Air-Fried or Baked! Buffalo Cauliflower Wang Thangs. Vegan + Gluten-Free!

FROM THE ARCHIVES!

ORIGINALLY SHARED ON MY FORMER BLOG, CAKE MAKER TO THE STARS

VEGAN + GLUTEN-FREE / SOY-FREE / NUT-FREE / CAN EASILY BE OIL-FREE

Here’s my take on a tasty version of baked Buffalo cauliflower nuggets. I call them Wang Thangs, because they’re not wings at all. They are, however, very delicious thangs. So there you have it. Call ’em whatever you like!

My adorable, original recipe notes read:

“These cauli-dudes are really yummy to eat as long as it’s not hot outside. If it’s too hot, these are still delicious, but probably not worth the pain and suffering turning on your oven might cause–although they might be worth it. My advice is to sneak into the kitchen and bake them at night and then hide all traces of wrongdoing.”

How retro! What cute, cuuuute nostalgia!! I can barely remember before the advent of our beloved Air Fryers. These days, I generally only use my oven for baking desserts and granola. I wouldn’t even consider turning it on for these, totes not necessary! But you do you.

Print Recipe

Baked or Air Fried Buffalo Cauliflower Wang Thangs

2

Baked and breaded cauliflower bites in a tangy, spicy sauce.

Course: Appetizer, Main, Side, Snack, Vegetable

Cuisine: Air-Fried, American

Keyword: Cauliflower, From the Archives, Gluten-Free, Palm-Free, Soy-Free, Vegan, Wings

Servings: 1 Large plate

Ingredients

Batter

• 1/4 cup sorghum flour
• 1/4 cup chickpea flour
• 1/4 cup potato starch
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1 teaspoon granulated onion
• 1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
• pinch salt plus more to taste
• pinch freshly ground black pepper plus more to taste
• 3/4 cup unsweetened vegan milk
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsely or your favorite fresh herb
• 1 medium head cauliflower cut into florets

Buffalo Sauce

• 1/3 cup Frank's Original Red Hot Sauce
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil melted
• 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast flakes

Instructions

Batter the Cauliflower

• Preheat oven to 425F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Give the paper a good spritz with spray oil.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, potato starch, nutritional yeast, baking powder, garlic, onion, curry and a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper.
• Add the vegan milk and whisk until a smooth batter is formed. Stir in the fresh herb.
• Add the cauliflower and toss with your hands until each piece is well covered in batter.
• Arrange the cauliflower in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes, then flip and bake for 8 minutes more or until crisp and light brown.

Prepare the Buffalo Sauce while the Tofu Bakes

• In a small bowl, combine the hot sauce, oil and nutritional yeast.
• Toss the baked cauliflower into the sauce until completely coated.
• Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste. Return to the oven and bake 4 minutes more.

Notes

This recipe is very easy to adapt to an air-fryer. I generally don't time it, I just add the coated cauliflower to my fryer and flip the florets when they're brown on top. Same for the bottom. Toss in the sauce and return to the air-fryer for a few more minutes.

Nutritional yeast acts as a great emulsifer in this Buffalo sauce. Just a little makes it easy to blend the oil and hot sauce together!

You can sub the flours for an equal amount of 1:1 GF flour, but you'll lose nutritional points. The potato starch is essential, don't leave it out!

Feel free to sub any of your favorite spice blends for the yellow curry powder.

Use whatever kind of coconut oil you have on hand, but unrefined will lend a coconutty flavor. You can also use extra-virgin olive oil.

To make these oil-free, use chickpea aqua faba instead of olive oil.

FYI: Wang Thangs tend to soften up the longer they sit around, so try to serve them straight out of the air-fryer or *cough cough* oven, while they’re still hot.

As most Buffalo thangs go, these are quite delicious dipped into ranch dressing. For a really fast ‘n’ easy ranch, mix a bit of Vegenaise with a little rice wine vinegar, granulated onion and dried dill.

I’ve also been known to stuff these thangs into salad wraps and to put them on pizza. For the sake of full transparency – I also put pineapple and cheezie mac on pizza. Sometimes even on the same pizza.

Look how pretty!! Vegan, gluten-free pizza with pineapple and Buffalo Cauliflower Wang Thangs!

I’m hoping to build the recipe section of this site to be a mix of new and old recipes you may have seen before. I want my best recipes culled from my old projects to have a place where I can access and share them easily, and I want a place for new recipes, too!