Copycat California Pizza Kitchen Sticky Asian Cauliflower - Healthy Thai Recipes (2024)

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Copycat California Pizza Kitchen Asian Sticky Cauliflower is a new item on the California Pizza Kitchen Menu I just discovered this spring of 2019. It is relatively simple to make but not the healthiest recipe on this blog by any means. Probably best saved for cheat day due to the deep frying. It is cauliflower though so we decided to go with it.

Is it actually a Thai dish? Who knows? It's similar though

With a quick Google search, I couldn't find any evidence that it is actually a traditional Thai recipe but I did find similar versions labeled as Thai like this one. Thai recipes are full of sticky items though like sticky rice. Usually, anything sticky is also sugary so as usual, we used the healthiest sweetener we could think of. I apologize in advance to anyone offended by this not being exactly a Thai dish, it has peanuts and many components of a Thai dish and it's exciting. That's why I chose to add it here. They do not advertise it as a Thai dish though.

We bought the dish, to go, and this is what it looked like so we copied this one. As of this writing, I just noticed the difference in the amount of slivered scallions on their image. I guess that's what happens at restaurants, you don't get the exact picture of the advertisem*nt. Again, a reason to do it on your own.

This recipe was a group effort to figure out. Mod figured out the batter to fry the cauliflower in and I figured out how to sliver the onions. Mod also corrected my crushing of the peanuts by crushing them more than I did.

Trying to Make it Healthier

We used canola oil as unsaturated fat and a whole wheat flour rather than their processed rice flour ingredient. Mod also decided to go with adding a little tapioca starch out of concern that it would not stick together enough otherwise. There are claims that, due to it's lower saturated fat content and higher monounsaturated fat content, it may even be good for us. Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia page for Canola Oil.

For the sauce you can use a store-bought, Thai sweet chili sauce or make it with our recipe. Ours has lower calories if you are trying to decrease calorie content.

Healthier Thai Sweet Chili Sauce-Reduced Calories and Salt

"Health information[edit]

Canola oil is considered safe for human consumption,^[28][29]and has a relatively low amount ofsaturated fat, a substantial amount ofmonounsaturated fat, with roughly a 2:1 mono- topoly-unsaturatedfats ratio.^[30]

Experiments on animals have pointed to the possibility that erucic acid, consumed in large quantities, may cause heart damage, although Indian researchers have published findings that call into question these conclusions and the implication that the consumption of mustard or rapeseed oil is dangerous.^{[31][32][33][34][35]}Feed meal from the rapeseed plant also was not particularly appealing to livestock, because of high levels of sharp-tasting compounds called glucosinolates.

"In 2006, canola oil was given a qualified health claimby the United StatesFood and Drug Administrationfor lowering the risk ofcoronary heart disease, resulting from its significant content of unsaturated fats; the allowed claim for food labels states:^[36]"

"Limited and not conclusive scientific evidence suggests that eating about 1 ½ tablespoons (19 grams) of canola oil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to the unsaturated fat content in canola oil. To achieve this possible benefit, canola oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day. One serving of this product contains [x] grams of canola oil."

Our Recipe

Without further ado, here is our recipe.

Ingredients:

• For the coating
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup tapioca starch
  • 1 pinch of salt and pepper or salt substitute
• For the sticky sauce
  • 2 tablespoon honey
  • 2 tablespoon sambal
  • 1 cup Thai sweet chili sauce
• 1 Head of Cauliflower broken into florets
• Approximately 2-4 cups canola oil depending on how big the cauliflower is
• 1-2 cups peanuts crushed into smaller pieces
• Slivered shallots/green onions

Instructions:

1. Mix the coating mixture ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Roll the cauliflower florets in the mixture for the coating.
3. Heat the oil and the sticky sauce in separate pans on high for the oil and medium for the sticky sauce.
4. Fry the cauliflower florets until a golden brown being careful not to burn them.
5. BE SUPER CAREFUL with the hot oil, please.
6. Roll the cauliflower in the sticky sauce that is heating on medium and remove with tongs.
7. Serve covered in your desired amount of peanuts and shallot slivers and enjoy! 🙂

As always, thanks so much for checking us out. Here at Healthythairecipes.com, we try to make our recipes as healthy as possible while keeping as much Thai character involved as possible but when in doubt you have to check it out with a doctor. If you have dietary concerns, please follow up with an appropriate professional because your situation is fact dependent.

If you love cauliflower you might love one of these recipes.

Cauliflower and Boiled Eggs Thai Red Curry

Copycat California Pizza Kitchen Thai Pizza Kitchen Pizza Recipe

Copycat PF Chang Thai Harvest Curry with Tofu

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Printable Recipe Below