Sticky Sesame Cauliflower Bites – Sweet, spicy, baked cauliflower bites topped with an amazing Asian-inspired sticky sauce! Serve them as finger food appetizers or as the main course over rice for a delicious veggie dinner.
Baked cauliflower bites, also known as “wings”, are sticky, sweet, spicy and healthy. They are the best veggie wings I’ve ever tried!
Hey Hey! ‘Sup?? How’s your week so far? I was supposed to be on a plane at this very moment…✈ To get away for 5 days and have some fun in Salt Lake City, buuuut my babysitters decided that a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old for 5 DAYS was too much… I don’t blame them! I was surprised when they accepted the challenge a few months back.
So, now, here I am, talking to you, my bloggy people, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
And we’re going to talk about cauliflower bites!
Sticky Sesame Cauliflower Bites
Have you tried these guys, yet? It’s sticky cauliflower. As in sticky chicken, but minus the chicken. It’s pretty darn good! You won’t even miss the chicken, I promise.
HOW TO MAKE STICKY SESAME CAULIFLOWER BITES
- You’re looking at cauliflower florets dipped in egg whites and covered in seasoned panko crumbs.
- They are then transferred to a baking sheet for a little fun in the sun. Well, their sun… and our oven.
- The idea here is to get them to crisp up in the oven before they meet their destiny with this damn good sauce and then our bellies.
SWEET STICKY SAUCE
- That skillet up there is filled with all-things amazing; soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, honey, chili sauce, garlic… drooling, yet? I AM! The sauce has a lovely balance of sweet, spicy, and savory.
We’re also adding sesame seeds for its nutty notes and crunchy texture.
I hope you make yourself a batch of these guys pretty soon, maybe over the weekend. It’s a great snack, an appetizer, or make-believe chicken.
Sidenote: About sticky chicken: pleeeeease try my Sticky Chicken Thighs... Holy Lord, they’re beyond!
ENJOY!
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TOOLS AND INGREDIENTS USED IN THIS RECIPE
Sticky Sesame Cauliflower Bites
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
- 2 whole egg whites
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil or vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sweet chili sauce or sriracha
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
- chopped green onions, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Lightly grease a baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.
- Add egg whites to a large ziploc bag; add cauliflower florets, close the bag, and shake it around until everything is well combined.
- In a separate ziploc bag combine panko crumbs, paprika, cumin, garlic powder, salt, and pepper; add cauliflower florets to the bag, close it, and shake it around until everything is well combined.
- Transfer cauliflower florets to previously prepared baking sheet; bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until tender and lightly browned.
- In the meantime, prepare the sauce.
- In a nonstick skillet set over medium heat, combine sesame oil, honey, soy sauce, vinegar, chili sauce and garlic; bring to a simmer.
- Simmer for 10 minutes.
- In a small mixing bowl combine cornstarch and water and stir until cornstarch is dissolved.
- Add cornstarch mixture to soy sauce mixture and stir to combine; remove from heat.
- Remove cauliflower florets from oven and either add them to the sauce OR pour sauce over the florets. Mix until well combined.
- Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and green onions.
- Serve as appetizer or serve over rice.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
These were really good served over jasmine rice, but I wished for more sauce and the recipe took a few minutes longer – the cauliflower took longer to roast (not sure if it’s just my oven) and the sauce needed a couple minutes of heat after adding the cornstarch in order to thicken.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
I’d like to make this, but with roasted cauliflower instead. Who has made this that thinks this would work?
Hi!
Please forgive me if I misunderstood your question, but this recipe is for roasted cauliflower. The sauce is cooked in a skillet, but the cauliflower florets have to be roasted, first.
For the people having trouble with the bread crumbs sticking, try beating your egg whites until foamy, they’ll stick better
What if I have no cornstarch?
You can use all-purpose flour.
Do I have to use the chili sauce or will omitting make it fast bad? Is there a substitute?
Hi!
No, you don’t have to use it, but it does add flavor to the overall taste. 🙂 Also, you can use any hot sauce you have on hand.
Made this tonight – so good! used Agave since I didn’t have any honey. Sprinkling of green onion and sesame seeds made it fun. Next time I’ll throw on some chopped peanuts like California Pizza Kitchen does. 🙂
I am very happy you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
I ground the panko in a mini-food processor and used 1 whole egg, 1 egg white, and a splash of water and crumbs stuck perfectly. Gave them a little oil spritz before going in the oven and they came out great I may swap cumin for ground ginger next time. Use dcoconut vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar which was good but sauce still had a bitter tone to it so I may play with that next time. Overall however a really terrific technique that can also be adapted in other ways (buffalo cauliflower anyone? General Gao’s)?
I made a healthy plant based version of these cauliflower bites using a sweet chilli heat sauce! I loved the idea of cooking the cauliflower with bread crumbs before coating in sauce to keep them nice and crisp!
Loved this, but I also had a bit of trouble with the breading. My breadcrumbs were coarse so next time I’ll try it with finer ground crumbs. Great flavor and hubby loved them, too.
I had the same issue. i used a heavy rolling pin on the zip lock bag which helped reduce the sized of the crumbs… better but not perfect. may try the whole egg and egg white someone else suggested…