Baked Blooming Onion With Thai Sweet Chili Sauce (Gluten-Free) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 large onion
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs (gluten-free, or use a piece of dry gluten-free bread and process in a food processor)
1/4 teaspoon salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon dried cilantro (or fresh cilantro, minced)
Sauce
4 tablespoons rice vinegar (I used brown rice vinegar)
4 tablespoons coconut sugar crystals (or other natural sugar)
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sake or 1 tablespoon sherry wine
1 large garlic clove, grated
1 teaspoon crushed chili pepper
1 teaspoon potato starch

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400\u00b0F/200\u00b0C degrees.
Peel and cut off the top 1/4 inch of the onion.
Place the onion cut-side down. Starting 1/2 inch from the root, make a downward cut all the way through to the board.
Repeat to make four evenly spaced cuts around the onion.
Continue slicing between each section until you have 16 evenly spaced cuts.
Turn the onion over and use your fingers to gently separate the outer pieces.
Melt the coconut oil and brush the oil on both sides of the onion petals.
In a bowl, combine panko, salt, pepper, cayenne, and cilantro. Sprinkle the panko mixture on the onion.
Bake in the oven for about 30 - 40 minutes.
In the meantime, place all the ingredients for the sauce except for the potato starch in a small pan.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and let boil for 3 - 5 minutes.
In a small bowl, dissolve potato starch in 1 Tbsp of water. Reduce heat to low and add the potato starch mixture.
Stir for a minute or so until the sauce is thickened.
Taste the sauce and adjust the amount of sugar or chili.
Infuse love and serve with the sauce on the side.