Baked Onion Flower + Awesome Sauce

Remember on my last post when I mentioned one of my favorite foods growing up was Chili’s Chicken Fingers? Well I neglected to mention there were a LOT of things I liked there. Like their chili con queso, those tortilla chips that came with it (!!!), mozzarella sticks, a nice iceberg lettuce salad with some croutons, cheese and RANCH, and their signature onion appetizer. Y’all know what one I’m talking about, right?

Well Snack Super Bowl is coming up and thought I’d deliver you the goods!  Now, let me just get your expectations straight… this isn’t battered in gluten-y crispiness. It’s roasted and whole. Yes, it will crisp up a bit in the oven for you if you let it. And the flavors are SPOT on. I ate half of the one you see in the photo all by myself. I forced myself to stop though because I thought back to that time I was craving sautéed onions. I made AND ate a whole one all by myself. The end result was that I had a massive stomach ache and rank of onions for a solid 24 hours. Ohh, the crazy things I did in my 20’s. (Just kidding, they were a lot more lame-brained than that… Maybe I’ll share some stories with you one day. Like the time I walked around downtown San Francisco dressed like a police officer / DPT worker handing out fake parking tickets? There may have been a cardboard fire hydrant involved too… I’d like to say there was a perfectly good reason for it other than a You Tube video we were making, but that would be a lie.)

Enjoy this AND your Super Bowl!

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baked onion blossom

A paleo knock off of your favorite onion appetizer.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time35 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Paleo Whole30

Servings: 4

Author: the whole smiths

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet onion
• cumin
• paprika
• cayenne pepper
• dried thyme
• black pepper
• sea salt
• 1/2 C. paleo mayo
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1.5 tsp. horseradish
• 1/2 seasoning salt I like 21 Salute by Trader Joe's
• pinch of red pepper flakes

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400*
• Place onion on foil lined baking sheet
• Slice pointy, non-root end of onion off. Just about 1/2 an inch
• Peel skin off of onion
• Flip onion and place cut side onto cutting board
• Starting at top and leaving roughly 1/2 inch at top slice onion down to bottom. Do this 4 times around so that you have four even segments
• Using that technique, continue to do so until you have 16 even sections around the onion
• Flip and gently pull onion "petals" down, separating the segments
• Drizzle or spray olive oil onto onion lightly coating each petal
• Lightly sprinkle cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, dried thyme and pepper over top of onion making sure to spread petals apart in order to evenly coat
• Repeat with salt but feel free to be a bit more liberal with the salt than other seasonings
• Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes or until onion is soft and edges are crispy
• Meanwhile add tomato paste, horseradish, seasoning salt, red pepper flakes to paleo mayo and combine. I prefer to use my immersion blender to do so
• Once onion is done, transfer to plate and serve w dipping sauce

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