This recipe for a Keto Blooming Onion is easy, delicious, and makes a great appetizer! Complete with a recipe for Horseradish dipping sauce.
We are in love with this Keto Blooming Onion recipe! Blooming onions are like the king of the onion rings and I even can’t drive past an Outback Steakhouse or walk around a street fair without thinking about them.
This ketofied version of the classic appetizer is a far cry nutritionally from their restaurant counterparts, but right on par in the flavor department.
When Chili’s added their absolute monstrosity of blooming onion to the menu they called it the “Awesome Blossom”, which was dubbed one of the “Worst Appetizer in America” by Men’s Health in an issue from 2008.
What made it the worst? I’m glad you asked…if you ate the whole thing by yourself you would consume over 2700 calories, 203 grams of fat (not healthy fats either, lots of trans fat) 194 grams of carbs, and as much sodium as 67 strips of bacon.
If you ate that entire thing, God rest your soul, but you could eat an entire blooming onion using this recipe if it fits your macros and not require immediate medical intervention.
Here are some how-to info and a few questions and answers:
How to make a gluten-free Baked Blooming Onion:
You’ll start by preheating the oven and cutting the onions. One note on choosing the perfect size, they should be about softball size.
- To cut the onions, start by placing them on a cutting board and slicing off a ½ inch of the pointy side of the onion then peel off the outside layer.
- Lay the onion cut side down.
- Then, starting a ½ inch from the top (the end that's not cut off), make 4 cuts through the onion across from each other.
- Repeat between the cuts until you have between 8-12 cuts depending on the size of your onion.
- Flip the onion over and gently fluff out the onion petals.
You'll then dip into the egg wash then dredge through the flour mixture making sure to shake off the excess.
Pop them into a skillet or yes, onto a baking sheet, and cover with foil. Bake for 15 minutes, uncover and bake another 15 until golden brown. Dig in!
Can I just use almond flour?
No, this is the best ratio of flour mixture that we have found. It creates the perfect crust. Just almond flour tends to burn and just coconut flour tends to, well, be too coconutty.
What should I serve these with?
You can serve these as an appetizer, side dish, or snack! They’re great with steak. We highly recommend the horseradish sauce that we give the recipe to below.
What is the nutritional information for these Keto Blooming Onions?
As always, you can find the full nutritional breakdown including the carb count (total carbs and net carbs) at the bottom of the recipe card. You can find the serving size/yield at the top of the recipe card. You should always double-check your specific ingredients as different brand's ingredients may have different values.
Please note that the nutritional info does not include the sauce.
Keto Blooming Onion
Ingredients
- 3 medium onions
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup almond flour
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Horseradish Sauce:
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 ½ tablespoons prepared horseradish
- ¾ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° F. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl, in another small bowl mix together the almond flour, coconut flour, paprika, salt, and cayenne. In another small bowl combine all of the ingredients for the sauce, refrigerate until ready to use.
- To cut the onions, start by cutting off a ½ inch of the pointy side of the onion then peel off the outside layer. Lay the onion cut side down. Then, starting a ½ inch from the top (the end that’s not cut off), make 4 cuts through the onion across from each other. Repeat between the cuts until you have between 8-12 cuts depending on the size of your onion. Flip the onion over and gently fluff out the petals.
- Dip each onion into the egg mixture making sure to coat the inside and outside of each petal, let the excess fall off then dredge through the flour mixture, you can use a spoon to make sure you get flour on each petal. Place the onions in a large 10.5″ cast iron skillet and drizzle or spray with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
- Cover the skillet with aluminum foil and transfer to the oven. Bake covered for 15 minutes, remove foil and bake another 15 minutes. If the onions haven’t browned enough you may place them under your broiler set to high for 5 minutes until golden brown. Serve with the horseradish sauce.
Ginger Wroot says
Looks so yum! How many servings did you calculate for this recipe? --Ginger
Alex Lester says
Hi Ginger, the serving size can always be found at the top of the recipe card. it's super small font so it's easy to miss. This recipe, with the 3 onions, serves 6. So, it's 1/2 an onion per serving. Hope this helps!
Jamie Hunt says
Can you use just almond flour?
Darren Lovely says
Turned out pretty good, in the future I would use a jumbo white onion, I just used a regular yellow onion as that is all I had, did not make the dip as had something close enough in the fridge
Harris Sweet says
Can I use just coconut flakes instead of almunds?
Cast Iron Keto says
Hi Harris - well, I mean I guess you could make a coconut style blooming onion. We haven't tried it so we can't say that it will work but you could try using our breading that we use in our Keto Coconut Shrimp recipe as the breading for the onion. Let us know if you give it a go.
Marsha Whitt says
Would this bake up well if I completely cut the onion into petals and prepared the petals accordingly then baked in one layer? Would like to serve the petals at a tea party.
Cast Iron Keto says
They should work perfectly that way!