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Had these last night and they were delish! Everything went together so perfectly..the sauce, the slaw, the spice. Will deferentially make this again and again.
Kendra Jenema
Whoa whoa whoaaa. Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos with Avocado Crema are hap-pen-ning. This is not a sad moment on Pinch of Yum.
There is a restaurant in St. Paul, Minnesota called J. Selby’s. I adore it. It’s a “plant-based eatery” with pear ginger kombucha on tap, every kind of vegan bowl you could ever dream of, and deep fried buffalo cauliflower “wings” that will rock your world. The origins of this buffalo cauliflower taco obsession can be traced back to many kombuchas, “wings,” and burrito bowls shared by Bjork and I at the bar of this little restaurant. If you live in Minnesota and you want a fun place to eat, J. Selby’s will be your place.
Buffalo cauliflower (at least this version) is fairly simple to make – dip and bake – but flavor-wise, it’s not for the faint of heart. It packs some heat and a boatload of tang, like any good buffalo bar food. Its mostly-crispy breading sucks up the hot sauce and gives these little nuggets so much fiery flavor.
How To Make Our Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos (1 MIN):
Five Things To Know About Buffalo Cauliflower:
- Baked, not fried. Easier, healthier.
- The breading only has two ingredients. Don’t be scared.
- The little buffalo cauliflower pieces are extremely versatile. Salads, bowls, tacos, snacks… all of the above.
- These don’t reheat super well in the microwave, but they will do beautifully in a skillet with a little olive oil. Leftovers are yummy.
- Honestly, just YUM.
Part two of this recipe is almost as easy as the buffalo cauliflower: a nice smooth and creamy blender sauce of avocado, garlic, cilantro, lime, sour cream… you know, the usual suspects, and then just drop a few dollops of that creamy magic onto your slaw.
You can chop up your own slaw or you can use a bagged slaw mix. I will remind you that I love shortcuts and I will let you guess which category I fall into.
That’s it. So easy.
Final step is tucking these guys all into a tortilla together (current fave is the soft Handmade-Style Tortillas from La Tortilla Factory) and thwapping a little avocado crema on top.
MY MOUTH IS WATERINGGGGG.
You are ready for buffalo cauliflower taco greatness! Or buffalo cauliflower bowls! Or buffalo cauliflower salads!
Or buffalo cauliflower dunked in avocado crema put straight into your mouth. All would be reasonable.
😍😍😍
Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos with Avocado Crema
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8–10 tacos (probably 4–5 servings) 1x
Description
This colorful, spicy, crispy, mega-yum recipe was inspired by the amazing buffalo “wings” at J. Selby’s in Saint Paul. One of my favorite meals!
Ingredients
Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 teaspoon each garlic powder, salt, and pepper
- 1 head cauliflower (4–5 cups florets)
- 3/4 cup hot sauce (I used Frank’s brand)
- 3 cups shredded cabbage or slaw
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 10 tortillas
Avocado Crema
- 2 avocados
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 cup sour cream (yogurt would work, too)
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- squeeze of lemon or lime
Instructions
- Batter the cauliflower: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Whisk flour, milk, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Dip cauliflower pieces in the batter and let excess drip off. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake on an upper rack for 15-20 minutes until lightly crisped and browned.
- Spice the cauliflower: Gently toss the baked cauliflower in a bowl with the hot sauce. Return to pan. Bake for another 5-10 minutes.
- Avocado Crema: Mix all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.
- Slaw: Toss the slaw with some of the avocado crema until it’s nice and creamy.
- Tacos: Fill each tortilla with slaw, cauliflower, a drizzle of avocado crema, and cilantro. Perfection!
Notes
Gluten Free: Use GF flour and GF corn tortillas. Note: you may need a few more tablespoons of milk to get the right consistency for the batter when using GF flour.
Vegan: use non-dairy milk and skip the sour cream in the sauce.
Cauliflower Pro Tip: It helps if you have a greased wire rack to bake the cauliflower on – this allows excess batter to drip down and promotes crispiness. 👍🏼 But it works fine without, too.
Notes about texture: The texture as written is pretty firm and crispy, but not deep-fried-level crispy. Not surprisingly, you’d have to deep fry to achieve that. Which you could totally do! Here’s a recipe with a deep fry batter that I’d recommend if you want to spend the time doing that (it’s delish). But to me, this is a really great middle-of-the-road alternative that is a) much easier, b) healthier, and c) still really tasty!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: buffalo cauliflower tacos, avocado slaw, avocado crema
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our easy summer dinners page. Check it out!
Where does all that Sodium come from?
The hot sauce! It’s quite high in sodium!
Any idea what’s making the sodium so high? Looking at the ingredients, it’s nit obvious to me. Thanks!
Hot sauce/buffalo sauce is pretty high in sodium, so that accounts for much of it!
This was delicious. I didn’t batter the cauliflower as we’re trying to eat less carbs, but we added a sprinkle of grated cheddar instead, and drizzled on some ranch from the buffalo chicken taco recipe. Really loved it.
Made these tonight and sadly, didn’t crisp up. A little labor intensive so I was bummed that it ended up in the trash. . I followed the directions carefully. Difficult to clean the the wire rack with batter left on.
The coleslaw and Crema were delish.
A lot of 5 star reviews from people who didn’t make the dish, they planned to in the future, a little misleading.
So Fire!
Delicious great flavor, I added a sprinkle of feta cheese
Sadly this did not turn out well for us. Followed your directions for the cauliflower exactly and it was absolutely not crispy. ☹️ The slaw was very tasty.
Thanks for the feedback!
Made these in the air fryer and they turned out perfectly crispy!
We will be doing this, this weekend. We are gluten free and keto so we will be using the almond flour but it should work the same, thanks for the great recipe, excited!!
Enjoy!
What are your thoughts on using buttermilk? Thank you
Do you mean buttermilk in place of the milk for the batter? I think that’d work out just fine!
This is my second time making this. The first time was amazing – I put the cauliflower directly on parchment paper on a baking pan. This second time I followed the instructions and put it on a greased wire rack: disaster. Stuck like crazy. Definitely use parchment! Otherwise this recipe is amazing!
This was awesome! Not hard to make either so it’s doable on a weeknight. I made it for myself and my meat eating family kept stealing mine!
So glad you enjoyed it!
The batter in this recipe is terrible. It’s a gloopy mess. Do not recommend
Sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you. Thank you for the feedback!
I finally got around to making these this week for lunch. O.M.Geeee! So good! My husband loves anything Buffalo flavoured, but not a fan of cauliflower. Let me just say – he LOVED these. I used a non-dairy yogurt (coconut base) in the crema. It did not change the flavour at all. It perfectly cooled the heat of the Frank’s. (If you don’t like medium to hot wings, I’d toss in a mild wing sauce instead.) We also used a broccoli slaw mix for the coleslaw. This meal was so easy, so fast, and so delicious. It will definitely be added to the regular rotation!
Yay yay yay!
This is one of my favorite recipes that I make almost weekly! I used brown rice flour to keep it gluten free and coconut yogurt for the avocado crema to keep it dairy free. It worked perfectly! I cannot say enough good things about this amazing recipe. 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Laura! Always helpful to hear what others are doing. 🙂
This recipe was so so so good! I made guac, and used some of the guac with Greek yogurt for the slaw sauce, and it worked out really well. The wire rack tip was definitely a good one, highly recommended.
Meant to add: I used half flour, half masa harina because I had it – and really liked the little bit of texture from the corn based flour.
Glad you enjoyed these tacos, Kate!
This was delicious! I didn’t love the flour coating, but we couldn’t taste it once tossed in the buffalo sauce. My daughter and her friends (who stayed unexpectedly) liked it and my meat-eating son liked it! My husband said he prefers meat in his taco, but liked this as an appetizer or side. I made the avacado sauce vegan (for daughter’s friend) by using a little plain almond milk instead of sour cream. I don’t leave a lot of comments, but this was good!
So glad to hear this, Judy! 🎉
I wish you had put the pro tip (bake on a wire rack) in the actual recipe! I only read it after starting and was too late – can tell they would have been much better this way…
These are sensational. A favourite for my husband and I and have now made them a couple of times for a crowd, loved them!
So glad to hear it, Bridget!
Yep, deliciousness in a taco wrapper. My hubby kinda looked at me sideways, and he didn’t think it would be crispy, BUT—he’s now a huge fan as am I! Simple ingredients and instruction—loved the quick batter. Cauliflower lacked a little crispness, but once on the taco with the cabbage, and it was crunchy! Realized at the end, perhaps turning in the convection option may help with the crisp factor (if you have it). Added a little extra hot sauce and lots of lime juice as toppers. Yum. Thanks!!
Thanks for sharing!
Like everyone else said, we are not vegetarian and these were AMAZING. I followed the recipe exactly and then we also added some black beans to the tacos, which gave them more protein and also complimented the other flavors really well! The avocado crema goes so well with the buffalo cauliflower. I will for sure be making this again. We actually thought it could’ve been spicier so next time I may buy the spicier version of Frank’s red hot sauce rather than the original, or maybe try half and half.
Glad you enjoyed the tacos, Kim!
Absolutely amazing! Loved it & even more so that it can be vegan! Thank you! Added my twist with some hot sauce on top😋 thank you!
Yum yum yum!
Delicious!
The buffalo cauliflower was delicious!! I ate them without making the taco part (though I am sure this would be yummy also!). I am a vegetarian and wanted a substitute for buffalo wings. This was exactly the recipe I have been looking for! Thank you!
I forgot to rate the recipe. I definitely give it 5 stars!
So happy to hear you enjoyed this, Jackie!
Does this work with chicken pieces instead of cauliflower? I’m all about the cauliflower but my husband would complain it’s not filling enough.
That should work. 👍 We also have an Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Tacos recipe and you can drizzle the avocado crema on top. 😊
Awesome recipe! I made this tonight pretty much exactly as is except I added 1/4 tsp cornstarch to the flour mixture. I was so impressed with how crispy the cauliflower was right out of the oven. Of course they softened up soon as I dressed them with the buffalo sauce. But they were fantastic. I used corn tortillas. So delicious and relatively easy to make. Thanks for the recipe!
Glad to hear you enjoyed these tacos, Caitlin!