These crunchy baked onion rings are healthy, LOW IN FAT, golden brown, and absolutely delicious!
It’s that time of year to eat snack foods and veg out (pun intended) on the couch watching football. And, these Crunchy Baked Onion Rings are the perfect snack food for such an occasion.
Let’s get our onion ring on!
One of my favorite places to frequent when I ate crap was Sonic. You know? That little drive-up and order place. I absolutely love loved their onion rings. Sometimes, I’d get two large orders of their onion rings and eat them before I even pulled out of the parking lot.
Well, those days are gone and I no longer eat those “deep fried danger circles.” But, I also can’t deny how good those things were!
Onion rings in general are good, but Sonic took them to a completely different stratosphere. They also helped take me to 300 pounds and diabetes.
Fast forward many years later and much healthier, I dreamed of finding a way to recreate one of my favorite foods – the onion ring.
And, I could not be more pleased with these crunchy baked onion rings. (pat on the back)
Onion Ring Trial & Error
I can’t begin to tell you how many “healthy” onion ring recipes I’ve tried over the last five years. Some were good, but too much work and not practical. And, others might have been simpler but sucked. It became extremely tiring.
Honestly, I had resigned myself to the fact it just wasn’t meant to be. Let’s face it. The task was a bit daunting. A vegan onion ring recipe that was healthy. Baked, not fried. Yet, contained all the characteristics of the fast food version I consumed years earlier. Did such a thing even exist? It couldn’t be done.
Or, could it?
Tirelessly, I would pour myself into researching onion ring recipes. Day after day, night after night. And, most of the time with less than stellar results.
No matter what I tried nothing came close to those deep fried circles of yesteryear. But, I pressed on because I couldn’t live with myself knowing I had given folks a half-assed onion ring recipe.
I knew the standard I had set for Shane & Simple would be a challenge. But, damn it! My readers and followers deserve the best!
Onion Ring Success
One day everything changed! I found panko bread crumbs and I realized the secret was not more ingredients, but less.
So, I threw together a simple batter with unsweetened almond milk and whole wheat flour. Tossed in a couple of spices with the panko bread crumbs and voila – a masterpiece was born.
Could it be the onion ring I had been craving for so long was finally a reality? Crunchy, golden brown, savory, delicious and baked! My dream onion ring had become reality. And, that dream was also in my hand covered in ketchup and getting eaten like I was on my way to death row.
The kids loved them. My wife loved them. Friends loved them. I had succeeded. After many years of heartbreak and sorrow the journey was finally over.
I made crunchy baked onion rings.
Simple & Delicious!
You will be amazed at how simple these things are to make. 5 ingredients and about 30-40 minutes of your time is all that’s required.
A simple batter made with unsweetened almond milk and whole wheat flour for dipping. Then, a blend of panko bread crumbs and a couple spices to coat the onions. All that’s left is to bake them in a 450 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until they’re crunchy and golden brown.
That’s it! You’ve got legitimate crunchy baked onion rings.
Now, you can indulge and not worry about portion size or your thighs. Simply enjoy a delicious stack of onion rings without the guilt.
Best of all there’s no oily mess to clean up. No oil popping out of the skillet. And, your kitchen won’t smell like some greasy joint down the road.
Eat well my friends. Eat well.
Crunchy Baked Onion Rings
These onion rings are…
- A great comfort food
- Crunchy
- Baked, not fried
- Low in fat
- Healthy
- Simple to make
- Sweet on the inside, savory on the outside
- Irresistible
These onion rings are the perfect “watching football food,” rainy day snack food or binge watching your favorite show. They’re great with ketchup, but my Cashew Sour Cream, Tofu Sour Cream, or Cashew Mayo make a great dipping sauce too! Just add a little BBQ sauce or ketchup to make a restaurant style concoction.
Want A Few More Snack Ideas?
- Five Minute Fat Free Microwave Potato Chips
- Healthy Tortilla Chips
- Peanut Butter Balls
- Game Day Cheese Dip
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Hummus
If you make this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment, RATE IT, and tag a photo #shaneandsimple on Instagram. Happy Fall, everyone!
Crunchy Baked Onion Rings
These Crunchy Baked Onion Rings are awesome! You only need 5-ingredients and about 30 minutes. They are golden brown, crunchy, healthy, and absolutely delicious. They’re also baked and not fried.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 3–4 servings 1x
- Category: side
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
2 large yellow onion, sliced in rings about ¼″.
FOR THE BATTER
- ⅔ cup unsweetened plant milk of choice
- ½ cup whole wheat flour (this also works with chickpea flour or oat flour)
DRY MIX
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs (make sure they are vegan)
- ½ tsp. smoked paprika
- ½ tsp. garlic powder
- ⅛ tsp. salt (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Line a baking pan with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
- Add batter ingredients to bowl and mix until well combine and batter is smooth.
- In a separate bow, add “dry mix” and whisk to combine.
- Using a fork, dip raw onion ring into batter until entire onion is covered. Shake a few times and allow access to drain off.
- Transfer onion ring to bowl with breadcrumbs and coat evenly.
- Place onto baking pan and repeat until all onion rings are finished.
- Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes or until onion rings are golden brown and crunchy.
- Remove from oven and serve with favorite dipping sauce.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 3-4 onion rings
- Calories: 217
- Sugar: 11.2 g
- Sodium: 93.3 mg
- Fat: 1.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 45.3 g
- Fiber: 5 g
- Protein: 4.9 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
My aunt gave me some big, beautiful onions from her garden. I found your recipe because I didn’t want to fry in my kitchen. It’s messy, smelly, and unhealthy. These onion rings were sooo good. I’m not vegan, so I used half-n-half since I didn’t have any almond milk. The rings were delicious. I also liked that they were easy. I’m an impatient cook, so I need easy recipes. Thanks!
I was surprised with how delicious these are. Mine didn’t look as good as yours so I was a little worried when I pulled them out of the oven. When I took a bite, I was shocked with how crunchy and craveable these are. I used GF Panko and 1:1 gluten-free flour. I would recommend after dipping the onion ring in the dredge that you use your clean hand to sprinkle and pat the dry Panko mix onto the ring. If you dip the ring in the dry mix, it will quickly become pasty and chunky and will no longer stick to the ring.
Outside of the blog photos, mine never look that photos:)
Shane, I really enjoyed baking these healthy onion rings for my husband today. He is new to WFPB after some cardiac issues. He said he really misses the “crunch” in the oil-based foods, so I came to your website first and searched for “crunchy”. He LOVED them and kept commenting on how crunchy and delicious they are! I made the microwave potato chips for him yesterday. I will leave a review on that page, too. Thank you for sharing your delicious recipes with your upbeat and supportive comments! My husband is learning that he has not been sentenced to an existence of eating bland food for the rest of his life!
Thank you!
Oh my GOSH!! DROOLING HERE!! What is time & temp for air fry? Thank you for all you do to help us be healthy!!
Use the same temp but watch the time. Air fryers always tend to work quicker.
Tried these last night with Vidalia onion rings, and fresh squash from the garden. Guess what we are having tonight? Same thing….with fresh corn and sliced tomatoes! So good!
Ooh, sounds amazing! What time is dinner? LOL!
Haven’t tried these yet but they look awesome. Do you think the batter would work with sliced dill pickles to make “fried” pickles. Been having a hankering for those. How long do you think you would need to bake them?
It’s especially excellent for dill pickle spears. I’d bake them about the same amount of time.
The best! My husband has a literal celebration every time I make these. In his pre-WFPB life he was an outback steakhouse bloomin onion addict. He says he likes these better- all of the oniony, crunchy goodness with none of the stomach aches or animal harm. Thanks, Shane!!
Can I use regular bread crumbs instead of panko?
Yes, but they won’t be as crunchy. Try using cornmeal instead.
These look fabulous! So the way the recipe reads this is one serving 😊. These with a big side salad would make a fantastic meal! So just checking, the calorie count is for one order/recipe?
Shane, I love these onion rings so much!! I am fairly new to a WFPB way of eating and I’ve never been disappointed in any of your recipes. Thanks so much! I have a hankering for some sweet potato fries and pineapple salsa and thought of using this coating for the fries. Any ideas if this would work or how long I’d bake them for?
Sounds delicious! Bake for 25-30 minutes.
This is the easiest recipe for onion rings I have ever seen, so I can’t wait to try them!!
OK these were just AMAZING!!!!!!! Thank YOU!!!!
I’m still in shock.
I found you after the podcast last week and have tried about six recipes and they are all favorites now.
I love how you have perfected recipes from our “other” life and made them plant based. I’m sure you can believe the foods I’ve eaten from others that just didn’t taste like anything I ever remember eating and don’t want to eat again.
My goal is to amass enough recipes to survive and especially enjoy. I’ve been working at it for months, probably printing 6 to 10 recipes a day. I didn’t expect it to be so much work but you are making it easy!
Would this work for “fried” okra?
Oh, yes!!!
How many servings in your recipe? Looking forward to trying this!
Can’t remember…LOL! I’ll get back to you.
My favorite onion ring recipe! These turn out amazing and they’re so simple to make.
Thank you!!!
Could you air fry these?
Absolutely! Just watch because they will cook faster.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. These onion rings were so crunchy and super tasty!
Thank you!!!
These are really easy and excellent! My first ever successful onion rings.
This is a most excellent recipe for onion rings. It took care of two things I dislike about fried rings: greasiness and the onion pulls out when biting into a ring. My oven must be hotter than dialed temp so next time a little less baking to avoid over browning and they’ll be perfect.
Excellent! Onion rings have always been my weakness:)
Shane, could a GF 1:1 flour be used? These sound amazing but due to Celiac I have to alter this recipe and use Bobs Red Mill 1:1. Was curious if you’ve tried GF flours in any of your recipes
I would try Gluten-Free Oat Flour or corn flour (masa). But, any gluten-free baking flour should be fine.
These were so tasty! Incredibly crispy. I also added some adobo seasoning to my dry mix. Happy to have found a healthier alternative to an unhealthy obsession of onion rings.
Really good onion rings that are healthy!! Yay! Thanks again, Shane, for another great recipe. (My rings didn’t look as good as yours.) They didn’t seem to coat so well but they were still really good!
Made these with pantry items and the guys in this household loved them! Used chickpea flour and gluten-free panko cause that what I had in the pantry. Going into the favorite rotation cycle! Thanks, Shane
Awesome, Janell!
I have made these two days in a row for myself. My boys discovered them today. I will be adding more onions and panko to my grocery order. Thanks for another great recipe. Stay well!!!
Awesome! Thank you, Lindsey.
Could I use regular all purpose flour? It’s all I have right now. Thanks!
Yes, absolutely!
Haven’t made these yet but planning on using them in green bean casserole for thanksgiving. How far in advance could I make them to use in that recipe? How would they keep best?
I would wait until the day you want to use them. Just so they will stay crunchy.
Just made the onion rings…great! Thanks for the tip on making them day of for green bean casserole.
My pleasure, Tami! I hope everything works out well:)
So happy with these! Crunchy and tasty- the whole family loved them. Thanks for all the great recipes.
Wow, Debbie! Thank you. So pumped everyone enjoyed the rings. 🙂
I wonder if these would work in an air fryer?
I think someone tried it and said it worked. I have yet to try them that way…but, I say go for it:)
I made it with zucchini and sweet potato and it was delicious. I just flip the vegtables around and cooked them a little longer so they be soft and taste good.
Nadine, that’s awesome! I love hearing stories like this. Thanks for sharing!!!
Do you think I could use coconut flour instead of wheat. Or oat flour?
I would use oat flour. It sure how coconut four would work or taste with the onions. But, oat should work fine.
I just made these yesterday and I felt like I was eating the best of the fried onion rings, but instead they were quite healthy. The first onion I used I ended up having too much panko on them and they were not great. I then used the second onion and put them in the batter and then just a light sprinkling of panko. Oh my were they absolutely fantastic. Can’t wait to make them again.
Jeff, that’s great! They usually don’t last too long in this house with 5 kids:) Thanks for reaching out and sharing.
OMG!!! Shane…you have outdone yourself! Can’t wait to see what you come up with next! Love your recipes!!!
They are crunchy, alright. Mine not as pretty as yours because the bread crumb mixture did not adhere too well.
Sorry to hear, Abby. Try using a thicker batter…that might help.
Dude, these are the bomb!!!! Thank you for the recipe!
Emily, that’s great! So glad you enjoyed them and thanks for reaching out and sharing!
Saw this and just couldn’t wait. Made them and they are unbelievable!!!
Thanks so much and pumped you enjoyed them. Thanks for the rating.