Wings ‘n things

I never thought the day would come when I’d try to vegan-ify a dish served at hooters…but I guess stranger things do happen.

Never in my life have I tried a buffalo wing.  And without going all Jessica Simpson on you, I’m just going to admit right up front, I have no clue what they really truly are.

I mean, they’re meat of some kind (I presume).  Other than that, I’ve got nothin’.  So now that I’ve disclosed that little tidbit, it may seem odd that in October alone I ate (vegan) buffalo wings twice.  The first time I ever tried them was on my 30th birthday, at Mohawk Bend.  And shortly thereafter I ordered Veggie Grill’s version.  I definitely preferred the former, which is why I recently tried to recreate both their cauliflower “wings” and bleu cheese dip.

I did a fair amount of googling and combined a few different recipes…which I then tweaked even more based on the ingredients I had on hand. 

And I think both came out pretty freakin’ awesome (in my modest humble opinion).

Buffalo Cauliflower Wings [vegan, gluten free]

Ingredients:

• 1 small head cauliflower, broken into small florets
• 3/4 cup oat flour
• 3/4 cup almond milk (plain)
• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce (I used Annie’s)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp hot sauce (more or less depending on type of hot sauce and preferences)
• 1 tsp arrowroot powder (cornstarch will work too)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. 

Combine oat flour and almond milk.  Toss cauli florets in batter until they are well coated, then pour in glass baking dish (sprayed with non stick).

Bake for 20 minutes (at 450 degrees).

While cauliflower is baking, combine the BBQ sauce, hot sauce, spices, arrowroot, salt and pepper.

After the cauliflower has cooked for 20 minutes, toss it with the BBQ mix, then bake for ~8 minutes. 

Enjoy with celery and bleu cheese tofu dip (recipe below).

Choppin’ cauli.

Pre-baked cauliflower dredged in almond milk/flour mixture.

  

Spicy!

Baked wings ready to get sauced.

Pre-oven.

Post-oven.

Chillin’.  Now for the dip.

 

Bleu Cheese Tofu Dip [vegan, gluten free]

Ingredients:

• 7 oz. firm tofu (1/2 of a 14 oz. block)
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp vegenaise (or canola oil based mayo)
• 1 tbsp seaweed (I used a seaweed/sesame seed mix, but a few sheets of seaweed or kelp granules will work too)
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp miso paste
• 1 tsp tahini
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• pinch of dried oregano
• pinch of salt

Directions:

Add everything to a blender/food processor/magic bullet and process until smooth.

You don’t have to press the tofu, just pour off all the excess liquid so there’s as little water as possible. 

If you want a crumbled texture, forego the blender approach and add everything to a bowl, using a fork to mash up manually so it retains a course chunky consistency. 

  

On the left is the seaweed mix I used; and on the right is the final product.

 

They’re good separate, but together they’re REALLY good.