Front Street Cafe Gave Us Their Super-Secret Buffalo Cauliflower Recipe

Buffalo cauliflower at Front Street Cafe. Photograph by Instagram user @rachlapchak.

We knew cauliflower was trending — Time magazine called it the new “It” vegetable, and it’s on menus all across the city — but we didn’t know just how excited you all are about Front Street Cafe’s buffalo cauliflower until we posted about it on Instagram.

“The best cauliflower in town! 🙌🏼” commented @plantbasedblonde.

“It is seriously one of my favorite things to order in this city!” commented @mly1022

“Literally my favorite vegetable dish EVER 🙌. @frontstreetcafe please send me the recipe!!!” commented @ksitrin

Since it’s our job to get you all the important information you need — and believe us, “buffalo cauliflower” definitely gets filed under “important information” — we reached out to Front Street Cafe and asked (read: pleaded) for their recipe.

Related: 16 Delicious Vegan Recipes for Your Super Bowl Party

While the following (vegan! gluten-free!) recipe is definitely a little time consuming — especially if you’re making the red hot sauce from scratch — don’t worry: You can always give in and let the pros make it for you for $12 at Front Street Cafe.

Front Street Cafe’s Buffalo Cauliflower

Making Front Street’s buffalo cauliflower is a multi-stage process. After you gather all the ingredients, you’ll first need to bake, then fry, the cauliflower. While that’s happening, you’ll need to make a red hot sauce (or, to simplify, just buy yourself some red hot off the shelf), which will ultimately be used as an ingredient in the buffalo sauce. Then, once the cauliflower is fried and covered in buffalo sauce, you’ll want to finish with the dill sauce — because what’s a buffalo “wing” without anything to dip it into?

Read on for the more formal instructions.

INGREDIENTS

Base
Cauliflower (can be one head, can be five heads – just adjust the following ingredients accordingly to have enough to coat them)
Canola or olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Unsweetened almond milk
Rice flour

Red Hot Sauce (makes 3-4 cups)
10 large red hot peppers (sliced lengthwise and seeded)
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp dry mustard
2 tsp salt
2 cups white vinegar
1/4 tsp vegan worcestershire
2 whole cloves

Buffalo Sauce (makes 12 servings)
1 cup red hot sauce (see above)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne powder
1/4 tsp dark red paprika
3/4 cup cold vegan butter
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vegan worcestershire

Dill Dipping Sauce
1 cup veganaise
2 tbsp chopped dill weed
2 tbsp chopped onion

STEPS

Cauliflower 
1. Rinse the cauliflower, then chop the cauliflower head into bite-size pieces.
2. Toss the cauliflower in a canola and olive oil blend, then top with some salt and pepper.
3. Par bake the cauliflower (par baking involves partially baking the cauliflower, then quickly freezing it).
4. Soak the cauliflower in the almond milk in preparation for Step 5.
5. Toss the soaked cauliflower in rice flour.
6. Flash fry the cauliflower. (While you won’t have access to an industrial fryer at home, you can try this $43 at-home version on Amazon.)

Red Hot Sauce
1. Slice and seed the red hot peppers and chop the onion.
2. Place the red hot peppers, onion, garlic, and cloves in a food processor.
3. Puree until smooth.
4. Add dry mustard, salt, white vinegar, and vegan worcestershire to the pureed mixture.
5. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and simmer on low for five minutes.

Buffalo Sauce
1. Combine red hot sauce, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, paprika, vegan butter, white vinegar, and vegan worcestershire sauce in a food processor.
2. Puree until smooth.
3. Transfer mixture to a sauce pan.
4. Bring to a simmer; stir constantly.
5. Once the sides of the saucepan are bubbling, remove from the heat.

Dill Dipping Sauce
1. Puree veganaise, dill weed, and onion in food processor until smooth.
2. Serve on the side.

Once you’ve made the cauliflower, you can toss it in the buffalo sauce to coat it, then dunk it in the dill sauce to your heart’s content. Happy snacking!

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