These oven baked cauliflower nuggets with honey mustard dipping sauce are the perfect side dish or snack. They are made with fresh cauliflower florets, coated in delicious herbs and spices and pair perfectly with the sauce. They are gluten free, dairy free, low carb, paleo, and keto.
Oven baked cauliflower nuggets
These delicious cauliflower nuggets make for the most perfect snack, side dish or appetizer.
They are completely gluten free, dairy free, low carb, paleo, and keto.
The creamy honey mustard dipping sauce is the most perfect pairing for all of the bold flavors coming from the spiced cauliflower florets.
It is made with homemade paleo mayonnaise, two different types of mustard, garlic powder, and honey.
I love pairing it with roasted veggies, alongside fries, and with my gluten free chicken strips.
How to make cauliflower nuggets
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the cauliflower florets with mayo until well coated throughout.
In a small bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients (spices, flour, and yeast.) Sprinkle this mixture all over the cauliflower florets and mix thoroughly until they are evenly coated.
Lay florets out in a single layer on the parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.
While the cauliflower nuggets are cooking, prepare the dipping sauce.
In a small bowl, stir together the mayo, mustards, honey, and garlic powder. Taste for and add salt and pepper to preference.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one 1 week.
Recipe Tips and Notes
I'd recommend purchasing a whole cauliflower so you can cut the florets as small or as large as you'd like.
Making your own homemade mayonnaise is a game changer in this recipe. It's really easy to do with an immersion blender... trust me and go for it!
You can double the recipe, and you should still have enough mayo made to use up but definitely no leftovers remaining! 😉
If you eat the nuggets right away, they'll be a bit more crisp. After they sit, they become softer but are still absolutely delicious.
What can these cauliflower nuggets be paired with?
I think these would taste really lovely alongside:
I also love eating them as snack without anything else. Cauliflower can be very filling, so it makes for a lovely and nutritious snack.
If you'd like to get more adventurous with your spice selection, you definitely can. I do recommend not swapping out the nutritional yeast because it adds for some really lovely flavor alongside the other spices.
The turmeric also helps with the beautiful coloring you end up with after they are finished baking.
More gluten free recipes you'll love:
Cauliflower Nuggets with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
Cauliflower Nuggets
- 1 pound cauliflower florets
- 1/4 cup Homemade Paleo Mayonnaise see notes
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon thyme or rosemary
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
- 3 tablespoons gluten free flour blend see notes
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
- 1/2 cup Homemade Paleo Mayonnaise see notes
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 teaspoons whole grain or spicy brown mustard
- 1 heaping tablespoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- kosher salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
Cauliflower Nuggets
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the cauliflower florets with mayo until well coated throughout.
- In a small bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients (spices, flour, and yeast.) Sprinkle this mixture all over the cauliflower florets and mix thoroughly until they are evenly coated.
- Lay florets out in a single layer on the parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.
- While the cauliflower nuggets are cooking, prepare the dipping sauce.
Honey Mustard Sauce
- In a small bowl, stir together the mayo, mustards, honey, and garlic powder. Taste for and add salt and pepper to preference.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one 1 week.
Notes
- Make one batch of homemade paleo mayonnaise for this recipe. You will use almost all of it between coating the cauliflower florets and as the base in the honey mustard sauce.
- I'd recommend using Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Flour or a rice flour.
Nutrition
Hi! I’m Monica – recipe developer, matcha addict and lover of all things chocolate, kombucha and any & all puns. I am also the blogger, real food lover, & bonafide hustler behind the blog ‘The Movement Menu.’ I’m so excited to welcome you to my happy space, where my appreciation of creative recipes and healthy & mindful eats come together to inspire you to live a healthy, balanced life.
i lovveed all the dang flavor with these! i have some more cauliflower left over so am gonna make it again this week.
i do have a couple questions - i found them to be a little "wet" -- which, personally didn't bother me that much, but is that probably from using too much mayo?
also also, i forgot to get rice flour or a GF blend lol so i used tapioca instead - which tasted fine to me, but i'm curious what benefit the rice flour was meant to have hehe
Hmm interesting. Yes, and maybe your cauliflower was a bit smaller because mine doesn't turn out wet with that much mayo. You can cut back on the amount if you'd like. The tapioca/arrowroot flour on its own could work wonders as well. That's a perfectly fine substitution! 🙂
Made this as a side dish to dinner... should have made a double batch it was so good!! I’m about to put the honey mustard on all veggies for the week. Didn’t have the nutritional yeast, still came out fabulous!
That is so, so awesome!!! You will have to try it some time with nutritional yeast, and update me on what you think 🙂 and YESSSS that honey mustard sauce is so darn yummy!
This was sooo good! Flavorful and delicious and easy too! I used store bought mayo but it still tasted awesome! this is going to be my go to honey mustard sauce!
yayyyy Heather, this makes me smile so big! 🙂