Yowsa. Cedar-planked bloomin’ onions where have you been? Why weren’t you in my life years and years ago? Because this right here… this? This is good stuff. Mighty good stuff. The perfect side dish for the perfect grilled burger dinner. The onions are grilled until just tender, but still with a bit of crunch. They’re seasoned, and seasoned good. And they have just a hint of the smoky cedar plank used to grill them. All this and a delicious roasted red pepper dipping sauce.
Onions, Elevated.
There’s not any deep-frying going on here. Nope. Just clean, fantastic flavors. You’ll find yourself making cedar-planked bloomin’ onions again and again. Try different sauces. Try different woods, too. You can’t go wrong. Just grab a few big ole sweet onions and get to it!
Don’t buy any el cheapo cedar planks for this or any other dish. Get the good stuff and you won’t ever look back. Cheap planks split, warm and have splinters. Good planks are thicker, stay flat and have smoother edges.
Also try my cedar-planked Camembert cheese.
This recipe was inspired by a recipe from Blog Lovin’.
Cedar-Planked Bloomin’ Onions
Equipment
Ingredients
For the onions
- 2 large sweet onions
- 1 large grilling plank
- Italian seasoning to taste
- Parmesan cheese grated, to taste
- granulated garlic to taste
- paprika to taste
- olive oil to taste
- kosher salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- fresh parsley chopped, for garnish
For the aioli
- 1 cup roasted red peppers
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
- 1 clove garlic chopped
- kosher salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
For the onions
- Fire up your grill for indirect cooking 350-400 F.
- Prepare your onions by cutting 1/2 inch off the stem end, then peel all the skin off. Place the onion on a cutting board cut side down.
- Make cuts vertically thru the onion starting 1/2" from the root part that is sticking up. You'll make 16 evenly-spaced cuts around the onion, all the way to the cutting board. Make sure you go all the way through.
- Carefully transfer the onion to your plank and turn over so the root is down. Carefully separate the pedals as if you were opening a flower.
- Drizzle the onions with olive oil.
- Sprinkle the onions liberally with the Italian seasoning, salt and pepper and Parmesan.
- Place plank on grill away from heat and cook for 1 hour or until pedals have started to soften. If you prefer move plank over direct heat last 10-15 minutes to get more smoky flavor from the plank. Watch out for fires, though, and be prepared to move the plank back to indirect heat to put them out.
- Garnish with parsley and serve.
For the aioli
- Place all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until well blended.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are approximate.