Baked Buffalo Style Cauliflower with Blue Cheese Dip is a spicy and addictive appetizer.
For the final day of this week's blogging marathon, I made this crispy and absolutely addictive baked buffalo style cauliflower with blue cheese dip. This is another dish that I had in NYC botanical garden. I really loved how spicy and yummy it was. My recipe is a low calorie version in that this one is baked while the one I had at the restaurant was deep fried.
I have never had anything 'buffalo style' before and when I saw this on the menu, I just had to give it a try. There's a very popular dish called buffalo wings here in the US that has nothing to do with the animal buffalo. This dish was invented in Buffalo, NY -- hence the name. These are made with chicken and are coated in a butter and vinegar-based hot pepper sauce.
In the recent past, vegan and vegetarian buffalo style plant based dishes are slowly becoming popular. Soy or quorn based meat substitutes or vegetables like cauliflower or jackfruit are used instead of real meat.
To make the crispy cauliflower, the florets are dipped in chickpea flour batter and then baked until slightly tender. They are then tossed with the buffalo sauce and baked until completely cooked through and crispy on the outside. These baked cauliflower are so addictive, I ended up 'taste-testing' more than half of the batch 🙂
Blue cheese dip is a common accompaniment to buffalo wings. Since I wanted to replicate what I ate at the restaurant, I made the dip too. This sour cream-mayo-blue cheese dip is creamy and addictive too. So make sure to make it for the cauliflower wings. Make these for your next party and I'm sure these will be a big hit with your guests.
Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 82.
Crispy Baked Buffalo Style Cauliflower with Blue Cheese Dip
Ingredients
For Crispy Cauliflower:
- 1 Small Cauliflower, cut into florets
- ½ cup Chickpea flour or Besan
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- To taste Salt Pepper
- ⅓ cup water
- ¼ cup Red Sauce (I used Texas Pete)
- 1 tbsp Butter or Coconut Oil
For Blue Cheese Dip:
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- ¼ cup Blue Cheese
- 1 Small Garlic clove, finely minced
- 2~3 tsp milk
- To taste Salt Pepper
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients for the blue cheese dip in a small bowl. Whisk well until combined. Alternately blend in a small blender. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Preheat the oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together chickpea flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add water and whisk to make a smooth batter -- make sure there are no lumps.
- Add the cauliflower into the batter and make sure all the florets are evenly coated with the batter. Drip the extra batter and place it on the baking sheet, spray lightly with cooking spray and bake for 20 minutes.
- In the mean time, combine hot sauce with melted butter/ coconut oil in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the cauliflower into the buffalo sauce and mix well. Place the florets back on the baking sheet and bake for another 20~25 minutes or until crisp and golden.
- Serve hot with the buffalo cheese dip.
Priya Suresh
Extremely tempting buffalo style cauliflower florets, and simply love this baked version. Feel like having some with that alluring dip.
Sapana Behl
The baked buffalo style cauliflower wings sound lip-smacking delicious. I would love to try them soon.
Jayashree
I had no idea that this is the reason behind the name. I honestly thought that their menu must be all about beef. The cauliflower looks delicious.
Sandhya Ramakrishnan
This will disappear like candy in our hiuse. The boys love roasted / baked cauliflower and this is a great recipe to try.
Ritu Tangri
Name 'Buffalo wings' is quite intriguing and of course this must be addictive too especially to a cauliflower lover like me. What is buffalo sauce?
Vaishali
Very very interesting twist to the cauliflower, sounds delicious , like the crispy cauliflower and that dip , sounds wow!
Srividhya Gopalakrishnan
That's indeed an addictive starter. Love that blue cheese dip. I need to get acquired to blue cheese. 🙂
themadscientistskitchen
Wow delicious n addictive. Love the pics
Padmajha PJ
Just now got the reason behind the name of the dishes!! And reading your description itself is ma=king me hungry. The cauliflower is so crisp!
Veena Krishnakumar
Ah now I understand the reason behind the names. These looks super delish. Want to make these soon