Sticky Sesame Popcorn Cauliflower
These sticky sesame popcorn cauliflower florets are super easy to make and more importantly, super tasty. Perfect for parties, movie night, or paired with an iced cold beer. The ultimate vegetarian wing alternative.
Popcorn Cauliflower in an Air-Fryer
These popcorn cauliflower florets are baked in the oven, however, if you’re lucky enough to own an air-fryer (I recommend and use the Ninja Foodi Max) then you can cut the baking time for these down from 30 minutes to around 20 minutes. I highly recommend doing so if you have the equipment.
If you don’t own an air fryer then dude, what you doing? You need to get yourself one, they are extremely useful and not to mention a cool gadget for anyone who has a busy lifestyle or just loves a techy kitchen.
I’ve previously reviewed the Ninja Foodi Max here on Smartblend so if you’re looking for an air-fryer recommendation, do check that out.
Can you re-heat/make these popcorn cauliflower bites in bulk?
Yes, you can totally cook these in bulk. If you want to go down that route, i’d suggest doing everything apart from the sticky sauce. The sauce takes around 5 minutes to make so it’s not necessarily a big chunk out of your serve day.
Follow the recipe as normal but without the sauce, after your cauliflower florets are baked you can then bag them up and leave them in the fridge or if you’re unsure when you will eat them, in the freezer.
When it comes to serving, heat them thoroughly in an oven on 180c for 10-15 minutes whilst you prep your sauce. Finish them off by tossing them in the sauce and they will taste just as good as if you ate them fresh.
How difficult are they to make?
Not very, there’s 4 parts of this recipe;
The Popcorn Cauliflower Batter
The batter is the crispy barrier between the cauliflower and the sticky sauce. It’s also what will season our popcorn cauliflower.
To make this you will need to mix plain flower with water to create a sticky sloppy batter, then season that with salt, pepper and spices, particularly BBQ spice mix which you can either create from scratch or buy pre mixed, like I did. This ‘magic dust’ seasoning would work great.
Next step is to simply toss, spoon, and swirl your cauliflower florets into that batter. Make sure you cut your cauliflower into nice bite size chunks.
How big those chunks should be, well that’s completely up to you.
The Popcorn Cauliflower Breadcrumb Mix
Once every inch of your cauliflower florets are covered its time to move on to your breadcrumb mix. For this, I mix panko breadcrumbs with more BBQ seasoning, salt, pepper, and dried chilli flakes.
You can mix up this spice mix however you like, what’s important is that it’s majority made up from breadcrumbs as that will give these popcorn cauliflower bites there delicious crunch.
Other than that its completely up to you - add more chilli if you like them spicy, add some cumin, curry powder or even mixed herbs, whatever your preference is.
Next, transfer your battered covered cauliflower into the spiced breadcrumbs and toss to coat. You can repeat this step if your think necessary, pop them back in the batter mix then back in the spice mix, the more you do this the more crispier bite you’ll end with.
However, doing this once is less messy and works just fine, that’s what I do.
The Baking
Almost finished at this point, so far should take you no more then 5 minutes. Now all you have to do is line them out on parchment paper and bake them in the over for 25-30 minutes until nice and crispy.
As mentioned, you can also pop them in an air fryer for 15-20 minutes.
The Popcorn Cauliflower Sticky Sauce
Whilst your popcorn cauliflower is baking, it’s time to mix your sticky sauce. The sauce is a combination of cornflour, sugar, soy sauce and you guessed it, more seasoning.
For the sauce, you need a small saucepan to heat it whilst constantly stirring, it’ll thicken fast, maybe 2-3 minutes so keep an eye on it. You might start to see certain parts are thick and certain parts are watery, this just means you need to stir it more.
Lot’s of stirring and don’t over heat it, as soon as the sauce starts turning syrupy take it of the heat. You want a nice syrupy consistency, heat it to much and it’ll caramelize and turn way to thick.
Perfect Vegetarian alternative to popcorn chicken and buffalo wings
As a vegetarian, I’ve never felt like i’m missing out on popcorn chicken or buffalo wings, in-fact, I can’t say I’ve ever wondered what they even taste like, I can imagine not like these…
But what I do get fomo about is the cultural aspect of them, those foods are such social foods, watching a football game, having a few drinks etc. Such a classic which is hard to find as a veggie.
Proper hands on finger licking foods. These popcorn cauliflower bites are my version of that social food.
As a side note, Smartblend is completely pescatarian so the only meat to show up here is that of fish, feel free to check out more recipes here, if the fish recipes don’t interest you then check out all the vegetarian recipes here.
What to pair popcorn cauliflower with
Pair these popcorn cauliflower bites with other indulgent foods such as these veggie loaded air-fryer cheesy chips.
They also pair great with ice cold beer so maybe go the extra mile and brew your own Munich styled lager.
Sticky Sesame Popcorn Cauliflower
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200 °C (180 fan, 400 °F)
- In a bowl, mix the plain flour with a splash of water and whisk, keep adding water and whisking a splash at a time until your consistency is thick but not overly dense.
- A good test is to move the bowl around so the flour mixture coats the sides of the bowl then see how long it takes to fall down to the base. If it sticks to the sides and doesn’t move, you need more water, if it falls away straight away you need more flour - this is your BBQ batter.
- Add a pinch of salt and pepper, all the paprika and 2 tablespoons of the BBQ seasoning to the mixture and whisk in.
- In a separate bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the remainder of the salt, pepper and BBQ seasoning along with the dried chilli flakes.
- Set the bowls side by side and begin cutting your cauliflower florets away from the stalk. Once you have cut away all the cauliflower to a size of your liking, add them all to the flour mixture and toss to coat.
- Once all the cauliflower is covered in BBQ batter dump them into the breadcrumb mixture and toss. Feel free to add them back into the batter then back into the breadcrumbs if you want a thicker crisp around your cauliflower florets.
- Line your BBQ cauliflower onto a baking tray with non-stick paper and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. If using an air fryer, this will take around 15-20 minutes.
- Whilst your BBQ cauliflower is cooking, it’s time to make the sauce. In a bowl or mug, mix the cornflour and water, stir till the mixture is lump free.
- Then in a saucepan add all your sauce ingredients other then the sesame seeds (including the cornflour mixture) and start to heat up whilst stirring like a mad man. The sauce should quickly thicken, as soon as it’s done, take it off the heat.
- Once your BBQ cauliflower is baked and crisp, add them to a large bowl, these stainless steel bowls are probably some of the cheapest bowls you will ever buy but far are they the best, there is a reason you always see chefs using them, they are light weight, large enough to toss and easy to clean up sticky foods like these popcorn cauliflower bites.
- Pour in the sticky sauce along with the sesame seeds and stir to coat each floret. Serve hot and enjoy, optionally you can add some finely sliced spring onions which make a great addition.
Notes
Double, triple or quadruple this recipe for the quantities needed for more people. They keep well and work great for serving parties with vegetarian guests.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
147.22Fat
2.43Sat. Fat
0.69Carbs
28.22Fiber
4.52Net carbs
23.7Sugar
3.51Protein
5.99Sodium
382.62Cholesterol
0The nutritional information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Hi, I’m Cameron, guv’nor of Smartblend. If you liked this then you’re in luck, I have a bunch more recipes like it. I share only vegetarian and pescatarian food recipes, cocktails, and drink guides with a sprinkling of wellness and mindful drinking. If that sounds like you, then stick around!
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