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I’m always open to new ways to serve vegetables. Even if they’re breaded, fried, or served with a rich sauce. In fact, when they’re served with breading and/or sauce, they’re a special treat. One of my favorite appetizers at certain drive-in restaurants, carnivals, or other types of fast-food places is breaded cauliflower or breaded mushrooms served with ranch for dipping. These types of foods aren’t so easy to find in many grocery stores, so I enjoy ordering them during the rare times when I happen to be at a restaurant or fair that sells them.
So Aldi caught my attention when they recently sold some breaded vegetables with sauce in the middle aisle freezer section. They offered two choices: Garlic Parmesan Broccoli Bites or Buffalo Cauliflower Bites. These are sold under the Season’s Choice brand, which is not a separate company but is the Aldi private label encompassing mostly frozen vegetable products, including grilled vegetables, sweet corn, broccoli and cauliflower bakes, and even French fries.
Season’s Choice Garlic Parmesan Broccoli Bites and Season’s Choice Buffalo Cauliflower Bites cost $3.49 for a 13.5-ounce package at the time of publication, which comes out to about 26 cents per ounce. They’re a product of the Netherlands.
These look similar to name-brand Birds Eye Garlic Parmesan Broccoli Bites and Birds Eye Buffalo Style Cauliflower Wings. The Birds Eye brand cauliflower wings cost about 32 cents per ounce at Walmart at the time of writing, which makes the Aldi version the better deal.
These are Aldi Finds, so they’re only in stores for a limited time. Each store gets on shipment, and after that sells out, these are gone unless Aldi decides to bring them back at some point. Aldi does not offer online ordering for products not in stock at your local store.
Each package contains about 3.5 one-cup servings. These can be cooked in a conventional oven or in an air fryer. These should be cooked from frozen. Each bag contains breaded veggies plus a sauce packet.
To bake in the oven, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and place the broccoli or cauliflower on the sheet in a single layer. Bake for 25 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. Flip halfway though baking. Remove from oven, pour sauce on, toss, and serve.
To air fry, place one layer of broccoli or cauliflower into the fryer basket. Set at 375 degrees and air fryer for 15 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. Pour sauce on, toss, and serve.
Garlic Parmesan Broccoli Bites after baking, with sauce tossed in.
I baked these in my oven since I had other food cooking in my air fryer, and because I wasn’t sure my air fryer was large enough to place all the veggies in a single layer. The broccoli pieces are smaller and were done baking after about 20 minutes, while I left the cauliflower, which had larger pieces, baking for about 23 minutes total.
There isn’t a lot of sauce for either the broccoli or cauliflower. The garlic parmesan sauce for the broccoli has a thicker, clumpier texture thanks to the cheese, so it was harder to evenly stir it among the broccoli pieces. The downside to the small sauce packets is that they don’t add as much flavor to the breaded vegetables as you might prefer, but the upside is that it prevents the veggies from getting soggy.
Cauliflower Buffalo Bites after baking and with sauce tossed in.
Even without a lot of sauce, I still thought these were quite flavorful. The breading is thick and hearty and reminds me of the breading I get on battered fried mushrooms at restaurants. If you didn’t want to use the included sauce packets, these veggies would be great baked or air fried and dipped in ranch. The vegetables inside the batter are tender and make you feel like you’re eating something that’s healthier than what it really is.
Sometimes garlic parmesan sauces are on the slightly spicy side, but I didn’t find that to be the case with the Garlic Parmesan Broccoli Bites. I also thought the buffalo sauce for Buffalo Cauliflower Bites was mild and a lot less spicy than some other buffalo-style foods I’ve had. The Buffalo Cauliflower Bites were even milder when I ate the leftovers the next day after the sauce had soaked into the breading. (I air fried the leftovers for about 3-4 minutes at about 370-380 degrees, and they were still really good.)
These are unique, and they taste good. I’ll probably buy a few more packages if they’re still in stock during my next Aldi shopping trip.
Keep reading for more information.
Season’s Choice Garlic Parmesan Broccoli Bites
Garlic Parmesan Broccoli Bites nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
A one-cup serving has 210 calories, 9 grams of total fat (12% DV), 1.5 grams of saturated fat (8% DV), 410 mg of sodium (18% DV), 19 grams of total carbohydrates (7% DV), 2 grams of total sugars, and no added sugar.
If you’re looking out for allergens, these contain milk and wheat.
Season’s Choice Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
Buffalo Cauliflower Bites nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
A one-cup serving has 200 calories, 8 grams of total fat (10% DV), 1 gram of saturated fat (5% DV), 350 mg of sodium (15% DV), 28 grams of total carbohydrates (10% DV), 2 grams of total sugars, and no added sugar.
If you’re looking out for allergens, these contain wheat.
The Verdict:
Season’s Choice Garlic Parmesan Broccoli Bites and Season’s Choice Buffalo Cauliflower Bites feature tender breaded vegetables with either garlic parmesan sauce or buffalo sauce to stir in after cooking. The breading is hearty and flavorful, and while these don’t come with large amounts of sauce, they still have good flavor. They also don’t get too soggy since they aren’t drenched in sauce. They’re not spicy, and my family generally approved of both flavors. Recommended.
