Meatless Monday is becoming a trend in quite a few households. It’s a great way to get your family eating more fruits and vegetables, it has proven health benefits, and it can also be a great way to help your family stay on budget. A win-win-win in my book.
I have made weekly meat-free meals my goal for the next year to see if I can really get this to work — with children and busy schedules. I can’t guarantee that it will always be Monday in my house, but we will get it done.
While I can easily sub in beans for our dinners, I wanted to try something a little different. I can usually get my family to try anything buffalo, so I figured I would give Buffalo Cauliflower “Wings” a try.
Although it’s not like a chicken wing, or even a boneless wing in the sense of texture, it does pack a lot of flavor into a tiny bite of a lightly breaded, baked vegetable. Of course, eating a plain vegetable would be better for you, but at least this way the vegetable has a much better chance of getting into the mouths of my family members.
The cauliflower “wings” themselves don’t contain much as far a protein, so to go with it, I have made both a ranch dip, using Greek yogurt, milk and ranch powder seasoning, and a yogurt blue cheese dip to go with the “wings.” You can also buy the store version of the sauces to save time. As an added bonus to this recipe, I have made this with both regular and gluten-free pancake or baking mix. Both versions were equally tasty.
Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
1 small head of cauliflower, cleaned and trimmed into florets
1.5 cups pancake mix, regular or gluten-free
1.5 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 400. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together pancake mix and milk until smooth. Dip each floret into the batter and let excess drain off. Place the florets onto a greased cookie sheet making sure they don’t touch.
Bake for 15 minutes. Turn over and bake for an additional 20 or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and serve with celery sticks and dip of choice. Serves six.
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