An easy recipe for keto buffalo cauliflower made with no flour and served with a blue cheese dressing and celery.
Cauliflower is amazing! You can roast it, turn it into cauliflower tots, cauliflower fritters, rice, mash, even cauliflower pizza crust! And let’s not forget cauliflower mac and cheese. The possibilities are endless.
But even with all these wonderful options, this particular recipe is one of my favorite ways to enjoy this nutritious and versatile vegetable.
The ingredients you’ll need
Here’s an overview of the ingredients you’ll need to make this tasty buffalo cauliflower recipe. The exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below:
For the dressing:
- Sour cream: I tried using plain Greek yogurt and thought it was too tangy.
- Mayonnaise: I prefer avocado oil mayonnaise.
- Kosher salt: If using fine salt, you might want to reduce the amount you use.
- Garlic powder.
- Crumbled blue cheese: I buy it already crumbled, but it’s pretty easy to buy a block and crumble it yourself.
For the buffalo sauce:
- Unsalted butter: I’m partial to creamy European butter.
- Hot sauce: As mild or as potent as you like.
- More garlic powder.
For the cauliflower:
- Fresh cauliflower: I haven’t tried this recipe with frozen cauliflower, but I suspect that fresh is the way to go.
- Olive oil: A wonderfully flavorful, but if you’re unsure about cooking with it, you can use avocado oil instead. It has a higher smoke point.
- Kosher salt.
- Even more garlic powder!
How to make buffalo cauliflower
It’s so easy! Scroll down to the recipe card for the detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps:
Make the blue cheese dressing by mixing all its ingredients in a small bowl.
Make the buffalo sauce by mixing melted butter with hot sauce and garlic powder.
Cook the cauliflower. Toss the cauliflower with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder. Roast 15 minutes at 450°F.
Broil. Toss the roasted cauliflower with the buffalo sauce. Broil (make sure your pan is broiler-safe) until browned, about 2 minutes, 6 inched below the heating element.
Tips for making this recipe a success
When making this recipe, it’s best to use large cauliflower florets and to roast them for a short time at a high temperature.
This helps the cauliflower retain some crispiness. Otherwise, it can turn mushy. Still delicious, but mushy.
You roast the cauliflower in two stages. First without the sauce, then coated with the buffalo sauce.
For the second phase, I actually prefer to use the broiler. It browns the cauliflower better than baking does and it helps prevent sogginess.
The blue cheese dressing is excellent and so very easy to make, so there’s really no need to use a shady commercial dressing. And you can definitely make the dressing in advance and chill it until ready to use.
How to serve buffalo cauliflower?
You can serve it as a party appetizer. Or you can serve it as a side dish to practically anything you can think of.
Although I wouldn’t serve it with buffalo chicken.. too much of a buffalo theme going on there if you do. 😂
Is it as good as buffalo wings?
While this recipe is very flavorful and makes a wonderful party snack (or a side dish), it’s not the same as baked chicken wings or as buffalo wings. Chicken wings are richer, meatier (obviously), and more flavorful.
So don’t expect this dish to be a substitute for the classic chicken recipe. Rather, it’s a wonderfully flavorful vegetable dish that’s probably healthier than the chicken one.
Is this recipe very spicy?
One word of caution – if you use a standard hot sauce (such as Frank’s, for example), the heat level in this recipe should be OK for most.
But if you use an especially hot sauce (such as habanero pepper sauce), you might want to reduce the hot sauce to 3 tablespoons and maybe even add an extra tablespoon of butter. Otherwise, the dish might be too spicy.
What about leftovers?
I wish I could tell you if leftovers keep well in the fridge! Alas, I never have leftovers when serving this deliciousness! 🙂
I would venture a guess that you can keep leftover buffalo cauliflower in the fridge, in a sealed container, for 3-4 days, and reheat it in the oven on 250 degrees F. Or in the microwave, covered, on 50% power.
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Buffalo Cauliflower
INGREDIENTS
Blue Cheese Dressing:
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil mayonnaise
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt (not fine salt)
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese
Buffalo Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup hot sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Buffalo cauliflower:
- 1 lb. fresh cauliflower florets
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt (not fine salt)
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a rimmed broiler-safe baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Make the blue cheese dressing by mixing all its ingredients in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Make the buffalo sauce: In a large microwave safe bowl, melt the butter. Whisk in the hot sauce and garlic powder. Set aside.
- In another large bowl, toss the cauliflower florets with the olive oil, salt and garlic powder. Spread on the baking sheet and roast until tender-crisp, about 15 minutes.
- Switch the oven to broil and set an oven rack 6 inches below the heat element (not directly below).
- Whisk the hot sauce mixture again. Add the roasted cauliflower florets and toss to coat. Return the cauliflower florets to the baking sheet and broil until browned and bubbly, keeping a close eye on them so they don’t burn, 2-3 minutes.
- Serve the buffalo cauliflower hot, with the blue cheese dressing and celery sticks.
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Vered DeLeeuw, LL.M., CNC, has been following a low-carb real-food diet and blogging about it since 2011. She's a Certified Nutrition Coach (NASM-CNC), has taken courses at the Harvard School of Public Health, and has earned a Nutrition and Healthy Living Certificate from Cornell University. Her work has appeared in several major media outlets, including Healthline, HuffPost, Today, Women's Health, Shape, Reader's Digest, and Better Homes and Gardens.