Honey Garlic Baked Cauliflower
Honey Garlic Cauliflower is an easy and delicious weeknight meal. Crunchy baked breaded cauliflower pieces are coated with honey garlic sauce.
I can’t get enough of this honey garlic sauce. It’s savory, spicy, and sweet, all at the same time. And crunchy bites of cauliflower are the perfect vehicle for soaking up the thick sauce. The sauce is so versatile, too. I’ve used it to make Honey Garlic Shrimp which are delicious, too.
Last week we had a pretty packed schedule. Dinners with out-of-town friends, a wedding rehearsal dinner, a weekend trip for my friend’s wedding, and more. Now we’re trying to get back to a normal and healthier eating schedule. It’s definitely hard, but this tasty honey garlic cauliflower dish made things a little easier. This sauce was so delicious that I was tempted to lick my bowl clean.
I like that you can serve this dish as a side dish, appetizer, or snack. We also make it as a main dish. It’s great with cooked rice or cauliflower rice.
Ingredients
- Cauliflower florets
- Panko bread crumbs
- Cooking spray
- Whisked eggs
- Sliced scallions or green onions
- Honey
- Minced garlic
- Onion powder
- Cornstarch and water
- Soy sauce
- Sriracha sauce
Cauliflower: I use one small head of cauliflower and break it down into bite-sized florets. The florets should be about the same size so they cook evenly.
Panko: I always measure out a little more panko than I think I’ll need because it’s easier to coat the cauliflower if there’s extra in the bowl.
Cornstarch: This thickens the sauce. Before you add it, you will mix it with some water to dissolve it. This cornstarch mixture prevents the cornstarch from clumping up when you add it to the sauce.
Soy sauce: I like to use low-sodium soy sauce.
Sriracha: You can use your favorite hot sauce that is similar.
Recipe Tips
If the head of cauliflower you use is larger, you should double the sauce so there’s enough to coat the florets.
The sauce is very flexible, so you can adjust the ingredients to your liking. Sometimes I add more soy sauce or I add different seasonings. If you add more liquid, just be sure to increase the amount of cornstarch so your sauce is thick enough.
If you want to serve this as a main dish, you can add a cooked vegetable, green salad, or rice on the side.
More Cauliflower Recipes
- Baked Orange Cauliflower
- Lemon Cauliflower
- Bang Bang Cauliflower
- Cauliflower Tots
- Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
Recipe now updated with video! You can also find all my recipe videos on my youtube channel.
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Honey Garlic Baked Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 1 small head of cauliflower, cut into bite sized florets
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs, (see note)
- cooking oil spray
- 2 large eggs, whisked
- 2 scallions, finely sliced
for the sauce (see note)
- 6 tbsp honey
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 6 tbsp water + 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 1/2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp sriracha sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread panko crumbs in a thin even layer across the surface of the baking sheet. Spray panko crumbs with cooking oil spray. Bake crumbs about 5-7 minutes or until golden brown.
- Set whisked eggs aside in a small bowl. Line another large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Dip cauliflower in egg mixture and then shake a few times so that excess egg drips off. You don't want to dampen your breadcrumbs with excess egg because then they won't stick to the cauliflower. Then place into sheet with panko crumbs. Cover cauliflower with panko, pressing the crumbs gently against the cauliflower to help them stick. Place coated cauliflower on empty prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all cauliflower is coated.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until cauliflower is cooked and the coating is a dark golden brown.
- While the cauliflower is cooking, make sauce on the stove. In a small bowl, completely dissolve cornstarch in water and set aside.
- Add all sauce ingredients except the cornstarch + water to a small pot or saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer and stir a few times until ingredients are mixed. This should only take a few seconds. Then add cornstarch water to the sauce. Stir immediately to dissolve cornstarch into the sauce. Stir occasionally and let sauce come to a simmer (make sure to stir otherwise the cornstarch will clump up) and cook until sauce starts to thicken (about 2 minutes).
- Allow sauce to cool a few minutes and thicken even more. Drizzle over cauliflower. If you wish to completely coat cauliflower in sauce, it's best to double the sauce and brush it on with a pastry brush. Garnish with scallions.
Notes
- You most likely won't need all of the panko breadcrumbs, but to ensure the cauliflower is completely coated it's easier to start with more than you need. The nutrition estimate was calculated with 1 cup of panko and does not include the excess.
- The recipe above makes just enough sauce to drizzle over a small head's worth of cauliflower florets. If you are using a medium or large head of cauliflower or you wish to coat the cauliflower completely in sauce, you should double the sauce.
- If you make any adjustments to the sauce (i.e. add more soy sauce or other liquids) you may need to also add more cornstarch to thicken the sauce. Remember to dissolve any additional cornstarch in a little water before adding it.
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I found this to be a bit bland to be honest. If I made it again I would definitely season the cauliflower and the panko bread crumbs. I felt like all the flavor was on the outside in the sauce.
The sauce is very flexible, so you can adjust the ingredients to your liking. Sometimes I add more soy sauce or I add different seasonings. If you add more liquid, just be sure to increase the amount of cornstarch so your sauce is thick enough!
My family loved this recipe! I doubled the sauce, and served it over brown rice. So good! To make the egg stick to the cauliflower I put the chopped florets in a zip bag with a few Tbs of flour and shook to coat. The egg and the bread crumbs stuck well.
That’s a great tip! So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Coating did not stay on. I think I would try again but not toast panko first
When you say it didn’t stay on, do you mean it fell off while it was baking? If that’s the case, you might need to more evenly coat the florets with egg (allow the excess to drip off). Also, did you lightly press the panko onto the floret when you coated it? We coat ours one at a time to ensure they are well coated – if you did multiple ones at a time, that might have been an issue, too.
Hey what’s the calorie amount and other nutritional info.
Thanks! Excited to try it out for this fortnights meals plan
All of the nutritional info is at the bottom of the recipe card.
I’ve never liked cauliflower until my brother turned me on to this recipe,gthanks brother I needed to add a veg to my intake.
We’re glad you enjoyed it!
My family loved this recipe! I did cook the cauliflower for a little over 30 minutes instead of the 15-20 minutes that the recipe called for but other than that I followed the recipe exactly. It came out great! I will definitely make it again!
We’re happy that your family loved it!
The first time I made this it didn’t turn out, but I kept trying because I knew it would be delicious and I was right! I made sure not to cut my cauliflower too small (otherwise too much work and it crumbles) and to thoroughly shake the egg off. I also only used 1C breadcrumbs and 1 egg, which was the perfect amount for just under one small head of cauliflower with just a tiny bit of sauce left over.
Thank you for sharing! I’m glad it worked out for you
Made this last night for my kids, they loved it> My dad who does not like cauliflower demolished it too. Sauce was awesome, great recipe.
I’m so glad your kids and dad loved it!
Although this recipe was delicious, I would 100% have everyone triple the sauce amount to get anywhere need what the picture looks like. Also it took me about 5 mins for the sauce to start thickening.
I’ve only ever doubled the sauce to cover all the cauliflower. But feel free to make triple.
Awesome recipe – got the full five stars from both me and my partner! Sooo tasty with the crunch of the crispy cauliflower and the moreish sauce!!! Will definitely make this again. We had to crush rice crackers and use tamari as partner is GF, but these came out lovely too. Thanks so much!!! Served it with some simple pakchoi and some white rice – nomnom!!
I’m so glad you both enjoyed!
Advice appreciated! I lightly coated the cauliflower with eggs but the Panko would not stick even when I gently pushed it on I ended up with cauliflower with breadcrumbs sprinkled on top. Any advice for next time? Thanks!
I’m sorry to hear that. I haven’t had this issue. Did you take a look at the video right above the recipe box? It shows how I coat my cauliflower and you might find it helpful, hopefully.
I’m eating this right now and loving every bite! I realized halfway through cooking that my sriracha was gone so I just skipped it and I have a lovely sweet-salty garlic sauce. I can’t wait to get some more hot sauce and try this again!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this and I hope you try it again with the sriracha!
Delicious! I doubled the sauce, as recommended for a large cauliflower head. I used only 7 tbsp. honey because I couldn’t bring myself to use 12 tbsp. ….the result was an AMAZING spicy sweet sauce. I also bumped the temperature up to 400 and baked for close to 30 min. We will definitely be enjoying this recipe again soon!
glad you enjoyed!
This was amazing! I do t really like cauliflower but want to get on the bandwagon and this sold me! I had to use a little more cornstarch to get the sauce to thicken up. And I added a little extra sriracha to give it more kick.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
This recipe is flagged as vegan on Pinterest. I’m not sure why, considering eggs and honey are in the ingredient list…just wanted to give you a heads up ?
thanks for the head’s up. Unfortunately I don’t have any control over that.
Pinterest has this listed as a vegan recipe but this calls for 2 eggs. I was pretty bummed when I went to print this recipe for dinner. Not sure if that was Pinterest’s error, but may want to have them update that.
I’m sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, I have no control over how pinterest or other users categorizes these recipes.
This recipe would still work if you made a buttermylk dip out of a non-dairy milk and some vinegar or lemon juice 🙂 I do this all the time!
This recipe was awesome!! My husband loved it (he’s a big fan of cauliflower), so I will definitely make again! I did double the sauce recipe.
I’m so glad you liked it!
WOW! I am in love!!! I made this with brown rice and IT WAS AMAZING. I am a college student trying to figure out cooking easy vegetarian meals, and this is a winner. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!! I am so excited to try some other stuff of yours!
So glad you enjoyed it! I like mine with brown rice too
Careful on the honey! I used the reccomended amount and it was far too strong and sweet. I think it may be because I used a high quality single origin honey which is quite floral. Next time I’d probably use ? of the suggested amount and add more water and soy sauce. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m glad you were able to get the recipe to work for you. I haven’t had issues with the honey being too strong, but the type of honey you use can make a difference.
How would you modify for chicken?
I have a chicken version here! https://kirbiecravings.com/2014/07/baked-honey-garlic-chicken.html
Did this yesterday for dinner with rice and OMG it was sooooo good! The only thing is that the panko is not crispy anymore after you add the sauce to it, but still, the taste is amazing!
I’m so glad you enjoyed! I would recommend adding the sauce right before eating so that it doesn’t soften the panko too much
This recipe is SO GOOD! I made it for my meat-loving friends and they were blown away. We ended up tripling the sauce and added sambal oelek, and I think those were nice additions. I also served it with rice and stir-fried veggies. Definitely recommend this recipe!!
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a sweet comment! I love reading comments like this. =)
Hi! This looks delicious. If I were to have leftovers, would it be best to refrigerate the cauliflower and the sauce separately? Or to refrigerate the cauliflower tossed in the sauce? Thanks!
it’s probably best to keep them separate otherwise the sauce will just soak into the cauliflower
Family loved it. Double the recipe for the sauce. Definitely will make again
i’m so happy to hear that! thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
I don’t have a tolerance for spice. Is the sriracha sauce just for taste or will it mess up the recipe if I remove it?
it’s there for taste. it also helps to balance out the sweetness so you may want to add a tiny bit more salt, soy sauce or garlic powder so it’s not too sweet.
I’m not a great chef, but I tried this and LOVED it! Even my cauliflower-hating roommates asked for seconds! Absolutely making this again. I paired it with brown rice and quinoa.
yay! thank you for taking the time to share such a wonderful comment!
Delicious. My only problem was I made more cauliflower than sauce – double the sauce if you buy a large head. I started at 15 mins and ended up going to 19 minutes and they turned out perfectly. My advice about coating; put the Panko into two bowls so you have it fresh and fluffy using one bowl at a time and make sure you let the majority of the egg drip off. Can’t wait to make more!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing your tips and experience.
Hi Kirbie,
I am planning on making this soon, looks great! Could I use tapioca starch instead of cornstarch? I only have that in the pantry.
Thanks!
I have not attempted with tapioca starch before but from my understanding, it doesn’t work as well or the same
I’m not a vegetarian and I absolutely love this dish. My wife had made it twice now. I was skeptical at first but am sold now. Delicious! Awesome recipe. The cauliflower comes out so crispy, it tastes like its fried. The honey garlic sauce makes the dish.
yay! Thanks for letting me know! So glad you enjoy this one so much!
Hi I tried the recipe with cauliflower and it was yummy. Just curious if this would work with broccoli
I think so, but I haven’t experimented with a broccoli version yet.
This is one of the best recipes I have ever made! The sauce is DELICIOUS- a perfect balance of sweet, tangy & spicy. I used GF panko crumbs and they worked fine. I also did the breading in small batches and kept the sauce recipe as-is. Bravo! ????????
I’m so glad you love this sauce as much as I do!
I’m so excited to try this! Unfortunately, I somehow missed seeing Sriracha as one of the ingredients when I went to pick them up. Any suggestions on substitutes, or should I just suck it up and make another trip to the store?
You can replace with another hot sauce!
I made this recipe and I personally loved the crispy baked cauliflower but wasn’t crazy about the sauce. I think it is because I love the taste of cauliflower and with the sauce, I couldn’t taste it at all. Thank you for posting it though.
it’s true that the honey garlic sauce will probably cover most of the cauliflower taste, but I do love the sauce!
Made these for lunch today they were delicious and easy
Yay! so glad you enjoyed them!
Can this be frozen or refridgerated then served later on?
It can be reheated but the cauliflower breading won’t stay crispy
This was delicious! But, my husband would prefer it a little less sweet – any suggestions for putting in less honey but still keeping the same consistency to the sauce?
you can try reducing honey by 1 tbsp and it shouldnt make too much difference in the consistency. You can also increase onion powder or change low sodium soy sauce to regular soy sauce. If your sauce gets too thin, you can increase the amount of cornstarch a little to thicken it more.
This looks amazing! Time to kick my cauliflower cravings up a notch!!
hope you enjoy!!
I I did make a few modifications for using frozen cauliflower. I microwaved the cauliflower just enough to thaw but not cook it and tossed in corn starch before the egg wash. I also substituted agave for honey and topped with sesame seeds. It was a perfect topping for quinoa fried rice!
love the idea of pairing it with quinoa fried rice!
Turned out great! Nice and crispy. I served sauce on side to dip to maintain crispiness. Sauce was pretty good, def sweet. I didn’t have onion powder so there wasn’t as much flavor. Served it with veg fried rice to non-veg family and they liked it! Even a picky little girl finished her portion.
so glad you enjoyed it! the onion powder does cut into the sweetness, so hopefully next time you can try it with that!
how many would servings would you say this yields?
2-3
Made this a few nights ago and it was really delicious! The sauce was my favorite part, perfect amount of sweet and spice. I doubled the sauce recipe based on some of the other reviews but found I really didn’t need extra with a medium sized head of cauliflower. And I didn’t have any issues with the bread crumbs sticking since I made sure to buy bread crumbs in the Asian isle of my grocery store and made sure to press them onto the cauliflower well. Made it with vegetarian lo mein. My fiancé said it tasted like we were at a restaurant! Definitely will make it again. Thank you!
Yay! so glad you and your fiancé enjoyed it! thank you for taking the time to share your results!
Made these the other night and they were a hit. Even with my toddler!
As a couple others posted, there was some trouble getting the panko to stick after a while. My suggestion would be to use the panko in batches (instead of throwing all 2 cups worth into a bowl) to get it stick better. I ended up with a bunch of wasted panko.
thanks for the suggestion. I agree that smaller batches will help
Hi! I tried making the sauce and it turned out a really dark brown color! What kind of soy sauce did you use? I feel like that’s where my problem is…Yours looks much more delishious than mine did !
I used kikkoman low sodium. It’s pretty light in color so it doesn’t make the sauce very dark. Sorry yours turned out so dark. hopefully it still tasted good?
Hey! One question do I cook covered or uncovered?
do you mean the sauce? if so, uncovered.
I tried making this twice tonight and both times tasted horrible. Perhaps I over cooked the sauce?? Make sure to cook the sauce on low heat !!
Hi Meghan. Did you not like the flavor or was it the consistency? The recipe does say to cook the sauce at a simmer which is low heat.
Don’t know what I did wrong, but couldn’t get Auvergne to thicken!
do you mean the sauce? the cornstarch should thicken the sauce. Once you stir it into the sauce and bring it to a bubbling simmer, stir it a few times but also make sure that you don’t stir it so much that it doesn’t bubble. It does need to reach a bubbling stage to thicken.
Hahaha I actually had the opposite problem – I found the sauce too thick and watered it down a bit.
I’m glad you got the sauce to work for you!
This recipe is awesome! I want to put this sauce on everything! I normally always fidget with recipes, changing them to my liking but I didn’t have to change anything on this one. It turned out perfect. It was a huge hit with my boyfriend and our dinner guest as well. This recipe is going in the recipe box. Thanks for sharing it!
I’m so thrilled to hear this! I love this sauce so much too!
Can you serve this as an appetizer?
yes it’s possible, but the cauliflower doesn’t stay crispy that long after you add the sauce on, so it’s best to be eaten right away
I crushed up plain crisp rice cereal and breaded mine with that because I have a gluten allergy and it was the PERFECT crispiness. Don’t know why I’ve never tried it before. The sauce was much sweeter than I was expecting. I just dipped each piece in soy sauce afterward. Kinda sad about that but next time will use less honey. 🙂
I’m sorry you find the sauce too sweet. you can definitely adjust it next time, but I like the sweetness since it is a honey sauce.
I made these last night, exactly as directed and they turned out perfectly. Absolutely delicious and my teenagers loved them as well. Thanks for a great recipe.
Thank you so much for letting me know!!
Tried it and loved it, but I am an adult. True test was done my teenager said: “This is actually quite good!” I agree, yum!
Wow, getting the teenager approval! That is the ultimate compliment. Your comment just made my day, thank you!
What’s the nutritional info for this?
I do not have the nutritional information. Please use a resource like myfitnesspal or caloriecount where you can input recipes and calculate that information
I fixed this for dinner this evening and my entire family loved it! The flavor is just amazing and the crunch of the cauliflower was perfect too. Not too heavy, and full of flavor. Yum! We will definitely be having this in our rotation!!!
yay!! so glad your entire family loved it!!
Do you have the nutritional info for this recipe?
i do not. I recommend trying caloriecount.com or myfitnesspal
Was looking good for something quick and easy to make with cauliflower. Jackpot! The tangy sauce really does it for me. I tried the recipe exactly and it came out delicious! A new favorite for sure!
yay! So glad you liked it =)
Yummy recipe! The only problem I had was that there wasn’t enough sauce to coat the cauliflower as shown in the picture. At most I had a light drizzle on each piece. If I make again I would definitely double the sauce recipe. Rather have too much than not enough.
sorry to hear you didn’t have enough sauce! I used a small head of cauliflower for this recipe, so perhaps your cauliflower was a bit bigger. It definitely doesn’t hurt to double the sauce!
This was excellent. I used aguave instead and Neat Egg egg replacement to make it vegan. I added onion powder, garlic powder, and s&p to the egg replacement mixture before dipping the florets into it and then into the panko crumbs. My meat eating husband devoured the finished product and mentioned it was one of the best meals he’s eaten. I made more sauce than recommended just to ensure each floret is completely covered with the garlic sauce. Thanks so much!!
Thank you for sharing your experience! So glad you and your husband enjoyed it!
Just made this tonight and it was delicious! Thanks for the recipe, it got my husband to want seconds on a veggie!!
that’s so wonderful to hear! thank you for letting me know!
Did you ever make this with frozen cauliflower?
I have not, but I know others who have said they did and it worked. The cooking times may have to be adjusted
I was going to make this for dinner but can I use frozen cauliflower? I think am also going to do this broccoli.
I have not tried it with frozen, but I think it should work. You may have to adjust the cooking time.
I did it with frozen cauliflower although I used flour and water to coat the cauliflower then fried it. It was delicious ?
I MUST say that these were absolutely FANTASTIC !! My hubby could not stop eating them ! They came out perfectly, no problems with this recipe at all. You MUST take your time and really get the cauliflower coated in the egg before you proceed with breadcrumbs – this is really important – thanks for a great recipe !!!
I am so glad you love this recipe as much as I do!
This was REALLY tasty!! I had no problems with the panko staying on. Did it in small batches and it was great. I think I cooked mine about 25 mins also. Will certainly make again…
PS…next time i make it i will pay attention to the amount of sriracha, used 1tbsp….had quite a kick LOL
I’ve added too much sriracha too before, haha! Luckily I have a pretty good spicy tolerance. So glad you enjoyed it!
This recipe did not turned out at out. The panko could not stick to the veggie. How long do you cook the sauce?
Make sure your cauliflower is completely coated in egg before rolling in panko. Also what brand of panko are you using? The total cook time for the sauce is about 3-4 minutes
How many servings does this make?
2-4
This looks awesome! What sides would you suggest?
I think it would work well with steamed vegetables, brown rice or quinoa
Is this dish keto friendly?
Sorry, I don’t know
I’m going to try it with pork rinds instead of pablo to make it keto. Except the honey…. well a little won’t kill me. Lol
!!
This was SO delicious!!! I didn’t realize i was low on honey so i ended up just using 3TB which was still plenty sweet for me. I doused the top with toasted sesame seeds and had this with a side of baked terikayi tofu (just baked it at the same time!)
The next day i used the leftovers in a soft taco with shredded cabbage and tempeh bacon.
love the idea of toasted sesame seeds!
Curious if you know the nutritional info on this recipe? Looks yummy!
I do not, but there are several websites that allow you to enter a recipe and it will output the nutritional information! try caloriecount
I really need to buy a cauliflower head so I can make this recipe! I have everything else and I’m excited to taste this. 🙂
the cheapest place I found cauliflower at recently is sprouts! you could also make this with chicken
Thanks. I look forward to making it with chicken as well. 🙂
Oh my word! This looks amazing! I love crispy cauliflower, and that sauce sounds yummy. Definitely trying this!
thanks!
Do youunthaw thecaulifloer or do youcook them o stove firstCan you use frozencauliflower do you boil the caulifloer first for a bit or just unthaw them
I always use fresh cauliflower. You do not need to precook. If you are using frozen, you should thaw and probably pat them dry.