Last updated January 17th, 2025
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These vegetarian air fryer buffalo cauliflower bites are an easy and healthy snack to serve at your next Super Bowl party!
If you’re looking for delicious vegetarian options to serve at your next Super Bowl party, you’re in luck – this recipe for air fryer buffalo cauliflower bites is the perfect solution for meatless snacking on game day! With all the flavor of your favorite buffalo wings and a texture that’s almost like chicken nuggets, these poppable bite-sized balls of crispy breaded cauliflower will be the hit of your Super Bowl gathering.
These buffalo cauliflower bites taste almost as unhealthy as most game day snacks – but they’re a much lighter option that’s so easy to make at home! Cauliflower takes on whatever flavor you add to it, so some crispy breading and Frank’s Red Hot really transform this healthy veggie into a football-worthy snack. Serve them as an appetizer during the big game or as a side dish with pizza, and enjoy eating homemade vegetarian buffalo bites that don’t taste like vegetables.
What This Recipe Entails
The first 50 minutes of this recipe is spent roasting cauliflower and then letting it cool. So even though the total time is about an hour and 15 minutes, you’ll only be working for about 20 to 30 minutes in total.
- Prep time: 55 minutes
- Cook time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
You’ll only need cauliflower plus a couple pantry staples to make these poppable nugget-like appetizers:
- Cauliflower – You can use a head of cauliflower or buy a bag of florets.
- Binding Ingredients – Egg and breadcrumbs make sure these bites stay together.
- Seasonings – We use paprika and cayenne, but to make these less spicy you can leave out the cayenne. Or add more if that’s your style.
- Frank’s Red Hot – Or your favorite buffalo sauce, which of course, should be Frank’s.
How To Make Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
To make this easy air fryer recipe, you’ll start by roasting cauliflower florets in the oven until they’re super tender.
Then comes the fun part: transforming healthy cauliflower into little buffalo bites that have the texture of chicken nuggets 🙂 Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Once the cauliflower has cooled down, add it to a food processor and pulse until it’s broken up into smaller pieces and has a consistent texture (i.e. no big lumps).
- Then, mix the cauliflower with the plain breadcrumbs, egg, paprika, and cayenne. It’ll have a slightly sticky consistency.
- Squeeze the cauliflower mixture into small rounds, about 1 inch in diameter. Squeezing (instead of rolling) helps compact the mixture so the buffalo bites hold their shape.
Once you’ve got a good amount of cauliflower bites rolled, start preheating the air fryer and cook them in batches. You can continue rolling more buffalo bites while the first batch cooks to save time!
Here’s how to make delicious, crispy bites of buffalo cauliflower in the air fryer:
- Preheat the air fryer to 375 degrees F and grease the basket with cooking spray.
- Add the cauliflower bites to the basket in a single layer, leaving a little bit of space between them (about a half-inch to an inch).
- Grease the cauliflower bites with cooking spray, then cook for about 10 minutes, giving them a shake halfway through to ensure even cooking.
- Transfer cooked cauliflower bites to a large bowl. Once they’re all cooked, toss with Frank’s Red Hot to coat.
Serving Suggestions
Whether you toss your buffalo bites in Frank’s or serve it on the side for dipping, these vegetarian buffalo bites go great with so many things. Here are a few suggestions for what to serve with buffalo cauliflower bites:
- A side of buffalo sauce, if you want to control the amount of spice and skip tossing them in Frank’s Red Hot
- A creamy buffalo ranch dip like the one we serve with our air fryer buffalo chicken taquitos
- Ranch or blue cheese dressing to cool your mouth down
- Veggies like carrots and celery
- French fries or tater tots
- Pizza, with these buffalo cauliflower bites as a side dish (just like pizza & wings, a classic combo!)
Try the recipe below for easy air fryer buffalo cauliflower bites and don’t forget to rate, comment, and share if you love it!
Expert Tips
- You’ll know the cauliflower bites are done cooking when the outsides are super crispy and browned.
- Toss the cauliflower bites in Frank’s hot sauce to really infuse that delicious, spicy buffalo flavor – but note this will make them a little less crispy, especially the longer they sit.
- If you want your bites to stay as crispy as possible, skip tossing them in the sauce and serve it on the side for dipping instead.
- Most of the flavor for these bites comes from the sauce, so if you want to mix it up because spicy food isn’t your thing, just change the dip and you’re good to go. Try serving these cauliflower bites with dips like barbecue sauce, garlic aioli, or Chick-fil-A sauce.
- Re-spray the air fryer basket between batches if you are making multiple rounds. You don’t want to lose that crispy shell because it’s stuck to the air fryer!
- Make these smaller to share with a larger crowd to make the same amount go further.
Love this recipe? You may enjoy these other vegetarian game day recipes, too:
- Vegetarian Black Bean Southwest Sliders
- Easy Soft Pretzel Bites & Beer Cheese Dip
- Cheesy Spinach & Artichoke Dip
- Cast Iron Skillet Nachos
- Loaded Sweet Potato Waffle Fries
- Spinach & Artichoke Neapolitan-Style Pizza
To browse more of our latest recipes and seasonal dishes, visit our homepage here.
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Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower
- 1 to 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- ¾ cup plain breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon ground red cayenne pepper
- ¼ to ⅓ cup Frank's Red Hot
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the cauliflower into florets, removing the stalk, and transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast in the oven until tender, about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Once the cauliflower is tender, let it cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Then, transfer the cauliflower to a food processor and pulse until it breaks up into smaller pieces and has a consistent texture (check that no large pieces are left).
- Transfer the cauliflower to a large mixing bowl. Add the breadcrumbs, egg, paprika, and cayenne pepper and then mix until thoroughly combined and slightly sticky.
- Next, squeeze the cauliflower mixture into small rounds, about 1 inch in diameter. Squeezing (instead of rolling) helps compact the mixture so the buffalo bites hold their shape. Set them aside on a large plate or sheet of parchment paper as you work.
- Preheat the air fryer to 375 degrees F and grease the basket with cooking spray. Cook the cauliflower bites in batches, adding them to the basket in a single layer and leaving about a half-inch to an inch of space between them. Grease the cauliflower bites with cooking spray, then air fry for 10 minutes, shaking halfway through to ensure even cooking.
- Once the cauliflower bites are cooked, add them to a bowl and toss with Frank's Red Hot. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.
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