superbowl snacks – buffalo cauliflower bites & rosemary onion rings

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Although Chris & I do not watch sports, we watched the Superbowl quietly together. Chris shocked me by knowing the players names, and actually rooting for a team – I didn’t even know who was playing until the day of. One of the only reasons I was excited about Superbowl Sunday was making and eating bite-sized finger food (ahem. junk food)

I did put a lot of thought in to the foods that we would prepare on Superbowl Sunday and I ended up making waaaay too much food. (is there such a thing??)

Here are my two favorites:

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

this recipe was adapted from the Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower recipe on Bullfrogs & Bulldogs

What you need:

• a head of cauliflower
• 1 bottle of hot wing sauce (of your choice)
• 1/2 cup flour
• a pinch of sea salt

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
2. Chop the cauliflower into bite size pieces.
3. Mix the hot wing sauce, salt,and the flour together. Pour 3/4 of the mixture over the cauliflower until it’s coated evenly.
4. Place the cauliflower on a lined baking sheet and bake for approx 15-20 minutes.
5. If needed, brush the cauliflower with the rest of the sauce and bake for 5 more minutes.
6. Serve with Ranch or Bleu Cheese dressing, maybe carrots & celery.

Baked Rosemary Onion Rings

this recipe was adapted from the Baked Rosemary Onion Ring recipe on Food Doodles

What you need:

• 2-3 medium sized sweet onions
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tbsp very finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 2-3 cups panko or whole wheat bread crumbs

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice the onions in to 1/2″ rounds and separate from each other. Consider using the tiny rounds in the middle of the onion for onion rings, they work just as well as the bigger rings.
3. In a large sealable bag, combine the flour, paprika, and salt. Mix and add the onion rings. Close the bag tightly and shake well to coat the onions. (you may not be able to fit all of the rings in the bag at a time, that is ok. Fit as many as you can and then move on to the next step. You can re-visit this step)
4. Put 2 cups of panko bread crumbs in a bowl and set aside.
5. In a small bowl, beat two of the eggs together and add a pinch of salt and 1/2 of the fresh rosemary.
6. Remove a few onion rings from the bag of flour mixture at a time and coat in egg.  Transfer to the panko, coat completely and then transfer to a plain baking sheet.
7. Repeat with all the remaining onion rings – this should make enough onion rings to fill 2 baking sheets.
8. Add more panko to the bowl, and beat more eggs if needed. (I ended up making 2 different batches of the beaten egg/salt/rosemary)
9. Bake 15-20 minutes (rotating the baking sheets half way through) or until the onion rings are golden on the bottom.  Once golden on the bottom, flip the onion rings over and continue to bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden and crispy.
10. Serve with a ranch or BBQ dipping sauce.

Both of these recipes are extremely easy to make (although the onion rings are a little labor intensive) and very tasty! My boyfriend says these were the best onion rings he’s ever had and I agree! The rosemary worked wonders in that recipe! And for a VEG couple who often craves the chicken-wing-experience, these buffalo cauliflower bites HIT THE SPOT!

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