When you’re looking for a spicy, crunchy, simple and healthy snack, look no further than these air fried spicy cauliflower bites. Full of flavor and packed with nutrients, this tasty treat is a great way to fill the appetizer table with a lower calorie, nutrient filled option, and still maintain the delicious flavor and texture that comes with great snack options.
The firm and crunchy consistency of the cauliflower allows it to hold up in the cooking process, providing a nice crunchy bite for snacking, while the sriracha flavored sauce gives just enough heat to for a flavor filled bite. With a minimal ingredient list and coming together in less than 30 minutes, you will love having this recipe for any family get together or for a quick afternoon snack.
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Ingredients for Spicy Cauliflower Bites
This one is going to be a quick trip to the store, or you might already have everything you need!
The produce section provides the main ingredient for this dish, so head there and grab yourself a nice head of cauliflower.
All right. You’re done there. Now for the flavorings.
This does call for a buttermilk sriracha sauce, so you’ll need some buttermilk and some sriracha.
The final part of the recipe is the breading. It’s a pretty typical breading, so pretty typical ingredients. Flour, Panko Breadcrumbs, Cornmeal, Cornstarch, Cajun Spice and a little bit of salt. To finish it off you’ll need a little bit of vegetable oil spray to give a little bit of finish to the breading prior to them going in the air fryer.
Let’s Get Cooking!
Now, let’s get cooking! You want to warm your air fryer up to 390 degrees. We use the air crisp setting on our Ninja Foodie Air Fryer.
First off you want to cut your cauliflower. Pull off all of the leaves, cut off the bottom stem, then cut your cauliflower into bite sized bits. You want the heads of the cauliflower as the main component, so go ahead and trim off some of those longer stems.
Now for the flavoring and breading. This particular recipe does call for buttermilk. The buttermilk serves a couple of purposes. First, it helps keep the texture of the cauliflower during the air frying process. It also serves to hold the breading onto the spicy cauliflower bites and finally, it balances out some of the heat you’re going to get from the sriracha.
If you really don’t want to use buttermilk, you can mix a little bit of olive oil with the sriracha or blend a milk and egg. If you go with the straight olive oil you will get a spicier flavor.
All right, first thing you’re going to do is whisk your buttermilk and sriracha together. Pour over your cauliflower pieces and let soak for fifteen minutes.
Stir your flour, bread crumbs, cornstarch, cajun spice, cornmeal, and salt together.
Drain the excess sauce off of the bites in a strainer.
Add about 1/3 of the breading to the spicy cauliflower bites and toss to evenly mix. Add the next third of the breading, repeat the process, then finish the breading. Putting the breading on in layers keeps it from getting too thick or chunky in individual spots and allows for a more even coating.
Once everything is evenly coated it’s time for the air fryer! Put your bites in the air fryer basket and spread out so they are not piled on top of each other. You’ll cook for a total of 15 minutes, pausing every five minutes to stir the bites.
When they’re finished your Spicy Cauliflower bites will still be firm but not hard like raw cauliflower is. They should be a nice golden brown color with just a few spots of deeper brown giving them some nice texture.
Plate up and you are ready to serve!
What we Love About Cauliflower For MS
There is a lot we love about cauliflower for an MS Diet. First off, it’s a low calorie snack. We recognize that this recipe adds some breading and buttermilk, but that main ingredient itself is only 25 calories per cup! Next, it’s loaded with nutrients and antioxidants. High in vitamin C and packed with antioxidants, we love having cauliflower in our diet to help boost the immune system. Another fun little tidbit about cauliflower is it is high in choline, which we don’t hear a lot about. Choline helps maintain cell structure and, wait for it…. also supports a healthy nervous system. So yes, we love cauliflower for an MS diet.
So there you have it – a great, healthy little snack that will give a tasty nutrient benefit to your appetizer table!
Please visit our Resources page if you are interested in finding some of the tools and gadgets Dre uses to make cooking accessible while combatting MS.
Air Fried Spicy Cauliflower Bites
Ingredients
Preparation
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Remove the leaves and stem from the cauliflower. Cut the cauliflower into bite sized pieces, trimming the long stems off of the cauliflower bites.
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In a large bowl, mix the Sriracha and buttermilk. Add the cauliflower, mix well and let soak for 15 minutes.
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In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cornmeal, bread crumbs, cornstarch, salt and cajun spice.
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Warm the air fryer to 390 degrees.
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Drain the excess buttermilk from the cauliflower in a sieve.
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Add about 1/3 of the breading to the buttermilk coated cauliflower bites. Shake the bites in the breading mix until breading is evenly distributed. Add the next third of breading, repeat until breading mix is finished and evenly coating cauliflower bites.
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Spray cauliflower pieces lightly with vegetable oil.
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Spread Cauliflower bites into basket of air fryer. Cook for a total of 15 minutes, stirring the bites every five minutes to allow for even cooking.
Cauliflower Bites will be a golden brown with darker spots of brown on them when finished. Texture will be firm but not hard as it is when cauliflower is raw. -
Plate Cauliflower Bites and Serve!
Note
- Fryer times may vary depending on power of unit.
User Reviews
This recipe was so quick and easy and absolutely delicious! It has the perfect amount of “heat” to give it a flavorful punch, yet not too spicy.
This recipe was so quick and easy and absolutely delicious! It has the perfect amount of “heat” to give it a flavorful punch, yet not too spicy.