Six Food Intolerance Living

When I went gluten free, one food I missed dearly was onion rings. I've always loved the flavor of onions and anything crunchy so naturally, onion rings became one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Recently I decided to try to come up with a gluten free replacement. After some trial and error, I finally developed a recipe that I believe will rival any gluten-filled version.

Gluten Free Onion Rings
from Clara Ogren, http://www.sixfoodintolerance.com
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 quart peanut oil (or however much is needed to fill your pan)
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup corn meal
2 teaspoons Lawrys Seasoning (or other all-purpose seasoning mix)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups dairy-free buttermilk (2 cups of your favorite dairy free milk, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, stir and let sit for 3 minutes)
2 sweet yellow onions (preferably Vidalias)
coarse Kosher salt

Directions:
Pour peanut oil into a dutch oven or other deep frying pan and heat to medium high heat.

Measure brown rice flour, cornmeal, Lawrys and garlic powder into a mixing bowl. Wisk together well.

Pour dairy-free buttermilk into a separate, wide, large bowl.

Slice onions into rings.

Place one quarter of the sliced onions into the dairy-free buttermilk and let it sit for 1-2 minutes.

One at a time, take a ring out, cover in the flour mixture, shake off the excess, dip back into the dairy-free buttermilk, then recover in the flour mixture, shake off the excess again, then drop into the hot oil.

Repeat until there are 3-5 onion rings in the oil at a time. Let them sit in the oil for a few minutes until the outside is browned and onion is cooked.

Take out of the oil and place on a cooling rack. Sprinkle with coarse Kosher salt while the onion ring is still hot.

Tips:

• These freeze and reheat (in the oven) well.
• White rice flour can be used in this recipe but the brown rice flour lends a nice brown color to the finished product and it more nutritious than white rice flour.
• Make sure not to get the oil too hot otherwise it will brown the flour before the onion is cooked.
• Shaking off as much of the flour as you can is very important. If you do not shake off most of the excess, it will gather in the milk causing a mess or in the oil and burn.
• Do not overcrowd the pan, doing so will lower the temperature of the oil.
• Try using this batter for breading other vegetables (zucchini, mushrooms, asparagus, etc) to make tempura.