Whenever my family and I used to get Chinese food— sesame chicken was always my go to. This sticky sesame cauliflower seriously takes me back to those takeout dinners— it’s so flavorful and oh so good.
Ingredients:
For the cauliflower
1 medium sized head of cauliflower
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup of dairy free milk or water
(** feel free to use 1 cup of gluten free or regular all purpose flour instead of the almond/oat flour mix)
For the sauce
2 large or 4 small cloves of garlic, finely minced (about 1 tablespoon)
1 inch knob of ginger, finely minced (about 1 tablespoon)
3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
3 teaspoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 to 2 teaspoons chili oil / chili sauce / sriracha (depending how spicy you want it to be)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons tapioca starch / corn starch / arrowroot starch
serve with:
sesame seeds
sliced scallions
jasmine rice
Directions:
Cut the cauliflower up into bite sized pieces. Mix the flour and spices together, add water or milk, and mix it up until a batter forms. Dunk the pieces of cauliflower into the batter until covered, then set aside.
I used an air fryer, heating it to 375 for 20 minutes. You could also bake them in the oven at 425 for 20 minutes.
While the cauliflower are baking, prepare the sauce. Mix all of the sauce ingredients together except the water and tapioca starch.
Add the sauce to a medium to large sized skillet over medium high heat. Let the sauce heat up, then add the tapioca starch slurry, which is 2 teaspoons tapioca starch mixed with 2 tablespoons water (stir until it’s a uniform cloudy liquid). As you stir in the slurry, the sauce will immediately thicken up a lot and get very gooey. I then added in 1/4 cup of water to thin it out a bit and get it to the perfect consistency.
Toss the crisp battered cauliflower into the sticky sesame sauce and sprinkle in sesame seeds. Serve with rice and sliced scallions.