My husband is an onion ring lover. I have been working on a healthier, lower fat version compared to the deep fried rings. I explain the various ingredients that you can use for low-fat; milk-free, gluten-free, or high fiber diets. I came up with a very crispy onion ring!
I researched Panko, the Japanese bread crumb, and found that ingredients vary. One brand was made from wheat flour, yeast, salt, honey, butter and sugar. Another brand was made from bleached wheat flour, dextrose, shortening (partially hydrogenated soybean oil and palm oil), yeast, and salt.
One article stated Panko was made from white bread without the crust. I also found a few recipes for making your own. One of the recipes suggested using saltine crackers, white bread crumbs or melba toast. Another suggested shredding white bread in your food processor and baking them before they get brown. Because Panko is not brown I do suggest removing the crust. Of course you could use whole wheat bread, too. I used whole wheat double fiber bread to make my own Panko and tried a low carb bread crumb for another batch. See my recipe below with various other possibilities.
Homemade Panko:
Ingredients
6 slices whole wheat double fiber bread (ends removed, shredded and baked)
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 325°
2. Cut and remove ends from bread
3. Shred slices in the food processor. Just fold the slices in half and stack them, pushing them down slightly.
4. Spread bread crumbs onto a non-stick cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes.
5. With a spatula turn the crumbs and bake for about another 2-3 minutes. Be sure not to brown.
Your Panko is done!
Onion Rings:
Ingredients
1 small onion
2/3 cup almond milk (for low fat diets use non-fat milk)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (for gluten free diets use a gluten free flour such as rice flour, soy or nut flour; for low carb/high protein diets use a nut flour such as chestnut flour (my favorite!)
3 egg whites (stiffened) (for high protein diets use one egg, beaten)
Homemade Panko (above); (for low carb diets use a low carb bread crumb; for gluten free diets use a gluten free bread crumbs)
Olive oil spray
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400°
2. Slice onion into rings by cutting off the ends, peeling the outside off and slicing off each end. Where you sliced off the ends, slice the onions in 1/3″ and separate rings.
3. Place rings into a shallow bowl and pour milk on top, tossing to wet all of them.
4. In shallow bowls place your flour, egg and bread crumbs.
5. Coat the wet onion rings with flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. Do not do them in large batches, as the wet coatings will dry quickly.
6. Place a baking rack inside a cookie sheet.
7. Place the rings carefully onto the rack.
8. Spray with cooking spray or extra virgin olive oil for about 4 seconds.
9. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until onions are soft and onion rings are brown.
I find that whole wheat bread makes a sweeter onion ring. When using low carb bread crumbs I suggest adding a tiny bit of stevia mixed in with the flour.
Other substitutes for bread crumbs, depending upon your diet needs, are cornflakes, potato chips and shreded toasted gluten-free waffles.
If you do not have any diet restrictions and have already figured out the best cooking oil for you, you can always use a regular recipe and deep fry them in your favorite oil such as grape seed oil, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, etc.
The photo above is a combination of homemade whole wheat Panko and low carb bread crumbs. The dark ones are made with the Panko.
Helpful hints:
- If you use an oil other than olive oil it may be difficult to find your oil in a spray form. You can purchase a kitchen spritzer made by Pamper Chef that allows you to fill it with the oil of your choice. All you do is pump it up for each use.
- You can add a pinch of stevia to sweeten up this recipe.
