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This dump-and-bake Buffalo Cauliflower & Chickpea Casserole is cozy and hearty, plus you only need 10 ingredients to make it! Naturally Vegan & Gluten-Free.
Cauliflower wings, step aside! Our favorite cruciferous veggie combines with protein and fiber-packed chickpeas, hearty brown rice, hot sauce and a few simple spices to make this tastes-so-good-but-its-actually-good-for-you showstopper of a dish.
The best part? It tastes so. dang. good. Oh yeah, and you only need 10 simple ingredients to make it…
Making a Dump-and-Bake Casserole couldn’t be any easier…
- Preheat the oven to 400F
- Whisk the vegetable broth, hot sauce, and spices in a pot and bring to a boil
- Arrange the remaining ingredients in a casserole dish, pour the liquid on top, cover, & bake!
The secret to this one-pan wonder of a dish is to add just the right amount of liquid to the casserole so the rice will absorb it and get nice and fluffy. Pre-boiling the liquid also helps speed things along in the oven, too.
After the casserole comes out of the oven, I’d highly recommend topping it with some sliced green onions and a hearty drizzle of Nut Free Vegan Ranch. But you do you, boo 😉
This Buffalo Cauliflower & Chickpea Casserole is great for meal-prep, a hands-off weeknight dinner, or to share with friends! It’s bursting with spicy “buffalo” flavor and serves as a heartier, wholesome alternative to a few deep fried wings. It’d be perfect for a game day potluck, too – would serving it alongside my Healthy Buffalo “Chicken” Dip be too much? Asking for a friend…
A Few Final Thoughts:
- Substitutions: you can swap out the chickpeas for another bean, or add in up to 1 cup of additional veggies – broccoli or green beans would be great here.
- Unfortunately I have not tested this recipe with any other rice or grain, so you need to stick with brown rice here. Subbing it out would require altering the liquid amount and cooking time.
- If you’re looking for more casserole recipes, you’ll also love this “Cheesy” Broccoli Rice Casserole and this Fall Roasted Vegetable Casserole!
Finally, if you make this recipe and decide to share it on Facebook or Instagram, don’t forget to tag me @FromMyBowl + #FromMyBowl! I love seeing your delicious recreations 🙂
Buffalo Cauliflower & Chickpea Casserole
This dump-and-bake Buffalo Cauliflower & Chickpea Casserole is cozy and hearty, plus you only need 10 ingredients to make it!
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 60 Minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4 to 6 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 cups (470 ml) low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup (118 ml) buffalo hot sauce
- 1/4 cup (22 g) nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 rib of celery, finely sliced
- 2 cups (374 g) chickpeas, cooked*
- 1/2 medium head of cauliflower, chopped into bite-sized florets (about 2 cups; 200 g)
- 1 cup (182 g) uncooked brown rice
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- Nut Free Vegan Ranch and chopped green onions, for garnish (Optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Mix the vegetable broth, hot sauce, nutritional yeast, and onion powder together medium pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
- While the liquid is heating up, pour the chickpeas a 9×13″ pan or casserole dish. Sprinkle the cauliflower and celery evenly over the chickpeas, then add the uncooked brown rice over the top of the dish.
- Remove the vegetable broth from the heat once it comes to a boil and stir in the minced garlic. Pour the liquid evenly over the casserole dish; if any spices stick together you can gently separate them with a spatula. Cover the casserole with aluminum foil (or parchment paper, followed by aluminum foil) and bake in the middle rack of the oven for 60 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and top with green onions and/or vegan ranch, or serve as desired. Refrigerate leftovers in a sealed container for up to one week, or in the freezer for up to one month.
Notes
- If you are using canned chickpeas, be sure to drain and rinse them well. You can also replace them with any other bean of your choosing!
Just made this for the first time, SO GOOD! I’m not really a hot sauce person, but every so often, I have a craving for buffalo wings. This totally satisfies that! The rice gives it the chewiness that is missing from plain buffalo cauliflower and the chickpeas make it more filling (and delicious, because I love chickpeas!) I even made a cashew based vegan ranch to go with it! Seriously so satisfied right now. Thanks for the recipe Caitlin! Keep them coming ????
So glad it helped hit the spot!
Made this today after seeing it in your dump and bake casseroles YouTube video. It was perfect! I can’t believe that something so easy was so delicious and I didn’t need 35 ingredients to make it lol. Will definitely make it again and I’ll try the others too.
We try to keep it easy and accessible! Thanks so much for making it!
I made this tonight. The flavor was excellent. I used black rice (it was all I had), and the rice was nearly done at 75 minutes, and it turned everything a weird purple color. LOL. I planned on leftovers for lunch tomorrow, but the kids finished it off. its definitely going on the regular rotation.
Consider it natural food coloring! Haha. Love hearing that you guys all liked it enough to add it to your rotation!
This recipe is sooo good! I have already repeated it a few times during quarantine 😛 So easy and delicious.
Happy to hear it’s getting put through its paces in your kitchen!
This recipe is awesome. And it was so easy. Just made it for dinner and had to go for seconds. I’ll be making it in the future! Looking forward to trying some of your other recipes.!
Let us know how you like the others!
I made this last night and it was delicious! I subbed the cauliflower and chickpeas for broccoli (pantry is running low) and it still worked great! As a vegan, it can be tough to constantly cook separate meals from my family. But this was so easy to make and everyone enjoyed! Thanks Caitlin! (I also made your banana bread a few weeks ago and it was gone in a day! Keep up the amazing recipes!!)
Well I’m glad you were able to make it for your whole family! Hopefully they’ll be more eager to try more vegan meals in the future!
I came across this recipe today on You Tube and had to make it even though I didn’t have any fresh cauliflower. I used a bag of frozen cauliflower and turned the oven heat up to 425. It turned out great, even though some of the brown rice stuck to the top of the florets and didn’t cook. Next time, I will add the cauliflower after the rice. There will definitely be a next time that I make this because it was so good! Thanks for sharing, Caitlin!
Glad you enjoyed it and were able to use what you already had!
This is amazing! I accidentally forgot the garlic and it was still great. I will make this over and over.
Happy to hear you liked it!
I want to try this! Just curious though, it says Vegan (V), Gluten Free (GF). What does OF mean?
Oil-Free!
This is so good!! I found mine needed about another 15 minutes of baking to get the rice soft. I topped with plain cashew yogurt. Delicious!!
Glad you liked it – thanks for making it!
I made this recipe with white basmati rice and about a half-cup less liquid. I ended up taking it out of the oven at about 45-50 minutes and it was great!
Happy to hear you liked it! Thanks for making!
This was AMAZING!!! soo easy to make, i literally just through everything in a pyrex in 5 minutes. Thanks so much for your recipes!
Yay! So glad you’re enjoying it Erika!
I made this with Frank’s Red Hot and the Vegan Ranch from Trader Joe’s. One of the best vegan meals I’ve ever had! I will say that I added extra celery because I didn’t think 1 stalk was enough. I used 4 stalks since 2 stalks=1 serving, but I think you could use even more than that. Thank you for this recipe! I plan to make again soon. 🙂
Add as much celery as you like! Glad you liked it!
This looks amazing! Has anyone tried to modify it for the instant pot?
Thanks, Laura! We have yet to make this in an instant pot.
OMG! I made this for a non vegan husband and he loved it and does ask for it quite often! Thank you for posting. I was wondering if you have tried this with a cheese sauce on top instead of the cashew ranch? Which was better?
We’ve only ever tried with the ranch BUT I could see a cheesey sauce working well with these. Ranch and buffalo sauce is just such a classic combination though!
This recipe is so delicious! I have already made it twice. In fact I have made all of your dump n bake recipes. Every time I make them, my non vegan boyfriend doesn’t complain about not having meat, they are so delicious he doesn’t even notice. They are so easy to make for meal prep! I would love even more dump n bake recipes! Thank you so much!
Happy to hear your boyfriend is enjoying them! Thanks so much!
This was genius! I topped with avocado. Please make more recipes like this, it was probably the fastest recipe I ever made.
Glad you’re liking them! Thanks!
I’ve made this recipe multiple times and it is a hit with everyone. One of my favorite casseroles of all time. I also add a couple gold potatoes too so it’s more like the loaded buffalo chicken casserole I used to make. So delicious and I’d give it 100 stars if I could
You’re so kind! Thanks so much – glad that you’ve enjoyed it so much!
I doubled the recipe and went half-and-half between brown rice and quinoa. I also made it in the slow cooker. 6.5 hours – half on low, half on high. Finally, I recommend Texas Pete’s buffalo sauce. Great recipe.
Awesome! Glad you liked it and were able to customize it some!
Great recipe ! I added tofu and then used this mix for tacos as well the next day! So good!
That’s an awesome use! Thanks for sharing!
This sounds delicious! I’m going to make it tonight. Want to add tofu for some extra protein (I saw someone else did that). Do you think it will get “chewy” though, baking for so long? Any tips? Thank you 🙂
Hi Rachel! I think the tofu would get a little soggy, to be honest. You could bake it on a separate baking sheet in the oven at the same time, though?
I am making this tonight and I can’t wait (currently preassembled in the fridge). I doubled it and it still fit in a 9” x 13” pan perfectly! I am using half brow rice and half white rice because it’s what I had on hand. Rather than double the water, I 1.5x it since white rice needs less water than brown. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out with the modifications.
Awesome! Let us know how it works for you – and good work with the troubleshooting!
OMG this is delish! Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks so much for making it!