish, serve it with some celery sticks on the side. And wham! You got the perfect vegetarian side dish. This is a great recipe to make anyone into a vegetable lover!
Buffalo Cauliflower, serves 2-3 as an appetizer
Ingredients
1 pound cauliflower florets
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to season
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup hot sauce (example: Frank’s Red Hot)
crumbled blue cheese, as desired
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Cut cauliflower into bite sized florets. Place cauliflower on lined baking sheet. Drizzle 1 Tbsp of olive oil over cauliflower. Season with a little salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Arrange cauliflower in an even single layer on baking sheet.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges of cauliflower have browned and vegetable has softened. Do not overcook, as cauliflower can get mushy and it loses all its flavor. Transfer roasted cauliflower to a large bowl.
4. In a small bowl, combine melted butter and hot sauce. Add 1 Tbsp of butter-hot sauce mix to bowl of cauliflower. Toss to coat. Continue to add butter-hot sauce mix, 1 tbsp at a time, until desired sauciness is achieved. (I ended up using 3 Tbsp of sauce.)
5. Crumble blue cheese on top and serve with celery sticks and ranch/blue cheese dressing.
- 1 pound cauliflower florets
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper, to season
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup hot sauce (example: Frank’s Red Hot)
- crumbled blue cheese, as desired
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut cauliflower into bite sized florets. Place cauliflower on lined baking sheet. Drizzle 1 Tbsp of olive oil over cauliflower. Season with a little salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Arrange cauliflower in an even single layer on baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges of cauliflower have browned and vegetable has softened. Do not overcook, as cauliflower can get mushy and it loses all its flavor. Transfer roasted cauliflower to a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, combine melted butter and hot sauce. Add 1 Tbsp of butter-hot sauce mix to bowl of cauliflower. Toss to coat. Continue to add butter-hot sauce mix, 1 tbsp at a time, until desired sauciness is achieved. (I ended up using 3 Tbsp of sauce.)
- Crumble blue cheese on top and serve with celery sticks and ranch/blue cheese dressing.
