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How to Make a Blooming Onion in the Oven

How to Make a Blooming Onion in the Oven

Last Updated on 17th December 2021 by

One of the highlights of visiting an Outback Steakhouse is having a blooming onion brought out to you, drenching that in sauce, and biting into it. The crispy exterior and tender cooked onion underneath make for a lovely combination.

This is usually a dish that’s been fried, but I want to show you how to make a blooming onion in the oven. When you bake it, it turns out pretty much the same as if you fried it, but of course it’s much healthier. There’s not a lot of oil involved and it’s not as fatty and as unhealthy.

This kind of dish is one that when you take a look at it you may think it is too complicated to make yourself. It definitely looks intimidating, but I think you’ll find it surprisingly easy to make. Even those who are experienced chefs should be able to pull this one off. I’ll break down the process for you step by step. If you still feel intimidated by it, just read through this article and the process for making it to see if it looks like something you can handle.

Blooming Onion Oven Baked Recipe
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Blooming Onion Oven Baked Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 large onion
  • 1 tsp of paprika
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tsp of onion powder
  • 1 tsp of garlic powder
  • 1 cup of bread crumbs
  • Kosher salt

Instructions

  • Heat up the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.
  • Prepare your onion by peeling off the outer layer and then slicing off the stem and then setting the onion down on its flat side. Start from the root and cut into one- inch slices, cutting downwards. You can get about 12 to 16 sections out of a large onion. Make sure you're not cutting all the way through the onion, because you want it to open out into a blooming onion. Turn the onion over and pull the sections out to create a petalled look.
  • In a bowl, mix together a tablespoon of water and your eggs, using a whisk to mix them thoroughly.
  • Take another bowl and mix together bread crumbs and all of your spices, seasoning with kosher salt.
  • Take your onion and dip it into the egg mix, and then dip it into the bread crumb mix. Make sure you coat the onion fully, and you can use a spoon to pour crumbs over the onion.
  • Place the onion onto the baking sheet and allow it to bake for 18 to 20 minutes. You know it is baked when it is tender and golden colored.

The blooming onion can be made in the air fryer or in a vat of oil as well. I prefer the oven baking method because it is fairly simple and quite healthy. As you can see, no oil is needed to make the blooming onion in the oven.

If you want to imitate the fried texture and taste of the restaurant version a little bit more, you can drizzle the onion with oil before cooking it in the oven. This will give it a slightly more oily texture and maybe make the onion a little more to your liking. If you’re looking to keep it healthy, though, I would suggest using coconut oil or olive oil to drizzle it with.

Blooming Onion Oven Baked Recipe
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Making Outback Steakhouse’s Blooming Onion Sauce

Most people experience the blooming onion at Outback Steakhouse, where it is usually served with their special sauce. I'm going to show you how to make that, and as long as you have the necessary ingredients on hand, this is a really easy sauce to make.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp of ketchup
  • of a cup of mayonnaise
  • ½ tsp of paprika
  • 1 tsp of horseradish
  • ½ tsp of garlic powder
  • ¼ tsp of dried oregano
  • Kosher salt

Instructions

  • In a bowl, mix together ketchup, horseradish, garlic powder, dried oregano, mayonnaise, and paprika. Once these are combined, season with salt.

For best results, serve the sauce cold and the blooming onion hot. You can tear the blooming in off in pieces, pulling off a pedal at a time, and dipping it into the sauce.

Some people prefer another sauce with their blooming onion, like ranch sauce or honey mustard.

Tips for Making the Blooming Onion

Make sure you buy very large onions for this dish. The larger the onion, the more blooming onion you’ll get. Small onions will be tougher to cut into small sections and you will be more likely to cut through them when you just mean to open them into a petal formation.

You also want to get onions that are fresh. Look for ones that have no dark brown or black spots on them.

If, when you cut the onion, pieces fall off and do not stay as part of the larger blooming onion, that’s not a big deal. You can simply bake them with the rest of the onion and serve them up with it as well.

It’s okay to bake multiple blooming onions at once, and if you have very large onions, you may want to adjust the cooking time and increase it by just a few minutes. If you have only small onions to bake, and you’re only baking one blooming onion at a time, you may need to adjust the cooking time and lower it by a few minutes.

If you don’t have any bread crumbs, you can make your own homemade substitute. You can use crackers that you have broken into small pieces and then use a rolling pin to crush them down to crumb size. You can also use bread to make homemade bread crumbs. Simply bake the bread until it is almost burnt or toast it until it is almost burnt and then crush it down into small pieces. Baking works better than toasting, because it makes your bread harder and firmer and easier to crush.

You might want to season your homemade bread crumbs, whether you use bread or crackers. Simply use some Italian seasoning or a mix of herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano, and parsley.

If you want to make this in your air fryer for that crispy, fried texture, you only need a little bit of oil. Simply spray down your onion before putting it into the air fryer and it will cook beautifully.

5/5 - (1 vote)
Pauline Loughlin

I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!

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