Typically for date night, my boyfriend and I will get take out from the one and only Cheesecake Factory. One night a while back when we were ordering, I saw on their menu that they have this bomb-looking fried cauliflower. Surprisingly they actually had the recipe on their website!Β It looked a bit complicated, but sparked the thought in my head, βhey, I bet I can simplify and adapt this and have it taste just as good.β And thus, my vegan fried Korean cauliflower was born.
Secret Sauce
Wanna know the key to getting the crispy, sticky exterior on these cauliflowers? It’s my super simple 5 ingredient Korean Chili Sauce. This sauce’s main ingredient is gojuchang, or Korean chili paste. Itβs a thick, sweet, spicy, tangy paste with an irreplaceable flavor. I picked up a bottle of gojuchang from my local big box grocery store. It was really easy to find.
There are only a few steps to this cauliflower. First is making the batter and coating them. Follow up that step by frying the cauliflowers up and tossing them in the sauce. I always thought frying was super intimidating until I made this recipe.
Fry ‘Em Up
I decided to make it easy on myself by not βdeepβ frying the cauliflowers. Instead, I filled up a large stock pot with only a few inches of vegetable oil. This way there was enough oil to cover a floret of cauliflower but not enough to be scary and feel dangerous. I’m not a frying master by any means, and I managed to make these free of any accidents.
This Vegan Fried Korean Cauliflower is super tasty served on top of a bed of rice and topped with sesame seeds, lime, and green onions.
Fried Korean Cauliflower
Sweet, spicy, and fried to perfection. These cauliflowers make for an amazing favor packed quick dinner.
Ingredients
- 2 heads of cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1 cup Korean Chili Sauce
- vegetable Oil for frying
- sesame oil
- green chili for serving
- sesame seeds for serving
- lime for serving
Tempura Batter
- 1.5 cups gluten free flour blend or rice flour
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ΒΌ tsp black pepper
- 2 cups seltzer water extra cold
Instructions
- Microwave cauliflower florets for 2 minutes to soften.
- Heat up vegetable oil at low-medium heat on the stove in a large pot. There should be enough oil for most of the cauliflower to be fully submerged.
- To make the tempura batter, mix the gluten-free flour blend, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, pepper, and garlic powder together in a large bowl. Add the cold seltzer water and mix until just combined.
- Fold cauliflower into tempura batter.
- Drop the cauliflower into the heated oil. The oil should bubble around the cauliflower when hot enough.
- Cook the cauliflower for about 3 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown.
- Heat up a saucepan or wok on medium heat with some sesame oil.
- Toss the fried cauliflower with the Korean Chili Sauce in the pan. Stir fry for about 3 minutes until evenly coated and the sauce begins to thicken.
- Serve with green chilis, lime, sesame seeds, and rice.
Notes
For gluten-free, make sure to use gluten-free soy sauce in the Korean Chili Sauce.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 569Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 25mgCarbohydrates: 86gFiber: 7gSugar: 13gProtein: 19g
Nutritional info is an estimate.
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