Chinese food is one of my all time favorite types of takeout. As a kid, I always requested Sesame Chicken when my family was ordering takeout from our neighborhood Chinese food place. That sweet sticky sauce smothering the bits of fried chicken and steamed broccoli all over a fluffy bed of white rice was what Saturday night tasted like. I hadn’t had this particular type of satisfaction for a long time (probably seven years) until we went to Buddha Bodai in Chinatown for the first time, which is a vegan Chinese restaurant full of amazing choices and all the classics – and all meat free! It was as if I was dreaming a delicious dream. Of course, I ordered their Sesame “Chicken”, and it did not disappoint!

A few months later, when I saw a recipe on Pinterest by Chocolate Covered Katie for Sticky Sesame Cauliflower, you can only guess how excited I was to try it out. If you think about it, the chicken part is not really that important for the experience of eating Sesame Chicken. It is truly all about the iconic sauce that tastes so ooey gooey good (and must be loaded with sugar!). I figured a roasted cauliflower floret would take on this sweet sauce just as well as a fried chicken nugget, and it would be way more guilt-free. I decided to make it even healthier by cutting back Katie’s sauce to floret ratio and consciously avoiding the total coated stickiness. It turned out well – not as sticky as the Saturday night takeout version, but a yummy adult, vegan, health-conscious take on the Sesame Chicken experience.

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