These are the absolute best onion rings. Vegan or not, you cannot deny the glory of these rings! Even better, I serve them with a creamy and slightly spicy horseradish dipping sauce. Yum!
A little history: I love all onion rings. The thick, the fluffy, the heavily breaded, I love them all, but these are the best! They are lighter, fluffier, and really let the onion sing!
My onion rings are inspired by The Rainbow Grill diner in Carrollton Texas, where as a child I enjoyed my favorite onion rings. Their onion rings were always different. They were never heavily breaded, but had a super thing breading that was extra crunchy! I was able to replicate those onion rings-vegan style! My vegan onion rings have the same crispy crunch, onion flavor, with a little extra spice!
Here’s the recipe with the dipping sauce. I hope that you will enjoy for special occasions or even for everyday because they’re easy to make, and who doesn’t want to eat onion rings on the daily?!
Onion Ring Ingredients:
- 1 large yellow onion
- 4 cups of non-dairy unsweetened milk (I used unsweetened soy milk)
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 3 Tbs. of cornstarch
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. black pepper
Onion Ring Method:
- First slice up your onion! You want to slice them horizontally. Look to see where the ends of the onions are and slice in a parallel line to the end pieces. I slice them in thin slices- about 1/4 inch thick. After you are done slicing, separate the inner and outer rings from each other until you have a bunch of rings ready to be fried! They should look like the picture above!
- Next, place your sliced onions into a bowl and cover with your non-dairy milk. Let these onions soak for at least 30 minutes or up to 12 hours. The longer that you let your onions soak, the less pungent they will be. I personally like the onion “bite,” so 30 minutes works just fine for me.
- Mix together your all purpose flour, cornstarch, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl.
- After the onions have soaked to your liking, drain and reserve the milk in another large mixing bowl. By now you should have a big bowl of soaked onions, a big bowl of the soaking milk, and a big bowl of your flour mixture. This is your breading station.
- When you have your breading stations set up start heating up your oil. I heated up my peanut oil in a 12 inch cast iron skillet for frying. You could also use vegetable or canola oil. I like peanut oil and it is healthier than the prior two, but those also work great! You want to use an oil with a high smoke point! Set your oil to medium-high heat and wait for it to heat up.
- Test a bit of flour by dropping it into the pan. If it bubbles up really well, then your oil is hot, and you are ready to fry!
- This is the process of breading. Take a soaked onion ring, dredge in flour, dip back into the milk, dredge again in flour and fry! You will do these with all of the rings. Place 6-8 rings in the pan at a time to ensure that you do not over-crowd!
- They fry pretty quickly. I’d say 2 minutes on each side. They should be a very light golden brown.
- Keep frying in batches until you are done! Place your fried rings on a paper towel lined plate to drain the excess oil.
- There you have it! Thats the recipe for the best onion rings! I also sprinkled them with a bit of smoked paprika, salt and black pepper at the end, but that is optional! See recipe for the horseradish dipping sauce below!
Vegan Horseradish Dipping Sauce Ingredients:
- 6 Tbs. Veganaise
- 2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbs. favorite hot sauce ( I used Sriracha)
- 2 tsp. smoked paprika
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tsp. dijon mustard
- 1 tsp. hot horseradish
Vegan Horseradish Dipping Sauce Method:
- The method is really simple! Mix all of the ingredients together and enjoy! You can also taste and adjust to your tastebuds. I loved dipping my onion rings in here and I hope that you do as well!
Please comment your thoughts and like in the section below! Love and yummy food to you and yours! xxx
If you want to try out some other “comfort” food recipes, check out my Vegan Chili or my Easy Vegan Macaroni and Cheese!