Guilt-Free Onion Rings

By gwendee1

Tool Time

Baking Sheets (and an Oven): No deep fryer required for these babies! Onion rings take up a lot of space when laid flat (and you're gonna want to eat a lot of 'em), so have two baking sheets handy.

Nonstick Spray: Here's another kitchen essential. It'll keep your onion rings from sticking to the sheets, so you won't lose any of the crunchy coating. It can even amp up the crispiness -- just give your rings a light mist before you bake!

Blender or Food Processor: Either of these gadgets will turn high-fiber cereal (more on that later) into fiber-packed breadcrumbs. Just blitz it until it's the right consistency. Don't have one of those machines? Put your cereal in a sealable plastic bag, seal, and smash the cereal through the bag with a meat mallet or heavy can.

Wide Bowls: You're gonna want two of these -- one for the egg mixture, and another for the breadcrumbs. Bowls that are both wide and shallow work best -- they'll give you plenty of room to coat your rings, and allow you to do so easily.

Ingredients

• to The obvious starting place? A big onion! Seriously, though, get a large one. We typically use yellow or white ones -- the yellow ones tend to be a bit sweeter.
• Fat-Free Liquid Egg Substitute: This stuff is the "glue" that holds your crumbs on your onion slices. Egg Beaters Original is our go-to product. You can also use egg whites, but we've found the prepackaged liquid kinds work best.
• to For a dipping sauce, ketchup is classic, but experiment with salsa, honey mustard... even no-guilt salad dressing! You can also add a little sauce to the egg wash for flavor. Try Frank's RedHot, light ranch dressing, or BBQ sauce. Anything goes

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 2 baking sheets with nonstick spray.

Slice off the onion's ends, and remove outer layer. Cut into 1/2-inch-wide slices, and separate into rings.

In a blender or food processor, grind cereal into crumbs. Transfer to a wide bowl, and mix in seasonings.

Place egg substitute in another wide bowl. One at a time, dunk rings in the egg substitute, shake to remove excess, and coat with crumbs. Evenly lay rings on the baking sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes. Flip rings. Continue to bake until outside is crispy and inside is soft, 10 - 15 minutes. Yum!

Quick Tricks

Set aside half of the seasoned crumbs before you start coating. You’ll have a fresh batch to use halfway through -- this keeps them from getting too clumpy.

Use tongs or a fork to handle the rings while you coat them. Less mess! (If you use a fork, don’t pierce the rings; just balance them on it.)

Another easy crumb-coating method: Place your crumbs in a large, tall bowl. One at a time, add an egg-coated ring, and gently shake the bowl to coat. No muss, no fuss..