This Sticky Lemon Cauliflower Recipe is tangy, crunchy and so delicious! It’s baked in the oven and coated with an easy homemade lemon sauce.
Raise your hand if you love lemons?! Lemon is by far my favorite kind of citrus and I use it in so many things. It’s great for a cleansing cup of lemon water in the morning, an ingredient in a homemade tangy salad dressing and it just so happens to be what inspired this Sticky Lemon Cauliflower recipe!
This recipe is adapted from my Vegan Orange Chicken Recipe that I make all the time. It’s the same idea of coating the cauliflower in batter and Panko, baking it and then tossing it with this zippy lemon sauce.
What You’ll Need For This Sticky Lemon Cauliflower Recipe
- Cauliflower – The cauliflower is the main part of this recipe! It has a nice soft, slightly meaty texture and mild flavor so it is a great vehicle for the lemon sauce. I like to use a medium sized head of white cauliflower.
- Batter – The batter is made of just all purpose flour, pain almond milk and a few seasonings. It’s nice and thick and really coats the cauliflower.
- Panko – Panko is the best kind of breadcrumb to use for this sticky lemon cauliflower because it gets to crispy. If you don’t have panko on hand you can use any other kind of breadcrumb or even crushed up crackers.
- Lemon Sauce – This lemon sauce is very similar to my Healthy Orange Sauce, just with a few tweaks. Lemons aren’t nearly as sweet as oranges so I had to make a few changes to make sure it wasn’t too tart!
I love this recipe because it’s really not that hard to make, it’s made with healthy ingredients and my family happens to love it! The rest of my family are meat eaters and this lemon cauliflower is so close to the lemon chicken that you would get at a Chinese restaurant that they hardly even notice it’s made from cauliflower! For anyone who is not a fan of cauliflower, it really doesn’t taste like it at all, but it’s a great way to pack in extra veggies!
How To Serve Your Lemon Cauliflower
I served mine over white basmati rice because that is what my family likes. You could also serve it over any other type of rice or grain that your family prefers: brown rice, black rice, quinoa, farro, buckwheat or barley. You could also serve over cauliflower rice, but that might be a little too much cauliflower haha! I also enjoyed mine with a drizzle of tahini over it. That may sound strange but tahini and lemon go together so well, it just made sense to me!
Enjoy more delicious cauliflower recipes here:
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Sticky Lemon Cauliflower
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Sticky Lemon Cauliflower is tangy, crispy and delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 medium sized head cauliflower
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup plain, unsweetened almond milk, or other plant based milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 cups panko breadcrumbs
- Optional garnishes: sesame seeds, sliced green onion, cilantro, lemon wedges
- Lemon Sauce Recipe:
- 1/3 cup lemon juice juice, I like to use fresh squeezed
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons water
- 1/3 cup low sodium tamari or soy sauce
- 1/3 cup toasted sesame oil
- 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 3 teaspoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F. Cut the cauliflower into small to medium sized florets. The smaller they are, the crispier they will get.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and almond milk. Add all the cauliflower to the bowl and mix until each floret is coated in batter.
- Next, pour one cup of the panko over the cauliflower, mix and then pour the remaining up in. Mix until cauliflower is all coated with batter and panko.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick mat and lay cauliflower out. You want to make sure that it’s touching as little as possible and not piled on top of eachother. Bake cauliflower until crispy and starting to brown, 20 minutes, and then remove from oven.
- While cauliflower is baking, add all lemon sauce ingredients to a medium sized bowl and whisk. Pour into a saucepan and cook until thickened, 7-10 minutes.
- Pour about 3/4 of the sauce over the baked cauliflower and mix until combined. Place back into the oven for about 10 minutes, until crispy.
- Serve over rice, if desired, and spoon remaining lemon sauce over caulliflower just before serving. Garnish with sesame seeds, green onion and lemon wedges.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Dinner, Vegan
- Method: Stovetop, Oven
- Cuisine: Asian
This recipe is delicious! Cauliflower is perfect for this recipe….my new go to favourite 🙂
So glad you liked it!!
This was really really amazing. I could truly eat it every day. And that sauce! Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
can I replace the maple syrup with agave syrup? Maple syrup is nowhere to be found in France…..
Yes!
This was DELICIOUS, but it took me 1.5 hours! (including the time to make the breadcrumbs myself) Great for a one-time thing, but I can’t justify the time spent to make it again. Thanks for the great one-time experience, though. It really is very yummy. 🙂
This recipe is so delicious. I whipped it up one night for dinner and it was easy and not time consuming.
So glad to hear it!!
Could you use the sauce on just cooked noodles?
Yes!
We are big fans of your orange sauce, this on is absolutely delicious, too! Thanks for the great recipe.
this was wonderfully easy. I made the sauce as directed but I wasn’t heavy-handed in mixing it in, so i had leftover extra which kept in a sealed glass container for a few days waiting for me to make my 2nd batch of cauliflower later in the week – i kept the veg and the sauce separated and mixed the sauce in as needed.
I didn’t do extra rice or noodles but added some rotisserie chicken and mixed it in for a tasty go-to meal. I also used 1/2 c panko. for my second batch of cauliflower, I decreased flour (I used almond flour and unsweetened almond mik) to 1/2 c and 1/2 panko – to keep my carbs a bit lower. DELISH – many thanks for sharing this recipe with us. I love your postings.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Opened my email this morning, had all the ingredients but I was wary. Went ahead and made this for dinner and mixed in a batch of crispy tofu and everyone loved it!!!! A real winner. Thank you!!! Oh, I didn’t bake at the end with sauce, just tossed it in after cooking.
So glad you gave it a try and enjoyed it!!
Do you think this would work with gluten free flour?
Yes!