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Sticky Sesame Cauliflower

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This vegan sticky sesame cauliflower is batter dipped and baked (instead of fried!) before being drenched in a sweet and spicy sesame sauce and served over a bed of rice.

Sticky Sesame Cauliflower

We have a bunch of Chinese vegetarian restaurants in Philly. You guys know of these places? They typically have what appears to be a normal Chinese restaurant menu, but everything is vegetarian, and it’s usually crazy good.

I discovered these places about fifteen years ago, and at some point after that I caught part of some public radio broadcast where people were discussing them and how good the food was, how close the taste came to the conventional, meat-based versions of the dishes, and the fact that they were usually made from seitan. Someone said something along the lines of, “Well if you deep fry it and cover it in sugary sauce, of course it’s going to be good.” I had to agree.

Sticky Sesame Cauliflower

Eventually I discovered that deep-frying wasn’t necessary. You can totally fake that. Now I find out cauliflower works just as well as seitan. My head is spinning.

As much as I love cauliflower, I have to say, when you un-fry a bunch of little cauliflower florets and cover them in a super flavorul and (refined sugar free!) just sweet enough sauce, they don’t taste like cauliflower, which is okay in this instance.

I think this probably comes pretty close to versions of this dish made with chicken, buuuuuut I haven’t had chicken in a long time, so I’ll just have to promise that it tastes super good.

Sticky Sesame Cauliflower

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Sticky Sesame Cauliflower

4.72 from 7 votes
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Sticky Sesame Cauliflower

This vegan sticky sesame cauliflower is batter dipped and baked (instead of fried!) before being drenched in a sweet and spicy sesame sauce and served over a bed of rice.
Course Entree
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4
Author Alissa

Ingredients

  • 1-2 tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1 1/4 cups unflavored soy or almond milk
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 large cauliflower crown broken into florets
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 2 tsp. sesame oil
  • 2 tsp. fresh grated ginger
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 tsp. sriracha
  • 1 tbsp. cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup cold water
  • 2 scallions chopped
  • toasted sesame seeds
  • cooked rice for serving

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 450° (preheating is crucial here, so don't skip it). Use about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil to coat the bottom of a large roasting pan or oven-safe skillet.
  2. Stir milk, flour, salt and baking powder together in small bowl. Dip cauliflower florets in mixture to coat, shaking off any excess batter. Arrange in a single layer in roasting pan or skillet.
  3. Bake 10 minutes.
  4. While cauliflower bakes, combine soy sauce, maple syrup, rice vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, garlic and sriracha in a small saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Stir cornstarch and water together in a small container until cornstarch is fully dissolved. Add to soy sauce mixture and stir to blend. Remove from heat.
  5. Remove cauliflower from oven and flip. Lightly brush florets with remaining tablespoon of oil. Return to oven and bake 5 minutes more, until they begin to sizzle and lightly crisp.
  6. Remove from oven and pour sauce over florets. Return to oven and bake 3-4 minutes more, just until sauce becomes very sticky and coasts florets.
  7. Serve over rice and sprinkle with sesame seeds and scallions.

Recipe Notes

You can also skip the rice and serve the cauliflower as a wing-style appetizer.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hi Alissa,

    Thanks for the recipe, we made your vegan STICKY SESAME CAULIFLOWER creation and enjoyed it.

    One modification worth mentioning, we substituted brown rice for Quinoa to add some protein and it worked out great!

    Peter
    Think Matcha Team

    Reply

  2. This has some bizarro ingredients that do not seem like they’d work together, so of course I’m going to try it. If it tastes as good as it looks, then you’re my new hero.

    Reply

  4. I am definitely going to give this a go in the coming week – it’s in the planner.

    I used to order an amazing Indo-Chinese sweet and sour cauliflower starter from a much-beloved Indian restaurant in my hometown, which was deep fried and tasted so eerily like chicken that I refused to eat it the first time I ordered it. I have always wanted to mimic that lovely tangy, delicious cauliflower goodness at home without the deep fat fryer. This looks like my chance.

    If it works out the first time, I might experiment and test it out using chickpea (gram) flour as I don’t keep WW flour around in my student block.

    Reply

    • Awesome! I hope you like it as much as I did! I’m thinking chickpea flour will work. I’ve seen similar recipes in the past that use chickpea flour, and even considered working with it for this recipe, but ended up going with whole wheat, figuring more people would have it on hand. Please let me know how it works if you try it!

      Reply

  5. I made this last night and it was delicious!! So sticky and that yummy mix of sweet, salty and savoury. I substituted Gluten Free flour for the wholewheat and also used the gf flour to thicken my sauce – worked out fine ;) Will be making again

    Ailsa x

    Reply

  6. This turns out to be the recipe I didn’t know I was missing. ; p Mine turned out much darker because all I had on hand was dark soy so I only used 1/2 the amount but it was so good. In fact, I felt a bit guilty because hubby had to work late and grabbed something on the way home but I couldn’t resist telling him what a good dinner he had missed. Is that bad?

    Reply

  7. I made this the other night, it tasted great but I didn’t get the cauliflower right….I think its because I used plain flour rather than whole wheat..The batter was too runny so the coating just pooled at the base of the pieces…Should i change the quantity of flour or should i just go buy some whole wheat flour?

    Reply

  9. I had the same issue with the batter, it pooled in the pan even though I tried to shake off all the excess. It was still good but only one side of the cauliflower had the batter. Please let me know what I did wrong! (followed recipe and used whole wheat flour) Thanks sooo much!

    Reply

    • Sorry it didn’t stick, but glad to hear you still enjoyed it! Next time you can try stirring in an extra tablespoon or two of flour until the batter seems to hold. It should be pretty thick. I’ve also seen similar recipes where you place the cauliflower right on the oven rack with a pan below it to catch drips, so you could try that too.

      Reply

  11. Made this last night, it was OMG delicious. Hubby is still carnivorous and loved it too. He said he didn’t even miss the chicken. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  13. I’m afraid this didn’t work at all. The “batter” was too runny, the cauliflower (despite cooking longer than the recipe says) never got crisp, and then (once the the sauce was on it) it never got sticky.

    The batter basically turned into a layer of bread that then got stuck all over the pan. And it tasted bad too.

    I wasted a bunch of time and ingredients and made myself a lot of dishes to wash. :(

    Reply

    • These are the exact same problems that I had. It still tastes good but it’s just soggy cauliflower in a sweet sauce. The batter went everywhere despite my oiling the pans and what little bit of crispy it did get just died once the sauce was added. The sauce also never thickened.

      Reply

      • Same problem here! I had high hopes for this dish and the pic looked so good but I have no idea how she got the cauliflower to turn out like it did in her pic. I followed the recipe exactly and wound up with somewhat gummy battered califlower that stuck to the pan (despite the oil in the batter and me spraying the pan) and after the sauce had sat on it not more than 5 minutes, it was soggy. Definitely not good for leftovers!

        Reply

        • Sorry it didn’t work out! I’ve made this a few times with no problem. I’m thinking that since this is a high temperature, short bake time recipe it will be very sensitive to variations in oven temperature, so if you’re oven is off by a few degrees or not completely preheated that could be the issue. That’s my best guess, but I’ll be testing this out in the coming weeks with a few variables to see if I can come up with what’s going wrong for some people.

          Reply

    • This is exactly what happened to mine. Except that I thought it tasted delicious and I at so much I got really stuffed. Loved the taste, but want to fix the texture.

      Reply

  14. I only used one cup of almond milk since the batter seemed liquid enough to coat the cauliflower. I didn’t use any vegetable oil, instead I only put 1 teaspoon of sesame oil in the sauce and used the other teaspoon to coat the cauliflower after it had baked for 10 minutes and before putting it in again. That’s all I changed, and the cauliflower got nice and crispy, even sizzling after the second go in the oven.

    However, I had the same problem as the other commenters with the sauce. When I saw how runny it was in the pan after simmering for 10 minutes and sitting for a few minutes with the first tablespoon of cornstarch, I added another tablespoon of cornstarch. I let it sit some more and it was still completely watery. I poured it over the cauliflower, put it in the oven for ~10 minutes and crossed my fingers, but it still came out runny, even after letting it sit again for ~5 minutes. I had to strain the cauliflower out of it. It was still delicious and crunchy, though, but I regret wasting that much rice vinegar, maple syrup and soy sauce, because you could get away with making only half the amount of sauce (and that stuff is expensive).

    How long is the sauce supposed to sit off the fire before putting it on the cauliflower? I think that should be added to the instructions, because in my case the sauce was done simmering at the same time as the cauliflower was done cooking for the second time, so it didn’t have inherent time to sit.

    Anyway, I will definitely make this again, but with only half the sauce and letting it sit longer. It’s really good.

    Reply

  16. I made this tonight and loved it. I was out of sesame seeds so I put hemp seeds for a little protein and it was a HIT at our home. Thank you for sharing :)

    Reply

  17. I made this recipe the other day and have to agree with the other commenters who said the breading became soggy once the sauce was added. While it was still delicous, the texture wasn’t the greatest. In the future, I’ll most likely broil the cauliflower until crispy and toss in the sauce instead. I will say though, the sauce was PHENOMENAL! I could eat the sauce by itself.

    Reply

  18. I made this last night. It was a hit here. next time i might try it with brown sugar instead of maple syrup just because its a little cheaper. I also added broccoli to this and it was still very tasty. I can see this turning out well with a chicken like setian.

    Reply

    • You should be okay with a regular old pan if you’ve got it well oiled. If you’re still having trouble you could try something nonstick like a cast iron skillet, or you could lay down a sheet of parchment inside your pan.

      Reply

  20. My maple syrup bill has gone up considerably since stumbling upon this fantastically delicious recipe. We are enjoying it so much, we’ve made it a good 3-4 times in the last 2 weeks. Thanks!

    Reply

  22. This reminds me of honey-chili cauliflower or mushrooms which is usually served as an appetizer or starter in many INDO-CHINESE restaurants in India. Only thing that i don’t like about that dish is frying part. I am definitely going to try this recipe in your way. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

    • Thanks so much! I haven’t tried it with frozen cauliflower, but I think it would work. The recipe might require a little tinkering as far as cook time and such. If you give it a try please let me know how it works out! :)

      Reply

  28. Just tried it yesterday and it was sooooooooo tasty!!!!!!! Only i did`t need the cornstarch, it was thick enough without :-) Thanks for the great recipe!

    Reply

  29. I made this the other night and while the sauce turned out really well, the cauliflower wasn’t great. The batter was really thick and despite cooking the cauliflower at a slightly higher temperature and for longer than suggested, the crust wasn’t super crispy and then tossing it with the sauce made it even soggier. I would make the sauce again but I would try doing the cauliflower differently. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  30. Made this last night and found batter to be a bit heavy- i will use almond flour or something lighter. I used 1/2 the maple syrup (calories) and 1 tsp sesame oil. Modified for me- but recipe was AMAZING!!!! Thank you for sharing:)

    Reply

  31. Thanks so much for this recipe! Ive made this for my mom’s boyfriends birthday tonight and everyone loved it!! At the end I was afraid the sauce wouldn’t become sticky as it was reaaaallly liquid…! but it became just fine; I stirred the cauliflowers with the sauce a lot and it became just like in your pictures! so yummy!

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • The sauce would be delicious on tofu, but you might be better off using a different cooking method for the tofu itself. Try rolling it in cornstarch and pan-frying – this recipe can give you some guidance. Enjoy!

      Reply

  35. This turned out amazing! OK I had to substitute a few things…. used cows milk insetad of almond, oat bran and plain flour (didn’t have wholewheat), and used honey instead of maple syrup. It worked just fine, wasn’t too complicated and I wish I’d made more! Thank you :)

    Reply

  36. Just had this delicious meal for dinner. Here are some suggestions…I used a cast iron skillet for cauliflower. After adding cornstarch to sauce I cooked till thickened. About 3 minutes. I left finished dish in oven till sticky and crispy. Used a metal spoon to scrape all crunchy bits off bottom when serving. Sauce and bottom crispies so yummy!!! Thanks for recipe!

    Reply

  38. I made this the lazy way. I just threw the chopped cauliflower in my cast iron skillet and browned it in a little coconut oil, then added the sauce and stirred in a little gluten-free flour. I skipped the milk and coating the cauliflower. It was amazing and tasted just like the real deal! My whole family loved it!!

    Reply

  40. Halfed the recipe and made it for two! Used white flour because it’s all I had and it was absolutely delicious!

    Reply

  43. I made this and it came out amazingly delicious! Wow I will be making this again and again. It’s one of my favorite vegan recipes. I used Spelt flour instead and also used grapeseed oil instead of sesame oil since I didn’t have any sesame oil on hand and it still came out insanely good. Very happy I found this recipe.

    Reply

  45. Ok…something went really wrong for me. First, I’d like to say that it was delicious. Love a good soy-ginger-garlic sauce. Such a great combo. But not only did my dish not look at all like your picture, my cauliflower was mushy instead of crispy. I followed the recipe to the letter. My batter came out very thin and didn’t coat my pieces well. My sauce came out good except that it never got any thicker and when I poured it over the cauliflower, it just dripped over it and a lot of it ended up in the pan. My end result was mush but very tasty florets. I have no idea why everything was so watery. I followed the recipe to the letter.

    Thanks for any help.

    Reply

    • I’m sorry to hear that! The only thing I can think of is to check your oven temperature. It needs to be super hot for the sauce to thicken up, and if it’s a few degrees too cool I could see it not working.

      Reply

  46. I love making (and eating!) a fried version of this so was excited to try a baked variation. However, like many other commenters the cauliflower just wouldn’t crisp up even though I gave it a good bit of extra time, the batter pooled on the sheet despite adding extra corn flour, and the sauce wouldn’t thicken even after 10 minutes longer on the hob. I ended up with a tasty enough dish but no trace of batter, no crunch, and no stickiness! Going to stick with fried when I want to eat this dish I guess!

    Reply

  47. Just made the recipie above and feel really satisfied by the result.
    I use to be very cautious with internet recipies cause most of them are not correct.
    Did not happen with this one though!
    Thanks for sharing this exotic touch to my cook book!!

    Reply

  48. I made this once and my kids and I loved it!!
    Making for a second time but I didn’t realize I was out of rice vinegar :-( what can I substitute?
    Thanks!!!

    Reply

  49. I made this tonight and doubled the recipe so I could have leftovers and I only have a few measly pieces left because it was SO good! My five-year-old son was very skeptical at first, but he tried the sauce on rice and then dug in (both daughters had no hesitation). Even my very carnivorous hubby loved it! My batter stuck to the cauliflower perfectly and only pulled off in tiny spots on the ones where I was impatiently flipping. The sauce was absolutely perfect. I think I might try to roast a pan of broccoli next time without batter and kick up the heat in the sauce for a play on General Tso’s. Thank you, Alissa! Love it! :)

    Reply

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