I know there’s a lot of you out there that are going to be getting a fancy new air-fryer for Christmas this year. If not from someone else, maybe you’re buying one for yourself. They are all the rage right now anyway, right? I’ve been putting off getting one, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been curious about the thing; how it works and if it works well.

I have long since made it my duty to not have a fryer in my home. When I was growing up we had one and my mom would rarely use it, and generally only for making french fries. Though there were a few shameless fried-food nights where my parents would fry up literally everything. Clearly, that isn’t how my own kitchen functions. Either way, my brother is in town and he brought his air-fryer for me to try out. And guess what? I don’t hate it.

Naturally, my first inclination is to homemake one of my fried food favorites; a blooming onion! I of course wanted to make the booking onion better so I used a whole wheat white flour and as little oil as possible. Just a quick spritz over the top and some mixed in with the breading.

Now, I will say that breading this onion is the trickiest part. Be sure you get each part of the dredging in between as many of the petals as possible so that when the onion ‘blooms’ in the cooking process that it crisps up and is coated fully.

I served mine with a side of some homemade ‘special sauce’ that I healthified up. The end result was a pretty tasty blooming onion, if I do say so myself! This would be a great healthier alternative for a proper gameday spread!

Step-by-Step Photos:

Nutritional Claims: Balanced • Kidney Friendly • Vegetarian • Pescatarian • Dairy Free • Milk Free • Peanut Free • Soy Free • Fish Free • Shellfish Free • Pork Free • Red Meat Free • Crustacean Free • Celery Free • Mustard Free • Sesame Free • Lupine Free • Mollusk Free • Alcohol Free • No Sugar Added • Sulphite Free • Kosher