An easy recipe for keto buffalo cauliflower made with no flour and served with a blue cheese dressing and celery.

Buffalo cauliflower, served with celery and blue cheese dressing

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 tasty 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, but any mayonnaise will work.
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 make buffalo cauliflower, step by step photo collage

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 somewhat resembles the chicken original.

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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