Crispy Retro Blooming Onion

About

Call us old fashioned! If you can get a little nostalgia into your meal, then you’ve got a winning recipe. Who doesn’t enjoy the fun finger foods of yesteryear? Make this retro blooming onion recipe when you have a little extra time on a weekend or you want to spread the joy with a group. Don’t let the recipe times intimidate you – your physical prep time takes under 30 minutes, and the baking time is even shorter! You have just enough time during cooking to whip up a classic horseradish sauce that pairs well with sweet, Vidalia onions. For more Keto friendly air fryer recipes, check back on Carb Manager frequently for new recipes added weekly.

How Is This Recipe Keto

In your research on Keto or low-carb diets, you may have come across the typical debate of whether or not root vegetables are keto. Vegetables grown underground, such as potatoes, are typically too high-carb for a Keto diet. Onions should not be eaten in whole pieces on a daily basis, but it’s a root vegetable that has just the right macros that won’t take you out of Ketosis if eaten with discretion. By dredging a Vidalia onion in heavy cream and breading in seasoned pork rinds, you’re adding a variety of fat to this snack. Choosing a mayo-based dipping sauce also turns this near-vintage restaurant appetizer into a scrumptious keto snack. If you are on the Keto diet with general goals of weight loss and better energy, you can dive into this recipe and leave the guilt behind you.

Ode To The Dipping Sauce

Air fryer Keto recipes are made all the better when accompanied by a dipping sauce. Full-fat dairy products can turn any low-carb recipe into a Keto delight. For savory recipes, such as meatballs, make a cream-based sauce on the side. You can pour this sauce directly over your meal or dip items into it with toothpicks. Carb Manager has a selection of cheese sauces that are huge winners amongst users, such as Alfredo Sauce or Cheddar Cheese Sauce. For appetizers or side dishes, make a mayo-based dipping sauce. Mayonnaise is very fatty, creamy, and can hold all sorts of complementary flavors. Start utilizing sauces in your Keto recipes, and you’ll see how easy this diet can really be.

Ingredients

1 pound vidalia sweet onions by bland farms
½ cup almond flour
1 large raw egg
¼ cup heavy cream
4 ounce fried pork rinds
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
4 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ketchup
¼ teaspoon garlic
¼ teaspoon horseradish
⅛ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Prepare the blooming onion the day before you want to make it. Cut the root end off a large Vidalia onion and peel away the paper and any green skin. Turn the onion over to lay the flat, sliced end down on a surface. Make 4 incisions: one at each quarter of the onion, cutting all the way through to the flat surface, and leaving the onion attached at ½-inch away from the top. Make 3 incisions the same style between each quarter-incision. You’ll have a total of 16 incisions. Turn the onion over and spread the bloomed pieces out wide.
Place the almond flour in a large bowl (you may need more than listed in the ingredients). Press the bloomed onion into the almond flour and pour more over the onion to give it an all-over light coating. In another bowl, whisk the egg and cream together. Transfer the bloomed onion to the egg mixture and rotate the onion until it’s coated all over in the wet dredge.
In the dry almond flour bowl, combine ground pork rinds with the pepper, paprika, and garlic powder. Transfer the wet onion to the pork rind mixture and rotate until the onion has picked up the pork rind breading. Sprinkle the breading from the bowl over the top of the onion so it fills in all those separated pieces. Take your time to work cleanly. Then, loosely wrap the onion in aluminum foil and set it in your freezer overnight – at least 12 hours.
When you are ready to bake your blooming onion, preheat an air fryer to 400 degrees. Remove the onion from the freezer and open up the foil. Roll the foil down so it acts as a base for the outer pieces of the onion to rest on. Gently pull open the onion to “re-bloom” it. Bake the onion with the foil base on a low-set air fryer tray for 17 minutes. You may need to rotate the onion during baking to avoid burning.
Make the dipping sauce while baking. Whisk together the remaining ingredients for a creamy horseradish dipping sauce. Pull out pieces of blooming onion to dip, or use a fork to remove pieces individually.