Air Fried Cauliflower Bites

I bought Mr. Man an air frier for Father’s Day, it arrived midweek last week and we’ve already used it 5 times. A majority of the time we make sweet potato fries, because…well…sweet potato fries! Need I say more? The other night I decided to use up the last of the cauliflower florets that I had left over from making cauliflower rice earlier in the week. And now air fried cauliflower bites are in our normal rotation.

We invested in the air frier because the dietitian suggested that it would be a good cooking substitute for dad now that he needs to be on a heart-healthy diet. With the air frier, you don’t need to add oil and the food still ends up with a fried texture on the outside. Some recipes do call for olive oil or canola oil, but you can definitely omit that if you’d like. I do not make the sweet potato fries with oil and I season them after they are finished cooking. This recipe I did lightly drizzle olive oil and then season before cooking in the air fryer.

Between the air fryer and the instapot, I don’t know if I will use our stove/oven all summer…which is nice because when the weather gets scorching here in Vegas, it is never fun heating up the kitchen just to throw together dinner. If you’d like to see the air fryer I purchased then follow the link below. I originally thought about purchasing the one I saw at Sam’s Club, but after doing some research the one I ended up getting received better reviews and is also almost $50 less. Plus it’s the bigger basket of 5.5Q which may seem huge, but it works wonderfully for my family.

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Air Fried Cauliflower Bites-yields: 6 servings

ingredients:

6 cups of cauliflower florets

2 Tbsp garlic powder

Olive Oil

directions:

Place florets in a large bowl, lightly drizzle with olive oil and toss with the florets until all are evenly covered. Sprinkle garlic powder and toss again. Place in the air fryer rack. Cook for 15-20 minutes, taking the rack out every 5 minutes to shake and toss the florets so they are all evenly toasted. If your air fryer is like mine, you will need to preheat it for 3 minutes or so, with the rack inside, before placing the florets in. While it isn’t absolutely necessary to preheat the air fryer, I have found that when I don’t the food isn’t as crisp on the outside as it is when I do preheat it. When the florets are done take out and place in a bowl; salt and pepper to taste. Then serve. This recipe is also tasty the next day as leftovers as well.

substitue:

Instead of garlic powder, you could do ranch dressing mix, seasoning salt, or buffalo dried seasoning. You could also sprinkle some parmesan cheese over the top after the florets are cooked. That would be super yummy. The possibilities are just about endless.

If you make this recipe, let me know how you liked it. Did you do any substitutions of your own?