Vegan Salt and Pepper Cereal Crusted Cauliflower — really crisp and super flavourful!
THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS RECIPE: CEREAL PRAWNS
This is inspired by Singaporean Cereal Prawns! This version of course uses cauliflower instead of prawns.
I remember enjoying cereal prawns in the hawker centres in Singapore. I love the added crunch and texture the cereal adds to the coating. This is why I opted to coat these in cereals as well.
I enjoyed this along with some fried basil leaves too for an extra layer of flavour. This recipe was actually inspired by the Singaporean Cereal Prawn dish but of course I used cauliflower for this one. And if it isn’t obvious, I love cooking with cauliflower because of how versatile it is.
HOW TO MAKE THESE SALT AND PEPEPR CEREAL CRUSTED CAULIFLOWER
- Prepare the dry mixture
- Crush the cereals
- Prepare the batter
- Dip each piece into the batter
- Coat in the first layer of cereal
- Dip in the batter again
- Double coat in the cereal!
- Repeat for the rest
- Then cook!
I‘d really recommend frying these in oil for a really crisp and golden brown finish. If you‘d like to bake these, I’d recommend spraying or brushing with some oil so that they don’t turn out too dry.
You’ll find the full recipe and steps below.
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Salt and Pepper Cereal Crusted Cauliflower
Ingredients
Cauliflower
- 2 heads 650 g total raw cauliflower, cut into florets
- 10 g fresh sweet or thai basil leaves around 20 leaves
- Neutral oil for frying
Batter
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flaxseed meal + 3 tbsp water, mixed)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour or gluten-free flour like buckwheat
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1/4 cup corn meal
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup room temperature water
Coating
- 2 cups finely crushed/processed corn flakes
- 2 cups roughly crushed corn flakes
For pan-frying
- Zest of 1 lime
- 1 bird’s eye chili
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- Mix the flax seed meal and water. Leave for 10-15 minutes until thick. While waiting, add the rest of the batter ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth. When the flax egg is thick, mix it in the batter as well.
- For the coating, process the cornflakes until very fine. For the crushed ones, I simply just used a mortar and pestle. You can refer to the images above for an idea on how fine/crushed the flakes can be.
- Coat each floret by first dipping it in the batter then into the finely crushed corn flakes. Then dip it back into the batter before coating it in the roughly crushed corn flakes. Repeat this step for the rest of the florets until everything is coated.
- Heat a frying pan with canola oil. Once hot (you can test this by placing some flakes to see if it bubbles), place the florets. You may need to cook them in batches depending on the size of your pan.
- Fry the florets for 3-5 minutes, moving them around until evenly golden brown. Remove from the heat and drain any excess oil. Fry the basil leaves until crisp, around 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat.
- In a pan (or using the same frying pan), heat 1 tbsp of oil. Add in the lemon zest and chili (if using) then add in the basil and cauliflower. Evenly sprinkle the salt and black pepper then mix well. Turn off heat and enjoy while hot!
Baking Option
- Heat oven to 350F. On a baking tray lined with parchment paper, place the cauliflower. You can opt to brush them with a little oil. Bake the cauliflower for 35-40 minutes or until crisp. Flip halfway through cooking. I used an oven toaster with temperature settings.
Notes
- Heat oven to 350F. On a baking tray lined with parchment paper, place the cauliflower. You can opt to brush them with a little oil. Bake the cauliflower for 35-40 minutes or until crisp. Flip halfway through cooking. I used an oven toaster with temperature settings.
NUTRITIONAL INFO
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