With this simple recipe, you can make your own vegan Onion Rings at home! For a perfectly crisp and light batter, I am using sparkling water, but you can also use beer instead.
It took me such a long time of recipe testing to finally perfect them, but here they are: Crispy Vegan Onion Rings in a light tempera-like batter with sparkling water. They are the perfect side dish for burgers, sandwiches, and hot dogs.
With this basic batter, you can fry literally anything. Cauliflower? Yes. Seitan? Yes. Brussels Sprouts? Yes! Everything is so much better when it's fried.
Oh and don't worry about the frying part, you don't need a deep fryer to make these Onion Rings. I fry them in a small wok (which is perfect for frying because the base is narrow but it gets wider on top and therefore you don't need that much oil) but a regular pot will also work!
How to make Onion Rings
As always you will find the whole recipe in the box below, but I want to give you an overview of the key ingredients and the process with step-by-step photos first.
The Ingredients & Variations
You will need:
- a yellow onion - I don't use necessarily large onions for onion rings, a medium-sized to large onion will do just fine
- frying oil - I use rapeseed oil but you can also use canola, sunflower oil, or peanut oil.
- all-purpose flour - I did not try a GF version, if you do try it out with GF flours feel free to let me know how it goes in the comments
- cornstarch - adds that certain crisp
- sparkling water - you can also use beer or cider instead!
- spices: salt, paprika powder, cracked pepper - of course, you can play around with different flavors!
The basic steps
Onion Rings FAQ
You can BUT you need to make a different batter/coating because otherwise, it would just drip off the onion ring. You can follow this Baked Cauliflower Wings recipe and just use onion rings instead of cauliflower.
Serve them with
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I hope you enjoy these vegan Onion Rings as much as I do! Let me know if you give them a try!
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Cheers, Bianca
Vegan Onion Rings
Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion medium sized to large
- frying oil e.g. rapeseed oil (approx. 1 ½ cups of oil depending on the size of the pot)
For the flour coating
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the batter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon paprika powder
- ⅛ teaspoon cracked pepper
- ¼ cup sparkling water (or beer or cider)
Instructions
- Peel the onion, cut it into ½-inch (1–2 cm) slices, and separate the rings.
- In a bowl, combine the flour and salt for the flour coating.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt, paprika powder, and cracked pepper. Add in the sparkling water (or beer) and whisk until a smooth batter is formed. You can adjust the consistency by adding more flour if it’s too runny or more sparkling water if it’s too thick. It should be like a slightly thicker pancake batter.
- Heat the frying oil in a pot (or small wok) to 350°F/175 °C. You won’t need much oil, but the onion rings should swim in it.
- Dip the onion rings first into the flour coating, then into the batter and immediately add them to the oil. Work in batches to prevent overcrowding in the pot.
- Let the onion rings cook for 3 to 4 minutes until golden and crispy.
- Transfer the onion rings onto paper towels to remove excess oil. Sprinkle them with more salt and enjoy!
ILA says
Hi,
Can you use an air fryer instead of the oil/wok?
Thanks,
ILA
Bianca says
You'll want to use a different recipe for the batter and coating because otherwise, the batter would just drip off the onion rings. You can use this Baked Cauliflower Wings recipe and just use onion rings instead of cauliflower.