Parmesan Cauliflower Bites
by Chungah
Crisp, crunchy cauliflower bites that even the pickiest of eaters will love – perfect as an appetizer or after school snack!
When it comes to snacking, I’ll munch on anything – donuts, chips, almonds, cookies – you name it. And since I work from home and snack for pretty much every minute of every day, I just had to find a way to sneak in some veggie snacking, like these cauliflower bites.
Now I’m all for veggies but I can’t just snack on raw cauliflower. I could, but I’d really rather not. So instead, I did something bad. Like really, really, really bad.
I tossed them in a light Parmesan coating and deep fried them to absolute crisp perfection. And then I dipped them in Ranch. And then I devoured every last one of them. Seriously, even the pickiest of eaters will want to lick the plate clean!
At least I’m getting my daily serving of vegetables with these, right?
Parmesan Cauliflower Bites
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup Panko*
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 tablespoon Emeril's Essence Creole Seasoning
- 4 cups cauliflower florets
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs, beaten
Instructions
- Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- In a large bowl, combine Panko, Parmesan and Emeril’s Essence; set aside.
- Working in batches, dredge cauliflower in flour, dip into eggs, then dredge in Panko mixture, pressing to coat.
- Add cauliflower to the skillet, 5 or 6 at a time, and cook until evenly golden and crispy, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I have a cauliflower sitting in my fridge right now! Do you think it would turn out ok if I baked it instead of frying it?
Yes, baking it would be just fine!
30-35 minutes at 425 degrees.. made this last night and it is FANTASTIC! My fiance and I could not get enough!!
Thank you for this Stephanie!! I was just going to ask if these could be baked like the asparagus with panko. Now, I will make them!!!!
Sylvia, I’m so glad you asked this about baking because I was going to and decided to read through the comments to see if anyone else addressed it. I’d love for anyone who has done so to comment on how they turned out.
These are going on my list to make asap – they look soooo good!!
What a delicious way to eat cauliflower. Love it.
I love cauliflower, I would devour these bites!
Dang! They look good! You are so good at capturing the beauty of food. Looks delicious. Pinned!
Have a beautiful weekend!
LOVES IT!! This is how I eat my veggies, too!! 😀
This looks great, always looking for ways to get more veggies in. I am realizing just how many recipes I pin on Pinterest that are from your blog, and I just did one of those V-8 head slap moments and said, “I need to just follow this blog!” 🙂 Looking forward to seeing more of your recipes!
I was the same and now I follow this blog too. I love all of Chung-Ah’s recipes.
Great recipe Chung-Ah!
I going to substitute canola with cold pressed grape seed oil as it has a high smoke-point and a mild flavor and can be used for just about any fried dish. Try it, I think you will like it.
Read up a little more on grapeseed oil, it’s one of the worst oils you can consume. It shocked me how unhealthy it is.
That’s odd. I have read just the opposite. Grapeseed oil is supposed to be full of antioxidants. What have you heard?
Grapeseed vs. Rapeseed. Rapeseed is canola oil which is terrible to consume.
Grapeseed oil is absolutely fine; it’s rapeseed oil that is terrible, being a type of poisonous oil (it’s used in such things as machinery, it’s so inedible). It’s unfortunate the two names are so extremely close to each other in spelling.
Grapeseed Oil is not absolutely fine. Seriously, do your research. The only real “healthy” oils are Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Coconut Oil (unrefined), and butter.
I have been using Grapeseed Oil instead of Olive Oil because of the claims that it is healthy. Thank you for bring to my attention that I need to read up about it. It seems that Grapeseed Oil is not healthy, in fact it is very bad for you. Best oils are Olive Oil and Coconut Oil and of course butter. P.S. recipe looks wonderful, thanks for posting…
I also use Macadamia nut oil – very healthy and tastes great!
Avocado oil is great for frying and healthy. I use it when I want a neutral flavored oil. Regarding Canola oil, it has been bred since the 70’s to have much less erucic acid than the original rapeseed oil. In its current form, it’s not bad for you in itself, but most is GMO, like the soybean oil. So I avoid it. It looks like the only thing in grapeseed oil that is negative is more Omega 6 than other oils and it could affect inflammation. But it does have some positive things as well.
Love your recipes, but wondering if you could include the Nutrition value in them…
Thanks!
Unfortunately, as I am not a registered dietician, I am not comfortable sharing nutritional information of my recipes. Please use online resources to obtain such information.
If you enter the recipe into a calorie logging site such as http://www.loseit.com, it will calculate the values for you!
Can I use Rice flour instead of all-purpose flour?
We can’t answer with certainty since we haven’t tried this ourselves. Please use your best judgement regarding modifications and substitutions.
Not sure if you have tried rice flour, but I was just at a restaurant that had a similar recipe to this one on their appetizer list and they used rice flour! I can’t eat wheat so I am going to try it!
The good balances the bad, right? 😉 LOVE this recipe, Chung-Ah! Pure deliciousness. Thank you for sharing!
You’re never going to believe this but today on my run, I was dreaming about….cauliflower recipes. I love the stuff. So much. But I thought what could I make with it that would be unique and baked cauli tots came into my head. Lightly breaded and then baked. Guess I won’t be making those now b/c there is nothing that could top your recipe!!! AMAZING!
Baked cauli tots sounds AMAZING! I hope you still make it because that’s something I would devour 🙂
Have to watch the fat. I will bake, shud taste as good.