Spicy buffalo cauliflower tacos are one of our favorite easy healthy dinners! My hubby-to-be likes to describe them as “bomb-ass!” It’s naturally vegetarian but I also included options for vegan and gluten-free diets.
Happy December 1st, friends!
This really is my favorite time of the year. I love the decorations, the food, the hustle and bustle of getting ready for Christmas…it’s all so magical! I wish that dinner would magically appear on the table but I don’t think that’s going to happen. These buffalo tacos are perfect for nights when you want something really yummy but don’t have a lot of time!
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Why Are They Called Bomb Ass Tacos?”
The day after I made these buffalo cauliflower tacos the first time, Travis asked if we were having those “bomb ass tacos” again for dinner that night? He was extremely excited when I said that we were! He liked them so much that he named them!
At first, I didn’t realize that he liked them that much until he started requesting the buffalo cauliflower tacos over and over again– 2-3 times a month! I was happy to make them because they are easy, healthy, and very filling! When Travis specifically requests dishes by name, over and over again, I know it’s a winner!
Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos Batter
I’m sure you’ve seen tons of buffalo cauliflower recipes floating around out there but this one is different because I coat the cauliflower in a coconut milk oat flour batter before dipping them in panko breadcrumbs. You get more fiber and nutrients with the oat flour and the coconut milk is so rich and creamy– it’s perfect for a thick batter!
Tip – Don’t cut the cauliflower florets too small. Bigger florets take less time to batter and coast with sauce!
How Do You Make Crispy Cauliflower?
These buffalo cauliflower tacos are loaded with spicy flavor and the buffalo cauliflower florets closely resemble chicken nuggets/tenders so using them for tacos really isn’t a far stretch!
What I love most about these buffalo cauliflower bites is how crispy they get in the oven! The secret to making crispy cauliflower is to roast them first (to get them all nice and crispy!) before coating them in buffalo or hot sauce. Then you roast the coated cauliflower bites again to get them extra crispy and loaded with flavor!
The leftover buffalo cauliflower bites also reheat really well. Simply lay the buffalo cauliflower florets on a parchment lined tray and toast them in the toaster oven or broil on high in the oven for 5 minutes or so and they’ll be just as good and crispy as the first time you made them!
Is This Recipe Vegan?
This buffalo cauliflower taco recipe is naturally vegetarian but it’s an easy swap if you want to make it vegan. Most buffalo sauces are just hot sauce mixed with melted butter. So, you have two options: 1) substitute vegan hot sauce for buffalo sauce or 2) Add vegan melted butter (I like organic Earth Balance butter) to your vegan hot sauce.
I’ve made the buffalo cauliflower tacos multiple times with just hot sauce instead of the buffalo sauce and both ways are delicious, you really can’t go wrong!
Tip – If you use straight hot sauce, don’t use straight sriracha. My mom tried this and she reported that it was wayyyy too spicy! Make sure you use a sauce that you are comfortable with the heat level before you coat the cauliflower bites with it.
Popular Cauliflower Recipes:
- 30-minute ginger cauliflower “fried” rice
- Spicy Thai red curry cauliflower soup
- Roasted Lemon Garlic Cauliflower Steaks
- Buffalo cauliflower avocado toast
If you’ve tried these buffalo cauliflower tacos or any other recipe on the blog, please remember to rate the recipe and let me know what you thought of it in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and our monthly trips to Disney World!
Spicy buffalo cauliflower tacos are one of our favorite easy healthy dinners! My hubby-to-be likes to describe them as "bomb-ass!" It can easily be made vegan by using hot sauce instead of buffalo sauce and it's naturally vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy-free.
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- 1 large head of cauliflower (Don't cut the florets too small)
- 1 cup oat flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 1 can unsweetened coconut milk (If needed, add additional coconut milk until you reach a wet batter like consistency)
- 1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs (Or gluten-free breadcrumbs)
- 1 1/2 - 2 cups buffalo or hot sauce
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Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
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Pesto Cream Sauce - Add all the pesto ingredients to a high powered blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy. Store in the fridge until you're ready to serve.
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Buffalo Cauliflower - Cut the florets off the head of cauliflower and discard the stem. Rinse and dry the florets.
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In a large mixing bowl, combine the oat flour, garlic powder, black pepper, paprika, and coconut milk. Mix until the lumps have dissolved. Add the large cauliflower florets to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix to coat every nook and cranny of the cauliflower.
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Remove the tray from the oven. Carefully, put the cauliflower bites into a big bowl and pour the hot sauce over the top and gently mix it to coat each piece. You might lose a few crumbs in the process but that's okay!
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Lay the coated cauliflower bites back onto the tray and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes or until cauliflower bites are crispy. Remove the tray from the oven and build your tacos! Layer tacos with pesto cream sauce, red onion, spinach, and crispy buffalo cauliflower bites. Enjoy!
- Make sure you don't cut the cauliflower florets too small. If they're too small then it will take a long time to coat each piece in breadcrumbs and brush it with sauce.
- If you'd like to make this recipe vegan, substitute buffalo sauce for very mild hot sauce. Or you can make your own vegan buffalo hot sauce by mixing vegan melted butter (I like Earth Balance organic vegan butter) with the hot sauce.
- If you'd like to make this recipe gluten-free, use gluten-free oat flour and gluten-free breadcrumbs.
How would you serve the buffalo cauliflower? As an appetizer, tacos, or in a sandwich? Let me know in the comments!
This looks so delicious! I love anything with tortilla’s but I really only know one taco recipe, but this one looks way better! I love that it’s vegetarian too and has the extra benefit of having healthy veggies!
The buffalo cauliflower closely resembles chicken nuggets in the tacos so meat and veggies lovers alike can enjoy them!
Myhusband would love these! To tally going to make them!
I hope you both enjoy! =)
Yum! I’ve been wanting to incorporate more meatless meals into our rotation..will have to try!!
Awesome! These tacos are perfect for Meatless Monday dinner!
OMG this looks SO GOOD! My hubby loves buffalo anything, so I’ll be whipping these up for him next week. Thanks for sharing the recipe!!
Coming Up Roses
Thank you! My hubby-to-be LOVES them!
My husband and I both don’t like the taste of coconut – Would something like heavy cream work instead? Or is it not very coconut tasting anyway? Thanks!
Hi, Ashley! I don’t think that you really taste the coconut flavor but I use it all the time so I might be used to it. I haven’t tried it with heavy cream but I don’t see why it shouldn’t work since it’s just for the breading. I used the coconut cream mainly to keep the recipe dairy-free and because it has a thicker consistency than regular milk. If you try something else, let me know how it works out for you! =)
Love this tacos! looks awesome, definitely it makes easy cooking! Keep blogging with great recipes 🙂
Do you add any additional milk to the batter? It seemed like the coconut cream did not provide enough liquid and my batter was more like dry dough.
Hi Dawn, I didn’t add any additional milk but if your batter is dry then it wouldn’t hurt it to add more. Just add a little bit at a time until you get the desired consistency, enough to dip the cauliflower in and coat it. Let me know how it turns out for you! =)
These tacos really are Bomb Ass! We loved how crispy they were (and they reheated perfectly), my husband thought he was eating spicy chicken wraps until I told him it was cauliflower! I didn’t have any buffalo sauce so I just used hot sauce instead and it turned out sooo good! I’ll definitely be making these again soon, thanks for the recipe!
Thank you so much, I”m so happy that you enjoyed the tacos!
When I made them most of the batter fell off when I stirred them into the wing sauce. What could I have done wrong? I followed the recipe exactly…
Hi, Carrie. I’m so sorry that the recipe didn’t work out for you! Some of the batter does fall off when you coat the cauliflower with the wing sauce, that happened to me too but I didn’t lose all of it. I use a spatula to very gently stir the cauliflower with the sauce and then put it back on the tray to finish cooking. Maybe you tossed the cauliflower and sauce together a little bit too vigorously? I hope you give the recipe another try! Let me know if I can help you with anything else =)
They tasted really excellent even with my batter issues! I did have a thought though…how much is in the can of coconut milk that you use? I live in Canada and the ones here are 400ml. Maybe that is too much? The coating stayed soggy instead of crisping up (where it didn’t fall off). However like I said, the taste is 5 stars worthy!
Hi, Carrie! The can of coconut milk that I use is the same, 13.5 ounces. I don’t think that would affect the crispness factor since the coconut milk is just used for the batter.
Maybe next time you could let the cauliflower bake a little bit longer after you toss them in the buffalo sauce? All ovens are different so it’s hard to say the exact time that you should bake them until perfectly crisp.
Thank you for letting me know how they turned out, I really appreciate your feedback and I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Absolutely LOVED!! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Eden! I’m so glad you enjoyed the tacos! Thank you for letting me know what you thought of the recipe =)
Coconut milk or coconut cream? You refer to both but they have very different consistencies.
Hi, Shannan. I use coconut milk in the recipe! Enjoy!
I made these last night. So I found them to be a bit of a pain to make with dunking and then breading them. After the 15 mins in the oven I literally brushed on the buffalo sauce which took a while and i didn’t have the patience to coat all sides, HOWEVER, would I do this all again? You bet!!!! These were just so good! I’ve never had luck getting things to crisp up nicely in the oven. these were super crispy and so flavorful! Popped them on a bed of romaine and kale and drizzled it all with the pesto cream. I’ve just now finished eating leftovers on their own for lunch. Popped them in toaster oven and they crisped up wonderfully, and I believe they even tasted better than last night! Fab recipe! Def 5 stars! thank you!!!!
Hi, Trish! Thank you so much for leaving a review, I’m so glad you enjoyed the tacos! I agree that the prep is definitely worth the final product, the buffalo cauliflower gets so crispy and delicious! I hope you get a chance to try some of my other recipes, enjoy!
Made these tonight, and wow they are good! We just used siracha and gluten free bread crumbs to make it vegan and gluten free. So filling too!
Thank you so much for letting me know, I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Hi! This sounds amazing! Definitely want to make this tonight but I wonder if I could use different flour like brown rice flour or just regular flour? And sub out coconut milk for almond milk? All the recipes I’ve been trying call for different types of flours and milk but I need to use up what’s already in my pantry/fridge Lol! Thank you
Hello! I haven’t tried it with rice flour but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. The almond milk should be fine too, just be sure to use an unsweetened nut milk. Let me know how the substitutions turn out for you, enjoy!
These look great, looking forward to trying the recipe.
Thank you, James! Enjoy!
Thank you for this recipe- it’s fantastic. I’ve made it several times and still get cravings for it constantly. Absolutely brilliant. <3
Thank you, Charlie! I’m so glad you like the recipe!
Bomb Ass is the appropriate name for this meal because after consuming it, the farts coming out of your ass will sound like a bomb. Delicious food although you will be tooting for days.
Maybe that’s why my husband wanted to name the tacos “Bomb Ass!” LOL I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe, thanks for the feedback!
They were so delicious! I couldn’t find buffalo sauce in Ireland, so we used sweet chili sauce on them – they were great! Husband and kid approved! We really loved how crispy they were! Thanks for this recipe, we’ll be making it again!!!
Thank you so much! I’m so glad your family enjoyed the recipe!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea!!! I will have to try it out and see if it tastes as good as it looks!! Thanks for the inspo 🙂 Have pinned the recipe 🙂 X
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it! =)
What a delicious recipe. We all loved it. Thank you !!
Robyn
Thank you, Robyn! I’m so glad you all enjoyed it!