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    Home » Recipes » sandwiches

    buffalo cauliflower sandwich

    Jump to Recipe
    buffalo cauliflower sandwich_hot for food

    I know you love the recipe for cauliflower buffalo wings, but now I've kicked it up a notch. I think you'll probably keel over after trying one bite of this buffalo cauliflower sandwich with creamy ranch.

    It's nearly the exact same recipe as the cauliflower buffalo wings so you should be good to go, but just in case, there's a fun "how to" video at the bottom of this post for some inspo... and to make ya drool!

    If you have a copy of Vegan Comfort Classics: 101 Recipes to Feed Your Face, then you know about the suped-up version of the buffalo cauliflower. It adds panko breadcrumbs on the outside after battering it all up! Don't forget that essential step. It makes this buffalo cauliflower super crunchy.

    buffalo cauliflower sandwich_hot for food

    buffalo cauliflower sandwich

    You're going to love this lighter twist on a buffalo chicken and ranch sandwich... drool!
    4.26 from 35 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Main Course, sandwiches
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: buffalo cauliflower, buffalo sauce, cauliflower, ranch, sandwiches
    Prep Time: 25 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes
    Servings: 2 large sandwiches
    Calories: 456kcal
    Author: Lauren Toyota

    Ingredients

    cauliflower steaks

    • 1 head of cauliflower
    • ½ C nondairy milk
    • ½ C water
    • ¾ C all-purpose flour (can substitute gluten free rice flour)
    • 2 teaspoon garlic powder
    • 2 teaspoon onion powder
    • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
    • 1 teaspoon ground paprika
    • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
    • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
    • 1 tablespoon vegan butter
    • ½ C Frank's RedHot sauce

    ranch sauce

    • ½ C vegan mayonnaise
    • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
    • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill
    • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley
    • 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
    • ½ teaspoon onion powder
    • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
    • sea salt & ground black pepper, to taste

    Instructions

    • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 450°F.
    • Trim off any green leaves at the base of the cauliflower, but leave most of the stem in tact. Cut the head of cauliflower in half and then cut 2-inch x ½-inch steaks from each of the inside sides. You can use the remaining cauliflower to make buffalo wings or just use it in another recipe like my mushroom sage cauliflower risotto. Roasting it in the oven with sea salt, ground black pepper, and olive oil is delicious, too!
    • Mix the flour, nondairy milk, water, spices, sea salt, and ground black pepper in a mixing bowl with a whisk until well combined. Transfer this mixture to a wide shallow baking dish that will fit your cauliflower steaks. Dredge the steaks through the batter and use your hands to coat them quite well, getting in all the crevices. Place the battered cauliflower steaks onto the parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the ranch sauce and buffalo sauce.
    • In a bowl, whisk all the ingredients together for the ranch. Refrigerate until you're ready to assemble the sandwiches.
    • Just before the cauliflower is finished baking, melt the vegan butter and whisk it into the hot sauce in a shallow dish you can dredge the cauliflower steaks in once again.
    • Remove the cauliflower from the oven. You may want to let them cool so you can handle them. You might need to replace your parchment paper if it's really soaked through or burned quite a bit.
    • Dredge the cauliflower steaks through the buffalo sauce, making sure to coat them evenly. Bake again on a parchment lined baking sheet for 25 minutes.
    • To assemble the sandwiches, spread ranch on both sides of a toasted kaiser, then lay down the buffalo cauliflower steak on the bottom, add red onion slices, lettuce, and thick cut tomato slices.

    Notes

    You could cut the cauliflower steaks in half to make 4 smaller, slider style sandwiches.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 456kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 42g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.03g | Sodium: 2534mg | Potassium: 200mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 1006IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 110mg | Iron: 2mg

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    Reader Interactions

    Lauren Toyota vegan chef of hot for food

    Lauren Toyota

    Lauren is a plant-based powerhouse, a former TV host turned wildly successful food creator, best-selling cookbook author, and the woman responsible for making vegan comfort food a thing worth craving. Through her blog and YouTube channel, hot for food, she’s amassed a dedicated following by recreating all the nostalgic, indulgent dishes we love—mac & cheese, burgers, cinnamon rolls—but making them entirely plant-based. No compromise on taste, no weird ingredients, just damn good food.

    Comments

    1. Kristen

      February 05, 2015 at 3:07 pm

      I've got a whole head of cauliflower in the fridge but I'm just one person! Do you think there is a way to make these ahead and keep in the fridge? I'm thinking that it might be possible to put in the fridge after the first bake and then do the second bake when I'm ready to eat, what do you think?

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        February 05, 2015 at 3:29 pm

        Hey Kristen
        We have made them and then refrigerated them. We reheat them in the oven or a pan again and it's fine, but they might lose their crispiness a little. It's not like they're really really crispy when you bake them the first time anyway but they will seem a little soggier. I'm totally fine with it though and they taste amazing still! You could also make buffalo cauliflower steaks for sandwiches if you wanted to use more cauliflower at once. Check our site for that recipe too but it's essentially the same in steak form!

      • Kristen

        February 13, 2015 at 7:12 pm

        Great, thanks!

      • Kathia

        July 29, 2020 at 1:18 am

        Made this tonight. It was SO GOOD and delicious. Used my Airfryer and they came out so crispy and in half the time too! Definitely making this again

      • Lauren Toyota

        August 07, 2020 at 12:13 am

        nice! good to know about the air fryer 😀 thanks for sharing!

    2. sara

      February 19, 2015 at 12:10 am

      Made these tonight. OMG so YUMMY!!!!!

      Reply
    3. Michelle (partiesiheart)

      February 22, 2015 at 3:28 am

      Um, wow. Made this tonight and it totally hit the spot! Recently started eating vegan in this is a recipe that convinces me that it's all going to be ok 🙂

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        February 22, 2015 at 9:22 pm

        yes! We love to hear that. Glad you enjoyed the recipe and hope you try some others 🙂

    4. hermosamama

      March 08, 2015 at 10:34 am

      My husband made these tonight and they were as delicious as the picture! Thank you for such a great idea and recipe. Will be making again and again....We didn't have fresh dill or chives; used cilantro and fennel to the vegan mayo and it still had a nice herby flavor. Thank you!! Looking forward to trying more recipes of yours.

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        March 10, 2015 at 8:06 pm

        that's amazing! Glad you enjoyed the recipe and thanks for checking us out 🙂

    5. Eliza

      March 17, 2015 at 7:17 pm

      i don't have a lot of experience cooking so my question may be a little naive but frank's red hot sauce won't be easy to get where i live and there's also the thing with me not being a fan of spicy foods. do you think i could just skip it? or perhaps use a different sauce?

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        March 23, 2015 at 5:02 pm

        Hi Eliza
        Yes you can definitely use any sauce you want really. BBQ or honey garlic... anything goes. You could even do a little lemon juice and ground pepper and sea salt. Yum! Let us know what you try and how you like it. Even snap a pic and share it with us on instagram or twitter!

        Thanks so much!

      • Alison

        May 23, 2019 at 3:26 pm

        I made this and didn't really want it covered in buffalo sauce, so I didn't do that. However, when I was eating the sandwich, I thought it needed a little bit of zip, so I shook a few sprinkles of hot sauce on top and it was perfect.

    6. Kat

      April 13, 2015 at 8:14 pm

      Made these sandwiches for my parents for dinner last night ... the first warm spring evening in Southern Ontario! We barbecued the cauliflower instead of baking it, and added vegan ketchup to the buffalo sauce before brushing it over the cauliflower steaks on the grill. Everything turned out absolutely amazing, and we served the steaks on spelt toast with spinach, avocado/guacamole, and shredded carrot. Thank you for another wonderful recipe!

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        April 14, 2015 at 3:38 pm

        on the bbq sounds amazing! we'll have to give it a try this summer 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing your experience!

    7. Starr

      April 28, 2015 at 2:50 am

      1 word...AMAZING. i will be making this again and again and again. It was also super easy to make.

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        April 28, 2015 at 3:53 am

        so glad to hear that! thank you! If you happen to take a pic of it next time we'd love to see on instagram or twitter 🙂

    8. Andrea

      June 01, 2015 at 3:15 am

      I made these for dinner tonight. There was a chorus of OMGs going around the table, and I was told I "hit it out of the park". I will be sure to look for more of your recipes. Thank you!

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        June 02, 2015 at 1:39 am

        That's awesome! Thanks for sharing that with us. We home you'll enjoy more from our blog 🙂

    9. Mary

      June 07, 2015 at 5:39 pm

      Hi, I just made these for my husband and they were great, but very hot, like burn your face off hot!!! I used Tabasco sauce and next time, I don't think we'll use as much.

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        June 08, 2015 at 3:09 pm

        Oh isn't tabasco WAY hotter than Frank's? John loves it with Frank's but I myself find it too spicy. I usually cut it with a BBQ sauce. Try some other flavours maybe. Thanks for checking us out!

    10. Jamie

      August 30, 2015 at 2:25 am

      Just made these...Delicious!! So glad I found your blog! Can't wait to try more recipes 🙂

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        September 09, 2015 at 12:13 am

        thank YOU! We appreciate the comment and happy you're cooking our recipes 🙂

      • Lauren Toyota

        October 04, 2015 at 12:06 pm

        awesome! Thanks so much for checking us out!

    11. Jennifer

      November 19, 2015 at 7:08 am

      Is there a printer friendly version for these recipes??

      Reply
    12. RagTagMags

      January 07, 2016 at 8:30 pm

      I've made the cauliflower wings with this batter and LOVED them, I ate the whole head. I'm curious if this batter would work for onion rings, and I guess I will just have to give 'er a go!

      Reply
    13. Rochelle

      January 15, 2016 at 6:11 am

      I'm in love with your blog and videos! I'm addicted to looking at all of the recipes there are. I noticed there are a few recipes that require vegan mayo. I've never had this and I don't want to go buy just any kind. What do you use? Or can you recommend a good vegan mayo I can buy? Thanks so much!

      Reply
    14. Bryan Fly

      January 22, 2016 at 6:23 pm

      I just made these and they are amazing! Thank you 🙂

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        January 26, 2016 at 7:24 pm

        awesome! Thanks for sharing 🙂

    15. Courtney Jackson

      February 17, 2016 at 10:21 pm

      whoa...

      Reply
    16. Jessica Gill

      March 20, 2016 at 6:05 pm

      Cannot wait to try this, I have been craving a burger for a while now!!! Do you know if there is anything you could substitute the vegan butter for? Say coconut oil? (I have all the ingredients but the vegan butter! >.<) Thank you for inspiring me with all these creative recipes, and showing that a vegan diet is not restrictive but fun! And allows you to push the boundaries with all the interesting (and freaking delicious) meals you can create! <3

      Reply
    17. Amelia Stovall

      April 16, 2016 at 9:00 pm

      Hot for Food never disappoint! U BOTH SLAY!

      Reply
    18. Janell Reid

      April 30, 2016 at 3:58 am

      Had these tonight, followed recipe verbatim. They were delicious! Vegan burgers are hit or miss for me! These were definitely a hit in my household. My son loved it and had no idea I used cauliflower. Seriously yummy! The ranch (i like to say dill) sauce made it. Such a perfect balance with the buffalo sauce and to think I almost used a blue cheese dressing instead! Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
    19. Lila Jones

      May 07, 2016 at 6:46 pm

      Ok I usually never comment, but I do like to go through the recipes on your blog, but oh man, this burger is probably one of the best tasting things that I've ever tried! I can't even tell it's cauliflower, it tastes like very-very tender meat (at least to me). I used the vegan mayo instead of ranch and I substituted lettuce with spinach, but the taste was simply AMAZING! I never thought I'd enjoy vegan food so much! Thank you for this amazingly delicious recipe! Keep em coming 🙂

      Reply
    20. Lauren

      June 19, 2016 at 11:58 pm

      This was absolutely fantastic! 100% will make again - many, many times!

      Reply
    21. HV

      June 21, 2016 at 8:46 am

      Thanks so much for this recipe! It turned out delicious!! I also used the same batter and a wee bit of hot sauce on tiny cubes of firm tofu and it tasted like ground meat!

      Reply
    22. christine

      August 05, 2016 at 3:42 am

      I made this for dinner and it was so delicious. I had small hamburger buns so I halved the steaks and made mini sandwiches. I made wings with the extra cauliflower which I will be devouring tomorrow. Thanks for another awesome recipe! (PS: open a restaurant, preferably in the States)

      Reply
    23. Karoline

      August 07, 2016 at 6:59 pm

      Wow!! I just finished my dinner with these buffalo "steaks", and they are truuuuuuly AMAZING! I made my own hot sauce and and used wholewheat flour instead of regular, and Gosh, I was in vegan food heaven 😍😇🙏🏼

      Reply
    24. Scott

      August 08, 2016 at 12:59 am

      Just finished eating this and I have to say this is one of the most amazing recipes I have made in a while, So nice to find a vegan recipe that is a change of pace. Many thanks I'm new to your content and look forward to trying other recipes.

      Reply
    25. Cece Simpson

      August 11, 2016 at 7:28 am

      So the Kaiser roll is vegan ?!?

      Reply
    26. Tracey

      August 11, 2016 at 11:13 pm

      I just finished this for dinner and I must say this was the best vegan sandwich I have ever made. I absolutely love your recipes!

      Reply
    27. Theresa Allen

      August 25, 2016 at 6:23 pm

      I want to print this out

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        September 02, 2016 at 2:46 pm

        there is a small PRINT RECIPE button at the bottom of the recipe entries

    28. Jennifer Keas

      August 27, 2016 at 12:00 am

      THIS was AMAZING!!!! I opted for store bough buffalo sauce but holy cow.... It was so good! The texture of the cauliflower was spot on and the seasoning gave it umph. In love!

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        September 02, 2016 at 2:45 pm

        sometimes store bought buffalo sauce contains butter. just FYI, unless you're not vegan! Thank you!

    29. Jill

      September 05, 2016 at 7:19 pm

      Thank you. My husband who doesnt like cauliflower enjoyed it and my sister in law and I loved it. Even my 14 year old son liked it.

      Reply
    30. Melissa

      September 08, 2016 at 9:25 pm

      I'm not one to write comments on recipes and I really should. I made this last night and it is AMAZING. Thank you so much for the great recipes!

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        September 12, 2016 at 12:39 am

        so AWESOME! THanks for sharing that 😀

    31. Gina

      September 13, 2016 at 11:45 am

      Hi! All your recipes seem great. I just have one question - I live in Europe and I have no idea what "frank's red hot sauce" is - would a regular hot sauce like sriracha work?

      Reply
      • Rob

        October 07, 2016 at 3:47 pm

        Hi Gina: Okay I am not affliliated at all with Hot For Food but I wanted to let you know that Frank's Red is a brand here in North America. Whatever hot sauce you have available should be fine. I'm sure Lauren and John will APPROVE my comment , right guys? =)

      • Lauren Toyota

        October 10, 2016 at 12:08 am

        I approve BUT frank's is the type of hot sauce used for hot wings, where as sriracha is going to be SUPER hot unless you cut it with something like maple syrup. So you could do a maple lime sriracha sauce or something. Just to cut the heat!

    32. Ash

      September 15, 2016 at 10:35 am

      This has turned out to be one of those 'too good to be true' recipes for me. The batter mostly dripped off and it hardened in an odd way - it peeled right off the bottom side of the cauliflower when I turned it over. I halved the recipe and used almond milk as the dairy-free milk, and I had to add extra flour because the mixture was very runny. The flavours were great but it just wasn't crispy and the temp was too hot for the cauliflower so the edges burnt slightly within the first 15 mins of cooking.

      Reply
    33. Ash

      September 15, 2016 at 10:53 am

      I just watched the cauliflower wings video which is pretty much this recipe but in a different form and my batter looked exactly the same. I did use parchment paper so I think the temperature must have been the issue. Maybe it was hot enough to burn the cauliflower but not hot enough for the batter? I have a gas oven, not fan forced.

      Reply
    34. Rob

      October 07, 2016 at 3:50 pm

      Hey guys, I'm about to make these today and was just wondering: do we REALLY need vegan butter? I don't have any on hand right now (ok Im a little lazy to go buy it right now lol).... Can I substitute it with anything else?

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        October 10, 2016 at 12:07 am

        its just how traditional wing sauce it made and adds flavour and helps the batter crisp up. But I know other people haven't used it before and it's still fine

    35. Emily

      December 23, 2016 at 4:44 am

      I made this tonight and it was outta-control-GOOD!!! I loveeee buffalo - but don't super love cauliflower - and this was major yum! I didn't have parchment paper so I used aluminum foil and it stuck pretty bad so when I put them back in for the sauce coating I did them on a wire rack and it turned out perfect.

      Reply
    36. Janele

      January 30, 2017 at 1:13 am

      These were amazing ! Thank you so much for this recipe !

      Reply
    37. Emma

      February 12, 2017 at 3:36 am

      I've made these three times now and third times the charm! The first two times I accidentally added the hot sauce and vegan butter into the batter, it would be helpful if you said all ingredients except those two for the batter so other people don't get confused. Now that I did it correctly it was a hit! Thanks for the recipe.

      Reply
      • Greta

        March 29, 2017 at 2:27 am

        ooo good to know!!

        -Greta
        http://www.mintyfrosting.com

    38. Johnynguyen

      April 04, 2017 at 7:38 am

      "Happiness is sharing ...", it is our emotions along the lines of your sharing. It's just words but we thank you for giving so much love to it, a shared spirit with the plight of the gangsters in the street and the ads. Workers at the time of New Year's Eve but still working diligently to wake up tomorrow will return the streets clean beautiful welcome the new year.
      http://oduvietnhat.com/xuong-san-xuat-o-du-cam-tay-che-nang-mua-qua-tang/

      Reply
    39. Nariel

      June 05, 2017 at 1:06 am

      I loved everything about this recipe! However, is the cauliflower supose to be soft or crunchy? was a bit mooshy 🙁

      Reply
    40. supliers

      June 19, 2017 at 9:47 am

      I love this type of dish with so much variety of ingredients, thanks for sharing this great contribution !!

      Reply
    41. Grace Carlson

      August 29, 2017 at 11:44 pm

      This is such a perfect flavor profile! My husband and I were blown away, thank you for such a great recipe!

      Reply
    42. One plus water

      November 21, 2017 at 10:58 am

      have you tried adding concentrate to some recipes?

      Reply
    43. veggie hi

      April 30, 2019 at 1:18 pm

      This post is old, but is the site broken? I don't actually see recipes on the site. This is what I see:

      buffalo cauliflower sandwich
      November 1, 2014
      In recipes
      Tags buffalo cauliflower, featured, gameday, meatless, ranch sauce, sandwiches, vegan mayo
      you might also like

      Reply
      • Olivia Brown

        April 30, 2019 at 2:07 pm

        Hi there! We're sorry that the recipe isn't showing up. If you could send a screen grab of your view of the webpage to info@hotforfoodblog.com, we will do everything we can to help fix this!

    44. Alison

      May 23, 2019 at 3:28 pm

      I made this recently. I didn't have regular flour (I broke my flour container all over the floor!), so I used garbanzo flour. The flavor it added was really nice! I also used smoked paprika, instead of regular.
      Super yummy.

      Reply
    45. Tina

      July 04, 2019 at 8:30 am

      Omg! I made these last night and this recipe was amazing! He doesn’t like cauliflower, yet asked for seconds. I am hooked on your recipes now! I’ll be making your cauliflower wings next! Thank you for making tasty vegan recipes! I love your presentations and videos! Your recipes are easy to follow and easy to make. One happy vegan here!

      Reply
    46. Louisa

      July 24, 2019 at 10:10 pm

      These are a staple in my dinners! Just made these again tonight. Thank you for this recipe, it's so fun to put together! Happy cooking everyone! 🙂

      Reply
    47. Jorien

      October 22, 2020 at 7:56 am

      Hi Lauren,

      I soo want to try this recipe but I have a couple of questions
      1. Are these steaks spicy? I like spicy but not too much.
      2. Where I live we don't have the hot sauce that is mentioned in this recipe is there something I can replace that with?

      Thank you in advance 🙂

      Jorien

      Reply
      • Lauren Toyota

        October 23, 2020 at 1:33 pm

        I do find Frank's Red Hot Sauce spicy yes, but adding a little more vegan butter to the sauce helps. You can also do a half bbq sauce, half hot sauce combo - I like that a lot. I only ilke mild spiced things to be honest. BUT in terms of other hot sauces, you just have to be careful. Some are very concentrated. My guess it something like Cholulas is similar but you would defintiely need to do less and mix with a bbq sauce if you're not wanting it to be too hot.

    48. Gustavo Woltmann

      March 26, 2021 at 1:23 am

      This looks just a great recipe. I love beef and this combination with cauliflower will be awesome I'm sure.

      Reply
    49. Md Nuruzzman

      July 18, 2023 at 4:54 pm

      Buffalo cauliflower sandwich is my best choice of my food. Here ingredients are very cheap. I will to try to make at home.

      Reply
    50. allHungry

      June 05, 2024 at 8:36 am

      This vegan buffalo cauliflower sandwich looks amazing! I can't wait to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing such delicious plant-based ideas!

      Reply
    51. Harleen

      September 28, 2025 at 5:39 pm

      This recipe is a family favourite. It turns out amazing every time we make it and these cauli burgers are SO crispy, and satisfying!! One of my favourite recipes.

      Reply
    4.26 from 35 votes (29 ratings without comment)

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    Lauren Toyota is hot for food… as long as it’s vegan! She’s cooking up vegan love and bringing the increasingly popular lifestyle to food fans across the globe.

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