My darling niece, Annie, was up here at Sideways Cottage last week with her lovely boyfriend, Peter, so they had a nice few days hiking, swimming, cycling and, of course…FEASTING!

Of course, we had to send Poppy away to the kennel while they were here, but poor old Shelby got lots of well-deserved attention!

Bid and Paul joined us on Friday evening for dinner and I decided to make cauliflower wings with a blue cheez drizzle. The wings were gobbled up quickly and Bid (not vegan or even vegetarian!) asked to take some home!

The recipe is simple: a head of cauliflower chopped into florets, dipped in a spicy chickpea flour batter, and baked, after which they are dipped in a spicy sauce and baked again. The recipe is based on the wings that top the Stranger Wings Pizza at Virtuous Pie in Vancouver.

As for the chickpea flour, I was always running out until I realized that I simply had to pour my dry chickpeas into a blender and let it do its thing for about a minute. Voila–chickpea flour!

So, here we go!

Spicy Cauliflower Wings

First, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Next, cut a head cauliflower into florets…

Next, fill a bowl with the following….

• 300 grams chickpea flour
• 1 TBS paprika
• 1.5 tsp onion powder
• 1.5 tsp garlic powder
• 1.5 tsp sea salt
• 1.5 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp cayenne

Mix it together and add water–about a cup and a half to get a batter-like consistency…

Coat each floret in the batter and place on a parchment lined baking sheet

Bake for twenty minutes…

Next, mix together…

• 1 cup barbecue sauce
• 1 cup sriracha (or Frank’s hot sauce)
• 1/2 tsp tapioca flour

Dip each baked wing into the sauce and place back on parchment covered baking sheets and pop back into the oven for ten more minutes.

While the wings are baking, quickly mix together the following for a vegan blue cheez dip….

Vegan Blue Cheez Dip

• 1 cup vegan mayo
• 1.5 TBS tahini
• 2 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 TBS nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 3 TBS water

Serve the wings with the blue cheez dip and some celery sticks.

The wings are surprisingly filling and could actually be a meal with a fresh baguette and a bit of salad. Annie suggested making wraps with the wings as filler, which I think is a great idea!

And the song of the day is “Long Way,” by Neighbourly, a Vancouver-Island based band!