These cauliflower tacos with breaded cauliflower, refried beans and silky Yum Yum sauce are all about one thing: big flavor!
Behold the taco. Canvas for all kinds of deliciousness, from traditional like barbacoa with tomatillo salsa to fusion like Korean beef or Thai tofu. Most of the time Alex and I eat a whole food plant based diet, so we’re always looking for creative ways to use veggies. And the taco is the perfect canvas for creating some insane veggie flavors and textures! And this one is our new favorite: these Crispy Cauliflower Tacos.
Related: Best Healthy Dinner Recipes & 10 Best Vegetarian Tacos
Eating lots of veggies
A new study came out recently called the EAT-Lancet Study that talks about how eating more plants and a little less meat is better for the planet. It’s also a little better for our personal health, too. Alex and I started eating this way about 10 years ago when we read a book called Food Matters by Mark Bittman. So, this is becoming more and more of a theme in research and media.
The upside to all of this is: eating lots of veggies has never been more exciting and creative! Because of the internet, we have access to all sorts of ideas for eating vegetables stemming from cuisines from around the world. And access to literally millions of recipes. Eating your vegetables has never tasted so good: like with this flavor-popping cauliflower tacos.
What people are saying about these cauliflower tacos
These cauliflower tacos have quickly become a fan favorite on A Couple Cooks! It’s been so fun to hear from those of you who’ve made and loved these cauliflower tacos. So many of you have convinced people wary about veggies with this recipe! Here’s some of what people are saying:
- We made the cauliflower tacos tonight. Husband said, “these are the best vegetarian tacos we have ever made!” We have made a LOT of vegetarian tacos in the past 10 years. Sooo good!!
- Made them tonight and they were delicious! I’ve been trying to find plant based recipes that my husband will eat and enjoy and he gave these a thumbs up! Definitely going into the rotation!
- I made these cauliflower tacos for a vegetarian and three carnivores tonight!! All of us loved them!! Such interesting flavors!!
How to make cauliflower tacos
OK, on to this recipe! We have a delicious cauliflower tacos recipe in our cookbook, Pretty Simple Cooking, but we’ve never posted one here on A Couple Cooks. So here goes: the star of these easy cauliflower tacos is our Crispy Breaded Cauliflower. It’s roasted in the oven and covered in a savory, salty, sweet and lightly spicy breading. It’s a bit of a play on breaded fish tacos (though of course the flavor is quite different!).
Accessorize that with some refried black beans, tart cabbage slaw, and cilantro. (We used canned refried beans, but you can also make our homemade version.) Then cover it all in a delicious sauce: this Yum Yum Sauce recipe. Yum Yum Sauce is used in Japanese steakhouses and served with seafood, but here we’ve used it as a bit of a “fusion” element to accessorize with this vegetarian taco recipe. It’s so, so tasty and adds a richness to the tacos that’s incredible. It’s certainly not a health food in itself, but a little goes a long way here!
If you’d like to make a different sauce from the Yum Yum Sauce for these cauliflower tacos (there’s a vegan variation in that sauce recipe), here are a few more ideas for delicious taco sauces that would be great here:
- Avocado cream
- Cilantro drizzle (vegan)
- Spicy Chipotle Sauce (vegan)
- Cilantro yogurt
- Creamy cilantro sauce (vegan)
Looking for more vegan & vegetarian tacos?
Outside of these crispy cauliflower tacos, here are a few of our favorite vegan and vegetarian tacos recipes:
- Easy Black Bean Tacos
- Quick Refried Bean Tacos
- Easy Tofu Tacos with tofu crumbles
- Loaded Quinoa Tacos
- Instant Pot Tacos
- Grilled Mango Tacos
- “Verde” Lentil Vegan Tacos
- BBQ Bean Tacos
- Chickpea Tacos with Cilantro Yogurt
- Tacos Rancheros
- Vegetarian Lentil Tacos
This cauliflower tacos recipe is…
Vegetarian, gluten-free, refined sugar free, and naturally sweet. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, use the vegan Yum Yum Sauce variation or the Chipotle Tahini Sauce.
PrintCauliflower Tacos with Yum Yum Sauce
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
These cauliflower tacos with breaded cauliflower, refried beans and silky Yum Yum sauce are all about one thing: big flavor!
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Crispy Breaded Cauliflower
- 15-ounce can vegetarian refried beans (or Easy Refried Black Beans or Homemade Refried Beans)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 2 cups red cabbage, shredded
- 2 limes (1 for the cabbage & 1 to serve)
- 3 tablespoons Yum Yum Sauce (use vegan mayo or substitute Spicy Chipotle Sauce)
- 8 corn tortillas
- Fresh cilantro, for garnish
Instructions
- Make the Crispy Breaded Cauliflower (about 40 minutes total; use the remaining time to complete the steps below.)
- If using purchased refried beans, taste and if needed, mix with 1/2 teaspoon cumin and/or a pinch or two kosher salt. (Or, you can make our Supremely Simple Refried Black Beans but for this recipe we preferred using storebought so we could focus on the cauliflower!)
- Thinly slice the cabbage, enough for 2 cups. Mix it with 2 tablespoons lime juice and a pinch or two of salt. Allow it to stand at room temperature until serving.
- Make the Yum Yum Sauce.
- Warm the tortillas, or char them by placing them on grates above an open gas flame on medium heat for a few seconds per side, flipping with tongs, until they are slightly blackened and warm.
- Chop the cilantro for a garnish.
- To serve, place refried beans in a tortilla, top with cabbage, breaded cauliflower, Yum Yum sauce, and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges to spritz prior to serving. (If you have leftover cauliflower, you can reheat them in a 350F oven for 10 minutes, flipping once.)
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Mexican Inspired
Keywords: Cauliflower Tacos, Easy Cauliflower Tacos, Vegetarian Tacos, Vegetarian Dinner Ideas, Vegan Dinner Ideas, Plant Based Dinner Ideas
39 Comments
denise
March 16, 2019 at 6:33 pmThese are SO GOOD! Made them exactly as shown. Definitely another keeper…y’all do such a great job coming up with so many tasty meals! Thank you!
Sonja
March 23, 2019 at 11:27 pmOh thank you so much! That is so kind. We are so glad you enjoyed them!!
Kathrin Betz
March 28, 2019 at 10:28 amThese are AMAZING!!! The breaded cauliflower and yum yum sauce work sooo well together, we loved it. Im definately making these again soon.
I switched out the cabbage (just not a fan..) for fried bell pepper slices and that worked great. I also added some liquid smoke to the cauliflower breading and I love the extra little smokeyness.
Sonja
March 31, 2019 at 8:30 pmAhhh SO glad to hear you enjoyed it! Great idea on sub-ing bell pepper for cabbage and liquid smoke? Fantastic. (We’re always up for some!
KC
March 30, 2019 at 10:08 pmLove the tip above on adding liquid smoke. Next time I’ll also add jalapeños or more hot sauce. Delicious recipe … just wanted more heat. Thank you!!
Sonja
March 31, 2019 at 8:31 pmYes, hot sauce or jalapenos would be great for people who love a spicy kick! and we want to try this with liquid smoke too :)
Anonymous
July 11, 2019 at 12:24 pmI made these last night and they were amazing! Thank you so much for this!
Anonymous
July 29, 2019 at 9:10 pmMy family is trying to move to a more plant based diet and I found this recipe extremely easy and delicious. Thank you for sharing this excellent healthy recipe.
Mary
August 14, 2019 at 6:40 pmI made these tonight, they turned out great!! My daughter just ate the cauliflower and she told me it tasted like chicken nuggets! I am a vegetarian but my husband and daughter are not so it is always great when I can please everyone with one meal! I am going to make this all the time.
Michael
October 15, 2019 at 5:35 pmWhat breading do you use??
Alex Overhiser
October 15, 2019 at 8:24 pmThe recipe is here: https://www.acouplecooks.com/crispy-breaded-cauliflower/
Lori
November 16, 2019 at 6:54 amI’ve tried to leave this comment on Pinterest, not sure if their sight is down or what but it won’t let me post it, I will try again latter because EVERYONE needs to try this recipe!! .I can’t say enough about these tacos!! My husband picked this recipe out when I was gripping at him about needing more veggies. He is strictly a steak and potatoes kinda guy, so is my 16 y/o son. I made them with absolute confidence they were going to be inedible, after all peanut butter, soy sauce and maple syrup !?? I couldn’t have been more wrong. These tacos were MIND BLOWING fabulous!!!! I couldn’t stop talking about how SHOCKED I was for days! Not just “good for vegetarian tacos” but genuinely FANTASTIC!! We all LOVE them and now make them often. SO SO GOOD!! Makes my daughter happy as she and I would like to drastically reduce meat. Win Win for sure! When I make them I increase the ingredients slightly for the yum yum sauce as the original recipe wasn’t quite enough for #2 of cauliflower for us. Also if I use a full #2 of cauliflower (which makes a lot for 4 people, and that’s ok) I will slightly increase the amounts of the peanut butter, soy, syrup mixture. And we don’t use the cabbage mixture, instead we use chopped cilantro and lettuce with a little Mexican crumble cheese or….cheddar. Also I make my own refried beans in the crockpot but I’m certain canned would be just fine. All around one of my top recipes, hands down!
Alex Overhiser
November 16, 2019 at 6:09 pmI’m so glad you and the family loved the tacos! Tell your husband that there are more tasty vegetable recips where this came from ??
Heather
November 19, 2019 at 9:20 pmHoly Crap! No offense, but I did not expect this to be as good as it was. The crunch and flavor on the cauliflower was phenomenal! I also made your linked refried black beans, which I previously had no idea how easy they were to make. The only thing I added to the tacos were some pickled red onions. My husband even got a third serving! We are both good cooks, but have recently fallen into a recipe rut, which had us fall further into a processed food rut. This was our first meal to snap out of it and I’m so glad we found it.
Sonja Overhiser
November 20, 2019 at 10:24 amWe are so thrilled you loved our cauliflower tacos! Pickled red onions is the PERFECT adder (it’s my favorite for tacos.) Alex gets all the credit for that crunchy cauliflower — he’s genius :) Thanks so much for making our recipe!
Anonymous
December 11, 2019 at 11:31 pmI am thinking about making these for a school project featuring vegan foods, but we don’t have a lot of the spices needed. Will the taste change drastically if I, say, take out the Yum Yum sauce? Or is there another sauce that I can replace it with and still maintain the same flavor?
Sonja Overhiser
December 13, 2019 at 1:08 pmGood question! Instead of the Yum Yum sauce, you could just mix together vegan mayo and hot sauce — would that be easy enough for you?
Anonymous
December 13, 2019 at 11:19 pmWow! Thank you so much!
Renee
December 19, 2019 at 10:29 pmThese are ridiculously good. I followed the recipe to the letter all three times I have made it and it never disappoints.
Sonja Overhiser
December 20, 2019 at 11:59 amWe are SO happy to hear this! Alex and I are so glad you enjoyed them — makes our day! Thank you for letting us know!
Kristine
December 30, 2019 at 9:42 pmThis recipe is sooo good! My husband is not a big fan of cauliflower and he thought it was awesome. I did the vegan plan coconut oil, avocado mayo etc. We absolutely loved it. Thank you!
Alex Overhiser
December 31, 2019 at 10:32 amSo glad you both enjoyed! :)
Alex
January 19, 2020 at 5:55 pmFinally, a CRISPY cauliflower recipe.. I’ve been trying to find baked crispy cauliflower recipe forever and none of them are ever crispy enough! This was great, we made it last night. Thank you so much!
Alex Overhiser
January 20, 2020 at 7:32 amGlad you enjoyed it!
SBM
April 16, 2020 at 8:41 pmHi there, i recreated this using your pickled cabbage, yum yum sauce. I didn’t exactly used the breaded cauliflower recipe, but next time i will. I wanted to let you know that the limed cabbage tasted so well with other ingredients, it balanced the taste so perfectly with the yum yum sauce. Thanks again…
Alex Overhiser
April 17, 2020 at 12:42 pmSo glad you enjoyed!
Lisa
May 2, 2020 at 3:30 amThese tacos are AMAZING, I highly recommend!! I made the yum yum sauce and homemade refrained beans and I’m so glad I did, the flavor combo was perfect. My boyfriend had 5 tacos! We topped them with jalapeño hot sauce and avocado too. This is definitely in our rotation now, thank you so much!
Alex Overhiser
May 2, 2020 at 12:35 pmYou’re welcome! So glad you enjoyed :)
Deepa
May 3, 2020 at 10:45 pmThank you so much for sharing this delicious recipe!! 5 stars!! I made it for my very discerning family (vegan and non-vegan) and added fresh queso for the non-vegans. It was a hit and a great recipe to celebrate Cinco de Mayo early. The cauliflower and yum-yum sauce were my favourite! It’s such a great reminder that simple (cabbage slaw and pickled onions) bring on incredible flavour combinations when paired with the breaded cauliflower. Thank you again, love your recipes and insta posts
Alex Overhiser
May 4, 2020 at 10:37 amSo glad you enjoyed! Now I want to try it with queso :)
Elle
May 7, 2020 at 11:05 pmOh my gosh–so good. I am trying to go vegan. My husband is not. We both loved this!!! I love the yum yum sauce and am going to keep it as a separate recipe for salad dressing (struggling with the store bought). Also, gotta say it– the wet ingredients of the breading without the hot sauce makes a great, super easy peanut sauce. Definitely going to try that on Chinese food. Bravo!!! Thanks for the recipe.
Alex Overhiser
May 8, 2020 at 9:55 amYou’re welcome! Thanks for making :)
Siobhan
May 14, 2020 at 8:37 amThese were so good!! I made the cauliflower and your refried black beans as directed, and then adjusted the sauce and toppings with what I had on hand. Definitely will be making again and already excited about leftovers :)
Alex Overhiser
May 14, 2020 at 9:41 amSo glad you enjoyed :)
Amanda
May 20, 2020 at 10:40 amLoved these. My husband is not a big cauliflower eater and was skeptical but loved it too!
Anonymous
May 23, 2020 at 4:39 amThis recipe is ridiculously good!! Would recommend this to all… It takes time to make but the end result is worth it. I enjoyed it a lot. Thank You!!!
Mark
May 27, 2020 at 5:39 pmMy husband and I are on a limited meat (10%) diet for the welfare of animals and our health. I made these tonight and they were terrific.. we also threw some pickled red onion for a bit of taste bud surprise and wow, just awesome! Thanks for the great recipe and looking forward to trying others!
Alex Overhiser
May 28, 2020 at 8:28 amSo glad you enjoyed!
Kelsey
November 9, 2020 at 11:27 amFANTASTIC! I used bang bang sauce instead of the sauce in the recipe and opted for a side of black beans instead of the refried beans on the tacos. Tasted just like Baja shrimp tacos.