Cauliflower florets are smothered in a fiery homemade buffalo sauce and baked then served with a cooling ranch yogurt dip to help put out the blaze.
You can serve them warm or at room temperature, as an appetizer, snack, side dish or a meal in and of themselves. That’s the best way.
Some say these are a great replacement for chicken wings. I beg to differ. I don’t know if die hard chicken wing lovers would go for that, not the way I have. (If you’re a vegetarian and craving those flavors then, yes, this will probably work.)
The thing is I don’t even eat chicken wings. I don’t understand chicken wings. They’re like one piece of meat and a bunch of skin you have to gnaw off the bone like a barbarian?! Who has time for that?
These are made by coating fresh cauliflower florets in my favorite, easy to make, homemade buffalo sauce. It’s made of hot sauce, butter, garlic powder, black pepper and for this recipe, Parmesan cheese. Leave it to me to put Parmesan in there. Crazy Italian girl. The Parmesan helps the sauce cling and stick to the cauliflower plus it adds a little flavor.
The cauliflower is roasted until tender and caramelized. Caramelized buffalo sauce is the bomb. My new obsession might be to see how many things I can smother with it and roast.
The ranch dip is made of Greek yogurt, sour cream, garlic and dried herbs like parsley, chives and dill. It’s an absolute necessity! The cauliflower bites are hot, hot, hot. So make sure you dip, dip, dip your little heart out.
Leave the chicken wings.
Take the cauliflower.
Ingredients
- Dip:
- 1/3 cup Greek yogurt
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon dried chives
- 1/4 teaspoon dill
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- pinch each of salt and pepper
- Hot Sauce:
- 1/2 cup hot sauce (like Cholula)
- 4 tablespoons butter
- scant 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- Cauliflower:
- olive oil, for greasing the pan
- 1 medium head cauliflower (7 - 8 cups)
- salt
Instructions
Make the dip:
In a medium bowl whisk all the dip ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate.
Make the hot sauce:
Add the hot sauce and butter to a small saucepan set over medium-low heat. Stir to melt the butter and cook 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the Parmesan, garlic powder and black pepper.
Make the cauliflower:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a large non-stick baking sheet generously with olive oil.
Cut the head of cauliflower into florets - not too small - they will shrink as they cook.
Place the cauliflower in a large bowl and pour the hot sauce over it. Mix it well until the cauliflower are well coated.
Spread them out on the baking sheet, drizzle any sauce left in the bowl over them. Sprinkle them lightly with salt.
Bake 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and toss the cauliflower, scraping up any sauce that is laying on the bottom of the pan. Spread them out again.
Bake 15 more minutes. Take them out of the oven and toss again. Check them with a fork or taste one to see how tender they are.
If they're not done put them back in the oven until they are - it shouldn't take longer than another 10 minutes.
Serve warm or at room temperature with the ranch yogurt dip.
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