Baked General Tso’s Cauliflower – Hot, Sticky, and Sweet

The Beard and I are two completely different beings when it comes to vegetables. He loves vegetables of all types. I stick to peas and corn. He likes them raw, while the only raw veggie that I’ll touch is a spinach salad covered in copious amounts of dressing and frozen corn or peas, and none of those options really count.  But I’ve tried to bust out of my food rut and eat more things that I normally wouldn’t touch, and I’ve discovered the joys of substituting cauliflower for anything and everything.  Fried rice? Amazing. Buffalo wings? Delicious. As a result, when The Beard suggested that we try this, I was excited. Fake chicken covered in a sticky, slightly spicy, slightly sweet sauce? Count me in.

You in?  Let’s do this.  We’ll start with the cauliflower.

The Cauliflower

Preheat your oven to 450°F.  You’re going to start with a head of cauliflower and cut it up into 1-2″ florets.  You want to have about 4-5 cups of florets for the recipe.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the cornstarch, baking soda, salt, white pepper, and sesame oil with 3/4 cup of the rice flower.  Next, add water gradually and stir until a you get a crumbly, loose, gritty batter.  You want it more like a moist, powdery coating and not a thin batter.  Think wet beach sand: dry, but still sticky and damp.

Once you’ve made your cauli-coating, toss in the florets and mix with batter until they’re evenly coated.  At that point, sprinkle the remaining rice flour over the florets and mix so that all the dry flour gets sucked up by the batter, making it even more powdery.

Arrange cauliflower on the backing rack, leaving space between the florets.  Cook on the center rack of your oven for 25-30 minutes, until they get brown and crispy.  We started to smell it after 20 minutes, and it was nicely browned after 30 minutes.

The Sauce

Once you start smelling the cauliflower, it isn’t much longer in the oven, so start making the sauce.  In large saucepan, mix the chicken stock, sesame oil, soy sauce, and vinegar.  Stir in ginger, garlic, chili pepper flakes, and sugar, and bring to a simmer over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Just before you take the cauliflower out of the oven, mix the cornstarch and cold water and pour into simmering sauce, stirring constantly until it has thickened, then remove it from the heat.  Now, add the baked cauliflower to the saucepan and gently mix it with the sauce until completely coated with the sauce.   Garnish with green onion or sesame seeds if you’d like, or dip it in some hot Chinese mustard, but it’s a damned good dish by itself.  We paired it with the potstickers, but it would be tasty with our honey Sriracha tofu as well!

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Baked General Tso's Cauliflower

All of the flavor, none of the guilt!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian

Keyword cauliflower, general tso, spicy

Servings 4

Ingredients

For the cauliflower:

• 1 small head cauliflower (about 4-5 cups of florets)
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• pinch of white pepper
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup rice flour

For the sauce:

• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp garlic finely minced
• 2 tsps chili pepper flakes or to taste
• ½ tsp sesame oil
• 1½ tbsps light soy sauce
• 2 tsps rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsps sugar
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water

Instructions

To make the cauliflower

1. Preheat oven to 450F, and spray a baking rack with cooking spray.

2. Cut the cauliflower into 1- to 2-inch chunks. In a bowl, mix the cornstarch, baking soda, salt, white pepper, and sesame oil with 3/4 cup of the rice flower.  Add water gradually and stir until a you get a crumbly, almost gritty batter.  You want it to be more like a moist, powdery coating rather than a thin batter.  Think wet beach sand.

   

3. Toss in the cauliflower and mix with batter until it is evenly coated.  At that point, sprinkle the remaining rice flower over the cauliflower and mix so that all the dry flour is sucked up by the batter.
   

4. Arrange cauliflower on the backing rack, leaving space between the florets.  Cook on the center rack of your oven for 25-30 minutes, until the cauliflower brown and crispy.  We started to smell it after 20 minutes, and it was nicely browned after 30 minutes.

   

To make the sauce

1. In large saucepan, mix chicken stock, sesame oil, soy sauce, and vinegar.  Stir in ginger, garlic, chili pepper flakes, and sugar, and bring to a simmer over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally.

   

2. Mix cornstarch and cold water and pour into simmering sauce, stirring constantly until it has thickened.  Now, add the baked cauliflower to the saucepan and gently mix it with the sauce until completely coated with the sauce.  

   

3. Garnish with green onion or sesame seeds if desired, and serve immediately.

   

The Tart

The Tart likes to eat, cook, and bake things.  She eats to work out, and she works out to be able to eat.