General Tso Cauliflower

Are you craving Chinese food? Making General Tso cauliflower at home is easy and healthy! This simple General Tso cauliflower recipe is gluten-free, oil-free, and paired with broccoli and oil-free fried rice.

Unfortunately, eating out at a Chinese restaurant and finding a vegan-compliant Chinese restaurant is challenging. Even though I love Chinese food, I learned that making Chinese food at home is healthier than attempting to eat out. One of my favorite dishes before transition to a plant-based diet was General Tso chicken. So, I created a General Tso cauliflower recipe my family loves! Not only is this General Tso cauliflower easy to make, but it also requires very few ingredients. 

Jump to:

• Recipe Ingredients
• Recipe Ingredient Substitutions
• Sauce Ingredients
• Sauce Ingredient Substitutions
• Recipe FAQs
• Tips
• Other Suggested Asian Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Reviews

Since my kids love fried rice, I decided to serve that and a heaping serving of roasted broccoli. I always try to get as many veggies on a plate as possible. So let's say there weren't any leftovers for today's lunch. 

Recipe Ingredients

• Cauliflower: Cauliflower is a great meat replacement. It's like a sponge when absorbing flavors and sauces.
• Flour: I used chickpea flour. I love how the texture. But any flour will work.
• Water: The water is used to create a pancake batter texture
• Garlic Powder: The garlic powder gives the flour some flavor.
• Onion Powder: I like onion powder with garlic powder because of its flavor profile.
• Paprika: This spice from red peppers has a subtle earthiness and sweet and peppery taste.

Recipe Ingredient Substitutions

• Any flour works well with this recipe. However, if using regular flour, you may need to add water to get the right texture to the flour-based batter.
• Smoked paprika gives the cauliflower a deeper smokey flavor.
• Unsweetened, unflavored plant-based milk or aquafaba can be used instead of water or a creamier batter.

The flour-based batter for the General Tso Cauliflower resembles pancake batter and is easy to prepare. 

Whisk the batter ingredients and set aside. Once smooth, dip each cauliflower floret in the batter. 

Then, bake the dipped cauliflower in the oven while preparing the sauce. Or, air-fry the cauliflower for half the time at the same temperature indicated in the recipe.

Sauce Ingredients

With only 5 ingredients, the sauce takes minutes to make in a small saucepan. All you need is the following:

• Soy sauce or Tamari: Use Tamari as a gluten-free option. Or choose a low-salt version of soy sauce f you are watching your sodium intake.
• Maple syrup: The maple syrup sweetens the sauce naturally and supplies a thickening agent.
• Rice Vinegar: This sweet, light vinegar is perfectly paired with these ingredients.
• Chili Paste: Chili paste gives the sauce a mild spiciness.
• Arrow Root Powder: Arrowroot powder thickens the sauce as it heats in the pan.

Sauce Ingredient Substitutions

• Although I used arrowroot powder, corn starch works just as well.
• Often, I use date syrup as a replacement if I don't have maple syrup. Agave works as well.
• White wine vinegar has a similar taste to rice wine vinegar.

Within minutes, the five ingredients become thick, sticky, and perfect to coat the baked cauliflower. 

Once the cauliflower is tossed in sauce, it cooks for another 10 minutes, which is how long it takes to make fried rice. 

Earlier in the day, I used a rice cooker to prepare 4 cups of brown rice, to be ready when I was ready to make the fried rice. But I chilled the rice first because that is the secret to the perfect fried rice.

First, saute onion, garlic, and a frozen bag of peas and carrots in a wok. Then, add the cooked brown rice and a few other ingredients, and you have fried rice. 

Next, I roasted some broccoli while the cauliflower cooked a second time in the sauce. Roasting broccoli is simple with my favorite crisper pan and only takes 20 minutes. 

Now, serve this Chinese masterpiece to your hungry crew. I garnished it with sliced green onions and black sesame seeds.

Recipe FAQs

Tips

• Prepare the flour batter and refrigerate until ready to use. Chilling may thicken the flour batter. If it's too thick, add more water and whisk before dipping.
• Choose the air frying option to cook the cauliflower faster.
• Use a silicone baking mat or parchment paper for baking or air fry without oil.
• Prepare the sauce in advance for an easy time-saver.
• When making fried rice, cook and refrigerate the rice for the best results. This is the key to avoiding soggy rice.
• You can use a bottle of General Tso sauce instead of making your own.

The next time you're craving Chinese food, give this general tso cauliflower recipe a try!

Other Suggested Asian Recipes

If you love this recipe, give us a 5-star review and a comment below. We would love to hear from you!

📖 Recipe