Air fryer buffalo cauliflower wings are a zesty, low carb vegetarian way to satisfy your wing cravings. Cauliflower florets get coated in spicy, bold buffalo sauce for a snack or appetizer you’ll adore. Making this tasty treat in your air fryer allows you to enjoy slightly crisp tender take on the classic without the added calories of deep frying.
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What are Buffalo Cauliflower wings
Buffalo cauliflower wings are a vegetarian alternative to traditional Buffalo wings and a fantastic way to get even picky eaters to eat more veggies.
Instead of pieces of battered chicken, this appetizer uses wholesome cauliflower florets. Like with our orange cauliflower, a light batter coats the cauliflower pieces before they are air fried to perfection and tossed with buffalo sauce.
The result is a tasty, spicy appetizer or snack you’ll love and one of our very favorite air fryer recipes to make.
Why you’ll love these cauliflower wings
If you love the big, bold flavor of buffalo sauce, you’ll love these vegetarian wings.
These are a delicious and wholesome way to satisfy any of your spicy cravings.
And you’ll feel great serving this to your family because they are getting a healthy dose of good for you cauliflower in each and every bite!
Ingredients
When you are read to make these buffalo cauliflower wings in the air fryer, you’ll need to get:
- Small head of cauliflower - broken into bite sized pieces.
- All-purpose flour - you can substitute with almond flour for a keto friendly version
- Paprika powder - If you want even hotter wings, you can use chili powder instead
- Garlic powder -Garlic powder is used to give this dish that extra kick without using fresh garlic.( fresh garlic will burn while air frying)
- Onion powder - Adds extra punch!
- Salt & pepper - Use as much or as little as you’d like
- Cup Water - helps create the batter
- Buffalo Hot Sauce - used for both the glaze and the batter for the wings
- Butter - for the glaze (Use unsalted butter for this recipe).
How to make in Air Fryer
- First, wash the cauliflower head and cut it into roughly even sized florets. As you prepare the florets, make sure to preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
- Next, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and black pepper) in a bowl. Once the dry ingredients are ready, whisk in water until the batter has no lumps. Finally, add 2 tablespoons of buffalo hot sauce and mix until well combined
- Next, add the fresh cauliflower florets to the batter and mix well to evenly coat the florets with batter.
- Coat an air fryer basket with non-stick cooking spray and then add battered florets to the air fryer basket in a single layer.
- Air fry them at 375 degrees for 12 minutes. You may need to do multiple batches to prevent them from touching each other.
- Meanwhile, prepare the buffalo wings glaze for the cauliflower by mixing the buffalo hot sauce and melted butter. When ready, set it aside until the florets are done.
- Once the cauliflower is done cooking, carefully transfer them to a large bowl. When ready to serve, cover with sauce and then toss to coat.
Serve immediately with celery sticks, your favorite dipping sauce, side of bread, or nothing at all!
How to bake Buffalo Cauliflower
If you don’t have an air fryer or just want to make all the florets at once, you can easily use your oven instead. Here’s how.
- First, wash the cauliflower head and cut it into roughly even sized florets. As you prepare the florets, make sure to preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
- Next, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and black pepper) in a bowl. Once the dry ingredients are ready, whisk in water until the batter has no lumps. Finally, add 2 tablespoons of buffalo hot sauce and mix until well combined
- Next, add the fresh cauliflower florets to the batter and mix well to evenly coat the florets with batter.
- Once coated, spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray and place the cauliflower florets in a single layer on the sheet. If needed, you can use more than one sheet.
- When ready, bake in your preheat oven 450°F for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the buffalo wings glaze for the cauliflower by mixing the buffalo hot sauce and melted butter. When ready, set it aside until the florets are done.
- Once the cauliflower is done cooking, carefully transfer them to a large bowl. When ready to serve, cover with sauce and then toss to coat.
Serve immediately with celery sticks, your favorite dipping sauce, side of bread, or nothing at all!
Pro tips and tricks
Buffalo cauliflower is pretty easy to make in the air fryer or oven. Here are some tips to help ensure you get crispy wings every time:
- Make sure to leave some space between the florets. This helps make sure they get crispy and cook evenly.
- If you use your oven, make sure you preheat it for 20 minutes to make sure it is evenly heated.
- Serve the cauliflower wings immediately from the air fryer or oven. They taste best when they are fresh and hot.
- For Gluten-Free Baking Flour: Use 1-to-1 baking flour for accurate portions.
How to serve
Air fryer buffalo cauliflower wings are great on their own. We often serve them with blue cheese or ranch dressings or if you like it more spicy try it with our Sriracha aioli to dip into. You can also slice up celery and carrots as a good way to reduce the heat.
Our crispy falafel recipe and Onion Bhaji - Onion Pakoda also both go great with these cauliflower wings. You could also serve them with other baked breads, like naan. If you use naan, you can make a sort of wrap out of them the way we do with our falafel wrap.
Another great way to cut down on heat is to serve them with our dinner rolls. The cabs in baked goods help to settle the stomach and cool down your mouth between bites.
How do I make it less spicy?
We love our cauliflower wings on the spicy side, so we use regular hot buffalo sauce or hot sauce. Often times, you can find milder versions of buffalo sauce in the same area you find hot sauce. When you use one of the milder flavors, it should cut down on the heat some. For a more mild version, replace the hot sauce with honey mustard, barbecue sauce, or ketchup.
You can also skip or avoid using any black pepper. When you add black pepper, it makes the wings hotter.
Is this a vegan recipe?
We do not use egg in this recipe, but for the glaze, we do use butter. Butter helps give the sauce a slightly creamier texture and taste.
If you want to make this vegan, you can easily substitute equal amounts of olive oil or vegan butter for the regular butter.
How do I make it keto friendly?
We use all purpose flour. To make it keto, you can substitute the all purpose flour with almond flour.
More delicious Air fryer recipes you will love
- Cauliflower Steak
- Stuffed Mushroom
- Onion Rings
- Potato chips
- Apple chips
- Banana Chips
- Samosa Recipe
- Onion bhaji
- Falafel
- Paneer tikka
- Cream cheese stuffed mushrooms
- Air fry Eggplants
- Cheesy Air Fryer Garlic Bread
- Air Fryer Breakfast Potatoes
- Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts
Let us know what you think
If you make this delicious recipe, let us know how it went! When you make this, be sure to take a pic and tag us on Instagram @dbellyrulesdmind or Facebook @thebellyrulesthemind!
Air fryer buffalo cauliflower wings
Air fryer buffalo cauliflower wings are a zesty vegetarian way to satisfy your wing cravings. Cauliflower florets get coated in spicy, bold buffalo sauce for a snack or appetizer you’ll adore. Making this tasty treat in your air fryer allows you to enjoy slightly crisp tender take on the classic without the added calories of deep frying.
Ingredients
- 1 Medium Head of Cauliflower (cut into florets) approx. 4 cups of florets.
- 1 Cup All-purpose flour / Almond flour for keto diet
- 1 teaspoon Paprika Powder
- 2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 teaspoon Onion Powder
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoon Buffalo Hot Sauce
- 3/4 -1 Cup Water {Add more if needed}
Ingredients for Buffalo Wings Glaze
- 5 tablespoon Buffalo Hot Sauce
- 1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Wash the cauliflower head and cut them into florets.
- In a mixing bowl - combine all dry ingredients (flour, garlic powder, onion
powder, paprika, salt, black pepper) then whisk in water until batter has no
lumps. add 2 tablespoon buffalo hot sauce and give a nice mix. - Add fresh cauliflower florets to batter and mix well to evenly coat with
batter. - Coat air fryer basket with non-stick cooking spray, then add battered
florets to air fryer basket in a single layer. Also, try to keep them from
touching so that all sides can get direct heat. - Air fry them at 375 degrees for 12 minutes or Bake in a Preheat oven 450°F for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the buffalo wings glaze for the cauliflower. Mix Buffalo
Hot Sauce, melted butter and set it aside. - Once cauliflower is done cooking, transfer to a bowl. When
ready to serve, cover with sauce, then toss to coat. - Serve IMMEDIATELY with celery sticks and your dipping sauce
of choice, or none. Enjoy!
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jonnie says
These are also awesome with Chick Fil A sauce or mayo and hot sauce mix. Yummy!!!!!
Sherri says
When you make in batches how do you keep them crispy while the next batch is cooking?
Soniya Saluja says
Hi Sherri , When all the batches are done , add the other cooked cauliflower florets back into the air fryer and air fry it for 2-3 minutes .. they all get nicely crispy and hot. or you can keep it in your oven on warm mode . Hope this helps!
Allison Staley says
I'm asking this so that, hopefully, it will help others as well.
When I try to print this recipe, it shows only the ingredients, no instructions. So I come back to the main screen and it won't allow me to print or copy the instructions. So I tried to screenprint. Nope, not allowed.
So how do we go make your recipe if we can't take it to the kitchen? How would we save it to make again? How do we do anything with it except look at it once on an untouchable website? I really wanted to try this recipe but I can't fathom how to do that without running back and forth between my office and the kitchen. Very user unfriendly.
Those of us not tied to smart phones or tablets are obviously not able to make this recipe. Anyone out there have any suggestions on how to get the recipe off of the computer and into my kitchen?
Soniya Saluja says
Hi Allison, sorry fir the inconvenience.. we have fixed the issue.
James R Huntington says
No proportions for the ingredients!! What's up with that??
Kaye Kerr-Callaghan says
thanks,worked great in my new air fryer, really easy and yummy recipe
Soniya Saluja says
Hey Kaye, thanks for sharing your feedback with us
Janet says
I'm confused. In your air fryer instructions you say to heat the oven to 450 then a few steps later you say to heat the air fryer to 375. Also I've never purchased Buffalo sauce. What brand? All the ones I looked at were high in salt and/orsugar. Thank you. I'm eager to make these!
N smith says
@Janet,
I think you need to read it again. It gives clear instructions
Air fryer OR oven.
Angela says
Thanks for sharing this recipe! I have had this as an appetizer at a local restaurant and loved it. It cooks up so fast and easy in the air fryer.
Shadi Hasanzadenemati says
My family is going to love this, thank you for the recipe!
Dannii says
What a delicious way to eat cauliflower. I love all the flavours.
Sandhya says
One of my fav most ways to cook Cauli bites!! So good tucked in my tacos.