When it comes to onion rings, I’m a bit of a late bloomer.
I don’t think I tried my first onion ring until I was in my twenties, and when I did, I can’t say I was blown away. They were a bit bland and I could think of a million other foods I’d rather eat.
However, I soon realized that not all onion rings are created equal.
Years later, everything changed when I tried Fresh restaurant’s quinoa-battered onion rings. Their onion rings have been celebrated as some of Toronto’s best and I quickly agreed, being the onion ring connoisseur that I was…not.
But I do know good food when I taste it. You too?
Deep-fried, crispy, thick, and flavourful…they made me an instant onion ring fan for life.
Not long after, I was in the kitchen trying to make my own onion rings, only these would be baked instead of fried, more of an “everyday” onion ring, if you will.
My first few trials were decent, but still a far cry from what I hoped they’d taste like.
The problem? Too many breadcrumbs and not enough other goodies!
One of my first trials, heavy on the breadcrumbs:
I experimented with a few different coatings and batter mixtures until I found a combo that I loved. My first winning combo involves breadcrumbs, cornmeal, nutritional yeast, dried herbs, and black sesame seeds. Don’t fret if you don’t have one of these ingredients because they can be adapted very easily.
Oh boy, I. could. not. stop. eating. them.
The photographic evidence…
I thought I could sneak an onion ring before the timer ended and the camera fired, but I guess I wasn’t quick enough. The camera sees all!
Crispy Baked Onion Rings
Yield
15-22 onion rings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Crispy, flavourful, and good-for-you, these onion rings make a great snack or addition to any meal. I could also see a big batch of these being made for a party served with a homemade dip. To make these gluten-free, use gluten-free bread crumbs and gluten-free flour (and of course, double check the rest of your ingredients). Also, keep in mind, you’ll have coating leftover that isn’t used up.
Inspired by Fresh and my Crispy Tofu Strips.
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet onion
- 2/3 cup flour of choice
- 2/3 cup + 1 tbsp vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp cornstarch (or arrowroot flour)
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional, but recommended)
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1-2 tbsp black sesame seeds (optional)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp dried herbs (I used 1tsp each basil & oregano)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking oil. Slice onion into rings, 3/4 inch in width (larger than shown in pictures as I made mine too thin), and reserve about 15-22 or so, wrapping up the leftovers for another use.
- In a shallow dish, whisk together the batter ingredients (flour, broth, cornstarch).
- In another shallow dish, whisk together the coating ingredients (cornmeal, breadcrumbs, nutritional yeast, salt, sesame seeds, garlic powder, and herbs).
- With a fork, dip an onion ring into the batter, coating all sides. Now transfer it to the coating mixture and toss it around a bit. Use a clean & dry hand to scoop up coating and sprinkle it all over the ring. If at any time your hands get sticky or coated, simply rinse and dry before starting again. Place onion rings on prepared baking sheets and repeat for the rest. Don’t worry if things get messy or they don’t coat “perfectly”…just consider them rustic and call it a day! You will have coating leftover that isn’t used up.
- 5. Bake for about 18 minutes at 425F, flipping once after 10 minutes. You can broil them for a minute or two at the end to brown. Serve with your favourite dip or ketchup. These are best served immediately.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
You’ll want to create a workstation with everything set up before you begin. Also, note that I sliced my onion rings too thin and they were much better at thicker widths of about 3/4 of an inch. The thicker you slice them, the juicier and heartier they will be!
Workstation order: Onion rings, batter, coating, pan…also use shallow dishes if possible. A narrow bowl was awkward.
I tried out all kinds of batter/coating methods because the process can be a bit tricky to get right.
My favourite method was using a fork to dip the ring into the batter and transferring it to the coating mixture.
Then I used my dry hand to grab the mixture and sprinkle it over the ring, over and over. Once it was coated, I’d flip it and repeat on the other side. If my fingers got wet and covered, I would stop and rinse them off and quickly pat dry before starting up again.
Above all, don’t worry if things get messy or they don’t coat “perfectly”…just consider them rustic and call it a day! They will taste good regardless.
I loved the look of them with the black seeds.
Once I filled my pan, I cooked them in two batches since I only have 1 large baking sheet. Of course, you can use two baking sheets and cook them at the same time, rotating the pans once half way through baking.
After about 18 minutes of baking, I broiled them for a couple minutes to brown them up.
Ding, ding, ding…we have a winner!
I devoured the entire batch..all while telling myself I should “save some for Eric”.
Oops.
But everyone knows onion rings are best served immediately anyways, right?
I’m pretty pumped to experiment with different flavours and coatings for these bad boys. I have several flavour ideas up my sleeve, including beer batter, pizza, and nut butter coatings!
Or maybe I should just re-create a Bloomin Onion a la Outback Steakhouse?
Link Love
+ Did you know that it’s National Eating Disorder Awareness Week in the US? I recently had the pleasure of connecting with Blisstree for an interview on my past struggles with disordered eating and road to recovery. You can check out the interview here.
+ The Homies 2012 blog nominations are going down over at The Kitchn. Nominate and vote for your favourite blogs (including your own!) until March 1st.
Have a great Tuesday!
OMG I love, love, LOVE onion rings. In my eating disorder I wouldn’t let myself have them but they are so delicious. Recovery tastes amazing with onion rings. Funny because I just wrote a comment over at HTP about french fries….Delicious.
Wow, these sound awesome Ange! I too have never really been turned on by onion rings, but I think it’s because as a kid, the only ones I was ever exposed to were from Dairy Queen. No thank you!! The ones from Fresh, however, are delicious!! I bet yours are as well, and I can’t wait to see what other flavour combos you come up with! Do I hear a salt and vinegar perhaps?! ;)
Salt and vinegar…genius!!!
lol, I think the first ones I tried were probably from DQ too. or fast food anyways.
When I saw the first picture, I immediately thought, “Oh no she didn’t!” Healthy, non-deep-fried onion rings? Yes!! I was also late on the onion ring train, but once I tried them, I fell in love. I can’t remember the last time I had onion rings, though, so I am really excited for a healthy recipe. These look and sound absolutely delicious. Thanks for such a fun recipe, and for explaining your techniques – that’s always so helpful and much appreciated. Quick question – do you think you could use homemade bread crumbs by pulsing a piece of slightly stale bread in the food processor? Or would you recommend store-bought breadcrumbs?
PS Love the picture with your hand sneaking in :)
Glad you are excited about them Stephanie! I can’t see why homemade breadcrumbs wouldn’t work. Please let me know if you try it :)
I am so excited to try this! I’ve tried making rings in the past, but I was never very successful in getting the batter to stick.
This coating would probably make some awesome eggplant crisps or zucchini fries too. So many possibilities!
Definitely :)
And maybe mushrooms too….swoon.
This recipe is the most exciting one EVER! I’ve been on a huge onion ring kick, and I tried to make them once for myself but it came out so disgusting. I’ve been resorting to Burger King for my onion ring fix, but I’m so excited for a healthier, homemade version!
Im glad you are excited- Let me know what you think of them, if you end up making them.
Now we’re talking!!! I love me some onion rings!!!! In fact, I shamelessly ate a whole plate of Chili’s onion straws when the bf and I went out to dinner the other night.
Onion rings, here I come.
P.S. I made those gluten free seed crackers the other day. They’re perfect for shoveling large quantities of hummus into my mouth. Between the hummus and extra-seedy crackers, my breath has been kickin’ for days. ;-)
haha glad you enjoyed the crackers! I think my batch lasted 0.5 days ;)
I finally made them too…LOVED them! :)
Glad to hear that!
Seriously, I can’t wait to try these. I have such a hard time finding a GOOD onion ring we both like. These look like contenders for sure!
Will be trying these FOR SURE! I did try something like this with zucchini speers on the weekend and will write about it in an upcoming post.
thanks for mentioning the NEDA week! there’s lots going on here in Durham! NEDA can use all the support even your promoting gives it Angela!
mmmmm these look phenomenal. I love onion rings, but had when they are too heavily fried or drenched in breadcrumbs. These seem absolutely perfect. Thanks for sharing!
Ange, you come up with the best recipes! Thank you!
I’m not the biggest onion ring fan either but I have to say these look pretty darn delicious! And hahaha – I love the picture of you sneaking an onion ring! That’s phenomenal :)
I vote for recreating the bloomin onion- a childhood fave!!
I think there are recipes online, so hopefully it wouldn’t be too hard. Although Im not sure how baking it would turn out…I think they fry theirs right?
at most restaurants it has the highest amount of calories/fat out of all the dishes lol!!
These look amazing! The best part? I have everything to give them a go! Hello lunch!!
I’ve never been able to get baked onion rings right- my batter always ends up falling off. I want to make these tonight to see if you’ve found the secret to perfect onion rings!
Oh yummo!!!! You MUST make a blooming onion!!! You must!! Or onion bhajia…
I can’t wait to try these! They look great. I used to love onion rings, but they always disappoint me because, you’re right, the coating is often bland.
These look so crisp and yummy…I’m a believer!
I am new to your site and can’t wait to try the onion ring recipe! I am just wondering if you have the nutritional info-calories? carbs? etc. for it. I’m trying to combine healthy and weight management together! thanks.
Hi Katrina, I had a lot of coating leftover so I wasn’t sure to to factor that in. Maybe next time I make them, I can measure that out or something!
Ooh, I love your combination of different ingredients for the coating. I’ve always had a problem getting everything to stick- but that’s probably because every attempt at onion-ring-assembly has been rushed and careless on my part! I immediately thought of cornmeal when I saw your first photo- because a cornmeal crust makes everything awesome.
And I hadn’t seen the post before that you linked to above- all of the food in that meal looks amazing- especially the wraps!!
I JUST ate the onions rings at Fresh on Sunday and was thinking of how amazing they were! These look fantastic. Thanks again for another delicious recipe! :)
Yum! I’ve been loving baked onion rings lately – I just tried them a couple weeks ago. The ones I make are pretty plain so I love the nutritional yeast, and herbs in yours. Will have to try that next time!
mmm those look yummy! I love that they are baked too – even more reason to indulge :D
I’m totally aware of NEDA week! I made a post about it on the bloggie as it’s pretty important to me. I was actually wondering if you have an email that we can contact you at? Have a question that I’d rather not put on here! Thanks :D
yup, It’s press[at]ohsheglows[dot]com :)
I love, love, love onion rings and I’m so happy you posted this ‘healthified’ recipe. Your interview brought me to tears; you’re such an inspiration for those of us who are in recovery. I hope you realize how much your work touches others :-)
Thank you Heather, I’m so happy to hear that!
I love how I could eat these and convince myself that they’re healthy. I too would not be able to resist eating almost all of them while trying to photograph them. how addicting!
Blooming onion, please!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)
Polenta nuggets would be great to use up leftover coating (and leftover polenta cooled in a rectangular dish). Mmm, nuggets and onion rings.
All of your recipes are looking/sounding soooo delicious these days (not that they ever don’t). I am starting a running list of everything I NEED to make:
-onion rings
-millet mushroom gravy bowls
-tropical kale salad…..
Thank you for always supplying me with delicious recipes/food inspiration!
Much to my husband’s chagrin I could eat onion all day long. I love any kind of onion, especially crispy coated onion rings. I have yet to find a vegan recipe that I love but these look very crunchy!! And lucky me, I have all ingredients on hand at the moment. Looks like homemade onion rings are in my near future!!
I don’t even like onions! And I just have a craving for these. Nooch in the dry rub? LOVE IT! I’ve seen some battered asparagus spears lately on blogs that are a similar batter…makes me want to make something like this. And any time I can go crazy on the ketchup dipper, I am all about that too :) Love ketchup.
I’m not a big fan of onion rings, but these do look delicious!! Great pictures, per usual :D
Ah! I remember seeing those quinoa onion rings a while back, but could not remember where I saw them! I even google searched them and was horribly disappointed, but happy to see a variation here as well. How was the chipotle avocado sauce, worth replicating? Or perhaps there was another dipping delicacy that you used? Either way, looks delicious, and thanks for quenching my memory with the recipe and letting me know that I’m not delirious.
Shannon
the sauce was incredible…def worth making. I’d probably puree some avocado, garlic, spices/salt, oil/water, etc together.
I love baked onion rings! One of my favorite “junk” foods, and they are so much better than fried since they aren’t oily and are so crispy.
Owwwww. I’ll just HAVE to try these. I was also a big fan of Fresh’ onion rings when I used to live in Ontario… *sigh*
Sometimes I feel like you read my mind. I was just thinking about veganizing a blooming onion last night. Love love love onions!
These look awesome! I love onion rings, but have never tried baking them myself!
Now this is what I am talking about! I have not had real onion rings in ages I feel like and I would love to try these from home. The fact that they are baked is what I love. :)
We eat the onion chips all the time on another note, not really great for you. But now these…the real deal!
Thanks!!
You are a powerhouse, transforming what might be an occasional treat into something with nutrition?! Thank you!
I still have those vouchers for Fresh in Toronto that I NEED to use. I think onion rings might be on that list of things to order…along with smoothies and desserts…duh!!
amazing!!! I could so eat those right now! Haha :)
AMAZING!!!! These look amazing and I am such an onion ring lover :) I can’t start or I wont stop eating them!
YUM!
xxoo
These sound so good! I’m a huge fan of onion rings – huge – but I virtually *never* eat them because A. they’re usually so unhealthy, and B. it’s hard to find good ones. So many restaurants either over/under batter them, or the onion turns to mush, or they’re way too salty… such a shame! This is going on my list of must-make-recipes, for sure. Thanks for sharing, as always!
Haha I love that shot where you’re trying to sneak one before the timer went off lol! Can I ask what lens you use? I was just curious :).
I usually shoot with a Canon 1.4 50mm lens :)
Eek these look awesome! Finally, a use for my large bag of black sesame seeds!
I normally wouldn’t go through this bother for onion rings, as I’ve never been a huge fan. But, armed w/your super detailed directions, I may just cave. Ange – Though I am fairly experienced in the kitchen, I still appreciate that you take such pains to provide super detailed directions to ensure we succeed in replicating your recipes at home – e.g.: warning us when to cut carefully to avoid losing a digit ;)
I’m glad you find the directions helpful :) Enjoy them if you make them!
So funny that you posted this today… As I mentioned the other day, I am heading to Fresh today, and have been anticipating their onion rings…though deep fired, I think I still must try them. The quinoa batter intrigues me. I have read their recipe in the latest Fresh cookbook, but have not made them myself.
I love onion rings but dont like the calories that come when you fry them, this recipe is a winner, I will give it a try!
Ah! I absolutely love Fresh. In fact, I’m heading there tonight and now I know their onion rings will be ordered!
Confession: I have never had an onion ring! But I have always wanted to try my hand at making homemade ones! It just seems so time consuming!! But this recipe actually seems relatively easy! Can’t wait to experiment!
angela, these look incredible! i love all of your healthy alternatives to sometimes indulgent recipes.