Healthy Recipes: Spicy Dip

How to Make an Onion Blossom

By Dana Jacobi
for the American Institute for Cancer Research

The first time I encountered the onion blossom served at certain chain restaurants, I ate half of this deep-fried monster. I loved every bite but the next morning, did I ever regret it. According to www.thedailyplate.com, this starter/side dish contains 2710 calories, 66 percent of them from fat, and 39 grams of saturated fat. Even sharing one four ways means consuming an unhealthy amount of saturated fat while also sailing in dangerous water for total calories from fat. And that is without counting the dip.

Since a blossomed onion looks lovely and alluringly abundant, I have since cruised the Internet looking for ways to make a healthy and delicious version. The recipe I found at www.bewitchinkitchen.blogspot.comreplaces frying with baking. However, it required coating the onion with fat-free liquid egg and ground-up bran cereal, which I do not find a tasty combination. So I took a different route for making a healthy blossomed onion that tastes good.

My starting point was a Sicilian onion dish in which whole onions, coated with herbs and a touch of olive oil, are wrapped in foil and baked until they collapse into a compote. I discovered that when I cut the onion into petals and baked it until just tender-crisp, the segments spread out to form a lovely chrysanthemum. Plucked one by one, its petals are delicious served with the same spicy sour cream and horseradish dip restaurants serve with their fried onion.

Use either a large Spanish or exceptionally big yellow onion, not a Vidalia or other sweet variety. Because of their high water content, these sweet onions become wet and limp.

In this version, the onion does not swell to the plate-filling size produced when it is flour-coated and deep-fried, but you get a beautiful flower and the satisfaction of serving a delicious and smart dish.

Spicy Dip

Baked Onion Blossom

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Prepare 14- to 18-inch length of heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Remove root tip of onion and cut 1/2-inch off top. Using your fingers, peel away the first layer of the onion, removing the papery skin with it. Using long knife as if to halve onion vertically, cut into it stopping 1/2- to 3/4-inch above root end. Rotate onion 90 degrees and make second cut at right angles to first. Using slight sawing motion as you cut may make this easier.

To make petals, while using your fingertips to hold the onion together, between two of the right-angle cuts make 3 more vertical cuts across the onion, placing them about one-half inch apart. Make 3 or 4 more cuts across the remaining two quadrants.

Sprinkle the oil over the onion, then add salt and pepper. Gently spread petals slightly open and sprinkle on dried herbs. Place onion in center of foil. Bring up four corners of foil and twist them together. Gently press the rest of the foil up to seal onion in a loose packet. Set wrapped onion on light-colored baking sheet.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Open foil carefully to avoid steam that will be released. The onion will be “blossomed” and petals tender but firm enough to hold their shape. Let onion sit until warm or room temperature before serving.

Makes 4 servings for a crudités platter.

Per serving (Onion): 30 calories, 2 g total fat (0 g saturated fat), 4 g carbohydrate,
0 g protein, 1 g dietary fiber, 150 mg sodium.

Per serving (1 Tablespoon Spicy Dip): 25 calories, 2 g total fat (1 g saturated fat),
2 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 0 g dietary fiber, 140 mg sodium

Something Different is written by Dana Jacobi, author of 12 Best Foods Cookbook and contributor to AICR’s New American Plate Cookbook: Recipes for a Healthy Weight and a Healthy Life.

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The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) is the cancer charity that fosters research on the relationship of nutrition, physical activity and weight management to cancer risk, interprets the scientific literature and educates the public about the results. It has contributed more than $91 million for innovative research conducted at universities, hospitals and research centers across the country. AICR has published two landmark reports that interpret the accumulated research in the field, and is committed to a process of continuous review. AICR also provides a wide range of educational programs to help millions of Americans learn to make dietary changes for lower cancer risk. Its award-winning New American Plate program is presented in brochures, seminars and on its website, www.aicr.org. AICR is a member of the World Cancer Research Fund International.