Air Fryer Cauliflower Wings

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Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower

This recipe for air fryer cauliflower wings is a perfect snack for football season, movie nights with friends or just a casual weeknight wind-down.  They are crispy, bold and delicious.  Its hard to mess up buffalo cauliflower bites – they are the perfect vehicle to bread and get crispy for soaking up mouth watering, spicy, vinegary, bold buffalo sauce.  Buffalo cauliflower just works, it one of those things, you know – when the shoe fits.

For this recipe, I used an air fryer for half the batch and cooked the other half in the oven to see how they compared.  The air fried buffalo cauliflower was slightly more crispy and cooked approximately 25% faster than the batch that were baked in the oven.  Both methods produced good results but I think the air fryer cauliflower wings were slightly better. 

This recipe is made with a classic buffalo sauce, which I purchased from the brand Primal Kitchen -which is dairy-free and made with avocado oil.  The main ingredients are a spicy pepper hot sauce, vinegar, oil or butter and spices.  If you prefer to make your own homemade hot sauce I have outlined in the notes section a short list for that process.  Any buffalo sauce will work great – homemade or store bought. These cauliflower hot wings air fryer version are worth the effort every time.

I hope you get to making these air fried cauliflower wings this season!

Air Frying Cauliflower Wings

Equipment: air fryer or oven

Ingredients:

• 1 large head of cauliflower
• Bread crumbs (gluten free options are available, outlined in notes below)
• Egg or flax egg (vegan alternative, in notes)
• Buffalo sauce (store bought or homemade, see in notes)
• Sides: veggies- Carrots, celery, blue cheese or ranch dipping sauce 

Instructions:

1. Make a flax egg (for vegan no egg version, instructions in notes) or crack and scramble an egg.
2. Cut the cauliflower into bite size, 1×1 inch florets.
3. Spread bread crumbs out over a plate for coating the cauliflower.
4. Dip cauliflower pieces in to the egg wash and roll them in bread crumbs.
5. Place the breaded cauliflower in the air fryer or on a baking sheet and in the oven.
6. Cook approximately 10-15 minutes or until just becoming brown and crispy. If you are cooking in the oven, the cook time will be slightly longer.
7. Remove cauliflower and coat with the buffalo sauce.
8. Replace the saucy cauliflower back into the air fryer or oven and cook again so that the cauliflower can dry out slightly and regain some of the original crispiness.
9. Remove and allow to cool.  Pair with a side of veggies – celery sticks and carrot sticks. Serve with a dipping sauce of your choice, I recommend blue cheese or ranch.

Dipping sauce:

  Plate these cauliflower bites with your favorite dipping sauce such as blue cheese, ranch or sour cream.  I used a dairy free sour cream from the brand Forager and mixed it with a homemade shallot vinaigrette to give it a special kick.  If you would like to make this exact dipping sauce the instructions are below:

Macerated shallot vinaigrette:

-2 small shallots

-Seasoned rice vinegar (seasoned: sugar and salt added)

-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

-Cracked black pepper, 5-10 rounds

Mix macerated shallot vinaigrette with Foragers dairy free sour cream.

Notes For Air Fryer Cauliflower Wings :

-For vegan cauliflower buffalo air fryer wings : Make a flax egg by combining 1 tablespoon of ground flax meal and 3 tablespoons of water.  Wait 30-60 minutes until the mucilage has formed and it has a very sticky egg white consistency. Stir and the coat the cauliflower. 

-For the breading, there are gluten-free options for bread crumbs.  Panko is not always gluten-free but they do make some gluten-free versions of panko bread crumbs.  If you end up using panko, crush the flakes up so they are smaller.  You can run them in a food processor, grind them in with a mortar and pestle or put them in a plastic bag and roll a rolling pin over them. They will stick to the cauliflower pieces better if it is more of a powdery consistency. The large crumb pieces will mostly fall off in the cooking process.  

-For homemade buffalo sauce, use a hot sauce of your choice and add butter or and oil such as avocado oil. Add garlic and onion powder. Hot sauce recommendations: Franks Red Hot or Cholula.

-If you prefer to make bbq cauliflower wings air fryer version instead of buffalo flavor, simply swap out the sauce but follow all the other instructions the same. 

-This recipe is considered a healthy buffalo cauliflower air fryer method version . They also happen to be a vegan cauliflower wings air fryer method and gluten free. Which make them healthier due to reduced fat and omitting unfavorable processed oils.  The eggs are swapped out for a plant-based alternative. 

-Avoid buffalo sauce made with canola oil as it is an allergen and can irritate digestion.

-Spice level:  you can alter the spice of these cauliflower buffalo bites by using a mild, medium or hot pre-made sauce or making your own sauce.

– If you are wanting to make Franks Red Hot cauliflower air fryer wings, make your own buffalo sauce using my recipe above with Franks Red Hot hot sauce. 

-Panko- japanese style crumbs that are made from white flour bread, dried and processed into large crispy crumbs.

-Italian bread crumbs – have seasoning added to them such as salt, pepper, parsley, onion and garlic powder. 

-Gluten free- Are typically made from rice flours.

-Ground flax meal vs. whole flax seeds: ground flax meal is exactly the same as the whole flax seeds, this product is just already pre-ground.  If you have a grinder (spice grinder or coffee grinder) you can grind the flax seeds yourself. 

I hope you do try these buffalo cauliflower wings and thoroughly enjoy them as much as we have! 

This is a great recipe to try if you’re a fan of buffalo sauce and crispy cauliflower bites. If you do try these air fried cauliflower bites please rate it or comment below and if you made any alterations and want to let me in on your ideas on this recipe – I would love to hear about it!  If you would like to share or pin on Pinterest I am always thankful.  Check out my food journey on Pinterest at Molé in the Wall.

Thanks for checking out this easy air fryer cauliflower wings recipe.  If you liked this one you may love some of my other favorite recipes such as collard greens with quail eggs, zucchini bread, Mexican stuffed sweet potatoes. 

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