Sweet & Sour Vegan Cauliflower

Hey there my fellow vegans and vegan-curious readers!

One of the things I like to do when it comes to vegan takeout recipes at home, is to make a few compromises. Instead of choosing vegan meat alternatives like TVP, vegan beef or seitan, is to go totally plant based and vegetable based to minimize my calorie intake.

If you’re interested, check out my General Tso’s Soy Strips, or Takeout at Home for the Lazy Vegan or the Mongolian Tofu recipe.

I know, I know, it sounds obsessive if you’ve never struggled with weight problems in the past, but now that I know what I did so wrong for so many years, I refuse to repeat that behavior. So instead of sweet sour vegan chicken, I chose sweet and sour cauliflower.

Why?

Cauliflower is super satisfying and it takes on a variety of flavors really, really well. It’s the perfect vessel for a dish that’s full of flavor. If you’d rather eat a shoe than cauliflower, do your thang. Just switch out cauliflower for any other vegan main dish you desire.

Now, let’s get into this Sweet & Sour Vegan Cauliflower recipe.

You can cook this recipe in the oven or on the stovetop, and if you’re really feeling energetic, you can fry the cauliflower first and toss it in the sweet and sour sauce.

The choice is always yours, it’s just a matter of what you feel like doing in the kitchen!

Before you gather your vegan recipe ingredients, make sure you have all the kitchen tools you need:

Small whisk
Medium mixing bowl
Small sifter/mesh strainer

Ingredients:

Cauliflower
Soy sauce
Corn starch
Brown sugar
Ketchup (check label to make sure it’s vegan)
Apple cider vinegar
Sunflower oil
Dried red chilies
Couscous

The first thing you want to do is clean and chop the cauliflower. Bite-sized pieces are ideal because they fit in your mouth but sometimes a piece of cauliflower is just too pretty to mess up so do what you have to do.

Track Your Nutrition & Health Data with cronometer.com

Season with salt and pepper, maybe garlic granules and paprika too if you want an extra kick of flavor.

Cook on the stovetop over medium-high heat in a small amount of oil until the cauliflower is soft but still with a bite to it, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Bring water for couscous to a boil and don’t forget its a 2 parts water to 1 part grain ratio. Add couscous to water, stir and remove from heat. Let the couscous sit for five minutes and then lift the lid so it’s lopsided so you can get a fluffy couscous that will get even fluffier when you fluff it with a fork.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, water and cornstarch until blended.

Pour over cauliflower and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and let the sauce thicken, about 5 minutes.

Plate up the couscous and cauliflower however you like. I’m more of a put it on a bed of grains kind of girl, while my Hubs likes to keep’em separated. Did you just hear that song by The Offspring in your head?