These crispy cauliflower bites are baked in the oven, and so full of amazing flavor you will wonder why you have never made them before!

These breaded cauliflower bites smell a-ma-zing as they’re cooking! They’re perfect served up along with our air fryer french fries, or air fryer pickles for the perfect vegetarian appetizers for entertaining, tailgating, and beyond.

This is the easy and BEST recipe for baked cauliflower bites that will have you not even wanting to share!

Crispy Cauliflower Bites

This recipe is easy because you only need two bowls, and it takes less than 10 minutes prep time! Plus, there’s no added oil!

Tips and substitutions

What I love about this recipe is the fact that these crispy cauliflower and cheese bites contain no meat at all, making them vegetarian. In fact, if you leave out the Parmesan, and sub plant milk, it’s easy to make vegan! While you’re at it, pair them with this amazing vegan schawarma! Yum!

Are you a spicy food lover? Just reduce the milk to 1/4 cup, and mix with 1/4 cup Buffalo sauce or Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, and burn your taste buds.

You can substitute Asiago for the Parmesan, but make sure you use real Parmesan or Asiago, not the Kraft kind that comes in a shaker. These crispy Parmesan cauliflower bites taste so much better with real cheese!

This recipe makes breaded cauliflower without eggs, since the day I made this recipe I’d run out of eggs, so I substituted milk for the eggs. It turned out perfectly, so I just left them out!

What’s the best breaded cauliflower dipping sauce?

I’m partial to Ranch dressing for these, but my mom would love them with blue cheese, I’m sure! You could even use Buffalo sauce for a real spicy kick!

How to make crispy cauliflower

The trick to getting crispy cauliflower is cooking at a high heat. We cooked these at 400 degrees Fahrenheit to get a nice crispy texture. Reducing the heat below that would mean these oven baked cauliflower bites wouldn’t brown as nicely, or turn as golden.

To make baked crispy cauliflower, we used Panko crumbs. These are perfect for crispy Panko cauliflower bites, since the Panko starts out with a great crunch, and it browns beautifully in the oven. No need for deep frying to get perfect, crispy cauliflower nuggets!

Love cauliflower? Check out our Caulipower cauliflower pizza crust review.

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Baked Crispy Cauliflower Bites

Yield: 24

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

These easy crispy cauliflower bites are baked in the oven, and perfect for game day or any time you're craving a healthy, crispy snack!

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Ingredients

• 3 cups cauliflower florets (cut 2 inches long, maximum)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 cups panko bread crumbs
• 3/4 cup Parmigiana-Reggiano Parmesan cheese, finely shredded

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Mix milk, salt, garlic powder and pepper in a medium bowl. Put panko bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in a second bowl.
4. Dip each cauliflower floret in milk mixture to coat. Shake off excess milk, and then press each floret firmly into bread crumbs to coat.
5. Place cauliflower bites on parchment paper.
6. Bake 20 minutes, turning once during cooking, or until outside is golden brown and crispy.
7. Serve with ranch or blue cheese dressing.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 55Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 3mgSodium: 154mgCarbohydrates: 8gFiber: 1gSugar: 1gProtein: 3g

All information and tools presented and written within this site are intended for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and any nutritional information should only be used as a general guideline.