These bang bang cauliflower tacos are so light and crispy! If you are looking to change up your taco night, these crunchy florets are a nice change. Serve with mandolined cabbage, creamy avocado and fresh herbs for a twist on tacos. Serve with creamy and tangy bang bang sauce to pull everything together and add a touch of zing and spice.
What are bang bang cauliflower tacos?
I’ve made a baked version of Bang Bang Cauliflower before. These bang bang cauliflower tacos are similar. You can use the baked version or this deep-fried version. You can alternatively serve the florets and sauce as an appetizer or pile them onto a sandwich or burger.
How to serve these tacos
Pairing these rich and heavy florets with crisp and clean cabbage and herbs strikes a perfect balance while the bang bang sauce pulls it all together. Warm your tortillas and serve!
Tips for deep frying
In order to deep fry successfully, your oil has to be the right temperature, around 350 degrees. You can use a deep-fry thermometer, but you can also check it with a chopstick!
- Place several inches of oil (use a neutral-tasting oil, like grapeseed, canola or vegetable oil) into a cast-iron or other medium-sized, heavy pot. You don’t want to overcrowd your pot.
- Heat, uncovered, over medium-high heat.
- After about 7 minutes, test your oil. Place a clean, dry wooden chopstick into the pot so it touches the bottom.
- If bubbles form around the chopstick immediately, you are ready to fry. If not, wait another minute and try again.
- Don’t overcrowd your pot. You want the items you are frying to move around a bit. If they cannot move around, they’ll stick together (bad) and bring down the temperature of your oil (also bad), which will make your food oily and soggy (super bad).
- Take your time and fry in small batches.
- Hit your food with a touch of salt immediately after it comes out of the fryer.
- Line a cookie sheet with a cookie rack and transfer to that in a single layer as you are frying.
- Transferring food to a paper towel is also okay, but can sometimes get a little soggy on the bottom.
- After you are done frying, move your pot of oil to another burner that’s off and allow it to cool completely.
- You can then transfer the oil to a container and store in your refrigerator.
- When you are ready to use it again, allow it to come to room temperature before adding it to a pot.
- The oil can be reused 2-3 times before discarding.
To change up your taco night, check out these ideas!
- Oyster Mushroom Tacos
- Koreatown Tacos
- Crispy Hearts of Palm Tacos
- Beer Battered Hearts of Palm Tacos
- Roasted Smoky Cauliflower Tacos
Love cauliflower? Check out these recipes that use cauliflower!
- Firecracker Cauliflower
- General Tso’s Cauliflower
- Gobi Manchurian
- Cauliflower Jerky
- Air Fried Buffalo Cauliflower Steaks
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Bang Bang Cauliflower Tacos
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These bang bang cauliflower tacos are crispy and crunchy, and perfect for tucking into a taco. Serve with mandolined cabbage, creamy avocado and fresh herbs with a drizzle of bang bang sauce to mix up your taco night!
Ingredients
for the batter
- 1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
- 2/3 cup cornstarch
- 1 TB + 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 cups beer (use a strong IPA for best results)
- canola, vegetable or grapeseed oil, for frying
for the cauliflower
- 1 small head cauliflower, chopped into small, bited-sized florets
for the bang bang sauce
- 1 cup vegan mayo
- 1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
- 2 TB sriracha
- juice from one lime
to serve
- mandolined cabbage
- sliced avocado
- chopped cilantro
- chopped scallions
- warmed tortillas
Instructions
to prepare the cauliflower
- Place the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Combine, then slowly pour in the beer. Gently stir until just combined, do not overmix. Set aside for 20 minutes.
- When you are ready to fry, place several inches of grapeseed or vegetable oil into a small cast iron pot. Heat over medium-high heat for about 7 minutes, or until it reaches 350 degrees. You can also insert a chopstick into the oil, touching the bottom of the pot. If bubbles form or sizzle around the chopstick immediately, you are ready to fry.
- Working in small batches, lightly dust the cauliflower florets with some of the flour in a large bowl. Throw a handful of the florets into the batter with your hands and move around until evenly coated. The batter will be a little goopy.
- Add the florets carefully to the hot oil, one at a time. Do not overcrowd the pot, or your florets will stick together and get mushy. Fry until golden brown, just a few minutes, flipping it around using a spider skimmer.
- Transfer fried florets to a cookie sheet with a cooling rack while you finish frying the rest of the batches.
to finish
- Combine all of the bang bang sauce ingredients together, set aside.
- Serve as desired in warmed tortillas, in a burger or sandwich, or just dip the fried florets into the sauce as an app.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Lunch, Dinner
- Method: Battered, Deep Fried
- Cuisine: Chinese
Carol says
I can’t wait to try the recipe
Linda says
My husband and I loved this recipe! It was SO delicious. My only comment (and there might be a reason why) is that this made much more batter than I needed. If it made 2.5 cups of batter, I probably used .75 cup. I used a whole small head of cauliflower as instructed. It just felt wasteful to throw away so much batter.
Thank you for this delicious recipe!
erinwyso says
Linda, I’m glad you loved the recipe, thanks for your kind words. I am not sure why there was so much batter left over, that is a lot! I’m planning to make this again soon, so I’ll look at the measurements and adjust accordingly so there is less waste. Thanks for letting me know!