These Breaded & Fried Cauliflower Nuggets are the perfect game day snack! Even when you’re not into sports, you’ll love these crispy veggie nuggets. It’s almost unbelievable that these are made with cauliflower! Dip them into BBQ sauce and enjoy!
I really don’t know how to begin to describe these Cauliflower Nuggets because they are UNREAL. You have to try them for yourself to find out how amazing these are!
They are super crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. It’s almost unbelievable that it’s cauliflower!
These Breaded & Fried Cauliflower Nuggets are my favorite thing to make with cauliflower right now (and probably forever). I always felt that cauliflower is the meh-cousin of broccoli, but these nuggets made me fall in love with the vegetable for real.
Served with BBQ sauce, these are the perfect snack for game day get-togethers or parties!
How to make Breaded & Fried Cauliflower Nuggets
The Ingredients
The ingredients you will need for these CauliflowerNuggets are super basic. You can find the whole recipe at the end of the post. But here’s an overview:
cauliflower
frying oil (strain leftover-oil and reuse it!)
for the batter, you will need:
flour,
water,
and spices
for the breading, you’ll need:
fine breadcrumbs,
panko flakes,
flour (to make sure the cauliflower florets are coated completely),
sesame seeds,
and spices
If you don’t have panko flakes at home, no worries, just use more fine breadcrumbs! If you’re missing some of the spices, feel free to experiment with what you have!
If you’re unsure about frying, I’ve compiled a couple of tips on how to deep-fry in a pot.
More Cauliflower Recipes you will love
Looking for healthier, baked wings? > Baked BBQ Cauliflower Wings
Want spicy wings? > Spicy Cauliflower Wings
Golden Cauliflower Rice
Tandoori Cauliflower Wrap
Cauliflower Rice
Creamy Cauliflower Soup
Love it? Rate it!
I hope you enjoy these cauliflower nuggets as much as I do! Let me know if you give them a try!
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Cheers, Bianca
Breaded & Fried Cauliflower Nuggets
Bianca Haun | Elephantastic Vegan
These Breaded & Fried Cauliflower Nuggets are the perfect game day snack! Even when you’re not into sports, you’ll love these crispy nuggets. They are quick and easy to make!
For the batter: In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, paprika powder, turmeric powder. Add water and whisk until it’s a smooth batter.*
For the Breading: Combine all the ingredients listed above for the breading in a bowl.
Heat the frying oil in a pot.** Make sure you don’t fill the pot more than half the height of the pot to prevent oil from spilling over.
Then take one cauliflower floret at the stem, dip it in the batter, then in the breading (make sure it's coated well), then carefully lower it into the oil. Work in batches (4-8 nuggets depending on the size of your pot). Let them fry for 8 minutes until golden brown.
Transfer the cauliflower nuggets onto a paper towel to remove excess oil.Repeat until you’ve used up all the cauliflower florets. They are absolutely delicious dipped in BBQ sauce or sweet & sour sauce!
Notes
*You can adjust the consistency of the batter by adding more flour if it’s too thin and more water if it’s too thick. Ideally, it should be between a crepe (thin batter) and a pancake batter (thick batter).
**If you have a deep-fryer you can use it of course!
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The secret to giving cauliflower the perfect texture when battering and frying, is to not parboil it. When you fry cauliflower with batter, it also cooks the cauliflower. So if you parboil beforehand, you will end up with mushy cauliflower.
Eggless batter is a valid vegan substitute for the traditional batter used to fry fish, vegetables or meat: the basic mixture is the same – water and flour – but there are as many variations as there are possible additional ingredients.
Fried cauliflower contains 183 calories per 85 g serving. This serving contains 11 g of fat, 3.3 g of protein and 18 g of carbohydrate. The latter is 0.9 g sugar and 1.4 g of dietary fiber, the rest is complex carbohydrate. Fried cauliflower contains 1.6 g of saturated fat and 8.5 mg of cholesterol per serving.
Cauliflower has a very high water content, so it won't get crispy if you bake the florets crowded together. "Be sure to give each floret a bit of room so that the they have space for airflow. I'd also recommend baking them on a silicone baking mat," says Blay.
Like all veggies, cauliflower needs some breathing room on the pan. Otherwise, the florets will produce so much steam that they'll never turn crisp on the edges. It's better to use two pans, arranged on separate racks near the middle of the oven, than to cram too much onto one pan.
There are more than a few reasons why mayo makes sense as a substitute for egg wash. Since they both share the same main ingredient (eggs), they function in very similar ways. Much like egg wash acts as a binding agent to help seasonings and breadcrumbs stick to meat, creamy mayonnaise also manages to do the same.
You could also try milk or yogurt. For heavier coatings (like panko or breadcrumbs), you might dust the fish with flour first. Once the floured fish is dipped in the butter or milk, it will get a little gummy and help the coating adhere better.
Unlike chicken wings, cauliflower is free of cholesterol and low in fat and saturated fat. It's also packed with fiber and antioxidants, making it a powerful food for heart health!
Further, due to inflation causing rising costs of farming inputs, farmers are unable to grow extra or discount products as they once could. One-pick Crops – Both broccoli and cauliflower are 'one-pick' crops. Meaning once they are ready, you cannot leave them in the field until they look better, they must be harvested.
HARVEST CREATIONS® Breaded Cauliflower is the perfect menu addition to satisfy guests' cravings for innovative tastes. For a light and crispy bite, this shareable appetizer has the perfect balance of heat and flavor.
Cauliflower is very versatile and is even used as a healthy meat substitute in vegan cooking. It can be eaten raw, pickled, steamed, roasted, boiled, grilled, sauteed, mashed, fried, and air fried.
The key to nonmushy cauliflower lies in how you cut it: Break apart the large head into smaller florets.Now take your knife, and starting at the stem end of the floret, slice about halfway down and snap apart.
Crowding the cauliflower on the pan could make them cook up mushy and a bit soggy. Leave some space between the florets. Be sure not to use too much olive oil to cook them.
Transfer the riced cauliflower to the center of a clean dish towel. Arrange the towel filled with cauliflower over a small bowl, then squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the cooked cauliflower. It might not feel like there's excess moisture at first, but you may be surprised by how much liquid is released!
You can add a litle softened cream cheese to the pot in the final step and stir until melted. Or you can add a keto thickener like glucomannan or xanthan gum. Be sure to whisk it in well when the mashed cauliflower is hot. You don't need more than about ¼ teaspoon per head of cauliflower.
Introduction: My name is Dan Stracke, I am a homely, gleaming, glamorous, inquisitive, homely, gorgeous, light person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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