Sweet, sticky, savory, and seductively crispy lemon cauliflower.
One of my favorite restaurants growing up was a local Chinese place just outside of Philadelphia.
We’d often go there on weeknights, because it was close to home, offered quick service, and the food was consistently good every time.
Upon sitting down at the table, I’d always immediately start on the deep-friend crispy noodles and duck sauce while waiting for my order of sticky glazed lemon chicken to arrive.
(I was pretty much on a sugar high before we even got to dessert.)
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Years later when my family moved to China, I remember being initially confused by the cuisine.
Where were the General Tso’s, the fortune cookies, the sweet and sour?
Where was the lemon chicken???
Much of what we in America know as Chinese food is not actually Chinese at all.
For example, fortune cookies were invented in San Francisco!
And in all my time living in Shanghai, not once did I ever see lemon chicken listed on a menu.
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This crispy lemon cauliflower is my healthier, vegan answer to Chinese-restaurant lemon chicken.
The sticky lemon glaze is absolutely addictive.
And if you’re not feeling cauliflower, you can easily opt to pour the sauce over chickpeas, tofu, broccoli, or anything else you think would taste good with lemon sauce.
Here are 25 more healthy and super simple Cauliflower Recipes.
Adapted from Sticky Sesame Cauliflower
Sticky Lemon Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 1/2 large head cauliflower
- 1/4 cup milk of choice
- 1/4 cup fine cornmeal or flour
- 1-2 tsp oil
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs, regular or gf
- 1/4 cup vegetable broth
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup, honey, or agave
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp powdered ginger
- 2 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot
- lemon zest, optional for garnish
Instructions
- Finely crush breadcrumbs, either in a blender (easiest method) or by placing them in a bag and crushing with a rolling pin or heavy object. Preheat oven to 425 F. Cut cauliflower into florets. Whisk milk, cornmeal, and oil, then toss with the cauliflower in a large ziploc. Put the cauliflower in a colander to drain off excess batter. Toss with the breadcrumbs. Arrange in one layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 35-40 minutes. Meanwhile, make the lemon sauce by whisking together all remaining ingredients except cornstarch. Then quickly whisk in cornstarch. Turn heat to medium. Stir frequently – it thickens pretty quickly. Remove cauliflower from oven and stir into the sauce. (If you wish to omit the oil, feel free to experiment. I have not tried and so can’t say how it would affect taste/texture.)View Nutrition Facts
Notes
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I love all your recipes so much – and you are a cauliflower wizard. I actually used a bag of frozen broccoli and made my own breadcrumbs out of Ezekiel bread and it’s DELICIOUS! FYI – the panko bread crumbs that were in my pantry have milk in them! EEK.
Thanks for all your amazing recipes – you are a lifesaver.
SO excited to know it works with broccoli!
Jason
This sound so good! I’m a huge fan of cauliflower an am always looking for new ways to prepare it.
Ooh yes, I definitely have to try out this recipe! The sticky lemon sauce sounds wonderful with vegan chicken or tofu as well. Love how versatile it is!
Thanks for creating and sharing this recipe!
FYI – I lived in Hong Kong and my Hong Kong classmates and I ate lemon chicken frequently at several local restaurants (where no/minimal English is written or spoken)! There are so many unique, regional Chinese cuisines (and, as you point out, so many popular American/foreign interpretations) that it can be difficult to separate out whether a dish is traditional, but I am pretty certain that lemon chicken is a ‘real’ Chinese dish — likely just limited to Hong Kong and perhaps select other regions. <3
AMAZING!! It was so good I ate the whole bowl MYSELF!! I will double it so I can share next time…
I LOVE your recipes, Katie, but your website is killing me! So many ads loading that I can’t get to the print menu to print anything. I just sit here with the circle of doom……..forever! And if I do finally get to print something a small recipe prints on two pages! With loads of blank space at the top of the first page. Am I doing something wrong? I can’t believe I’m the only one having these problems……
Hi Barb, I am so sorry for the trouble. What browser are you using? Can you send a screenshot to me (chocolatecoveredmedia at gmail) of what you’re seeing? The site shouldn’t have any more ads than any of the other big food blogs, and should actually have fewer than many because we have the minimum selected. (We’ve opted out of the lucrative mobile fixed-video player from adthrive, as well as in-image ads, and we never do takeover ads.) If you’re seeing more ads on Katie’s site than what’s normally seen on other food blogs, they are not sanctioned by us and we definitely want to know about them.
Jason (media relations)
Hi Barb! I’m glad you mentioned it as I thought it was just me. Mine also prints on 2 pages with smaller text, the blank spots are what I think are the missing photos. I change the settings when printing to use one page back and front and then cut and tape the recipe together after 🙂 You can also copy just the text and put into word and change the font size to make it bigger. Totally worth it, hope this helps! I know I can zoom in on my phone and such but with my memory problems I love to print and highlight or check what I’ve done as I go 🙂
Just made this! Delicious. As another person said, you should definitely make twice the batter and sauce as it really was not enough in the amounts listed. I will definitely be adding this to my dinner rotation!
I can’t wait to make this! Have you tried to freeze the breaded cauliflower after baking? I want to make a lot in advance, but wouldn’t know how to store it. Thanks!
We haven’t tried, but it sounds like a fun experiment!
Jason (media relations)
I made this tonight with the sesame seed one too. I used the lemon sauce over the cauliflower since I prepped the cauliflower as instructed in this recipe and the sesame I used with homemade gluten nuggets. It was a hit with my family.
Only substitutes I made for the sauce was I didn’t have the right kind of vinegar so I used red wine vinegar since it was all I had at home and I used fresh ginger instead of powdeR for the same reasons.
I did find I should have used more crumbs on the cauliflower and I noticed that a lot of cauliflower disintegrated when I mixed it woth lemon sauce, I think this was because of how little sauce was created. Next time I’ll go 5x the recipe for sauce. Since I had already doubled the cauliflower I would need to double it again since I’m feeding a family of 6.
Does the cornstarch go in when the sauce is hot or cold? I put it in when it was heated and mine got clumpy.
Cold! Whisk ingredients, then whisk in cornstarch, then turn to medium.
Jason