Crispy Cauliflower Nuggets

To be honest, we can’t remember the last time we ate fast food. We just don’t do it. Even when we’re traveling we won’t hit a fast food place. Instead, we’ll bring a lunch with us, or we’ll find a local restaurant where we can sit down and properly enjoy our meal. But, we can tell you that our Crispy Cauliflower Nuggets won’t be anything like that greasy chicken paste that fast food establishments shape into nuggets, coat with breading, freeze, ship around the world, then deep fry. We think they’re far better.

Better for a couple of reasons: since they’re made from cauliflower and baked, they’re better for you; since they’re better for you, you can eat a lot more. Who doesn’t like eating a lot of crispy nuggets? Heck, enough talk, let’s scratch these up so you can have them along with (or instead of, we won’t squeal) dinner.

Oops! Almost forgot, these are simply a variant of the Buffalo Cauliflower Bites we’ve made previously.

Ingredient discussion:

For the spices, use what you like. If you happen to know the seven secret herbs and spices, use those if you wish. We could see using cayenne for spicy nuggets. We could see using oregano, basil, and fennel for an Italian flavor. Just be creative; it’s only one dish. We used homemade buttermilk for our cauliflower, but any sort of milk will be fine. Oh, we mentioned dipping sauces: we made a simple honey mustard (equal parts honey and India Pale Ale Mustard) and a chipotle ketchup (our homemade ketchup with chipotle to taste).

Procedure in detail:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment for easy cleanup. We’ve found that baking parchment is a real time-saver in the kitchen; if you haven’t tried it, you should — you’ll never go back.

Mix coating. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, salt, paprika, garlic powder, and black pepper (or whatever spices you’re using). Mix them long enough so that the mixture looks uniform in color.

Toss cauliflower with oil. Place the cauliflower pieces in a large bowl and drizzle with enough oil to coat the pieces and toss until all the cauliflower is coated. If you’re not sure how much oil to add, start with about 2 tablespoons, toss and see if the cauliflower looks coated. If not, drizzle in a bit more and toss again.

Toss cauliflower with flour. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the top of the cauliflower and toss until everything is well coated. We’re building up layers of coating, which helps to make the cauliflower nuggets crispy. Plus, all this tossing makes it seem as if we’re doing something critical.

Toss cauliflower with buttermilk. Pour or scoop the buttermilk over the cauliflower and toss again. The flour mixture will form a thickened moist coating on the cauliflower. This is what you want. It’ll seal in the cauliflower and crisp as it bakes.

Toss cauliflower with corn meal. For a bit more crispiness, sprinkle the corn meal over and toss again. It’s really looking as if it’ll be good, isn’t it? Toss it just a bit more, trying to get all the corn meal to stick, but if it doesn’t, well, that’s how it goes.

Bake. Spread the cauliflower nuggets in a single layer on the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, stirring and flipping the nuggets every 15 minutes to promote even crisping.

We love these little cauliflower bites. They get crispy from the corn meal coating. They taste great, especially with dipping sauce, they’re fun to eat because it seems as if you’re snacking on junk food, when you really aren’t. They’re an easy, crispy five-star dish.