Recipe Review: Vegan Bacon
Bacon is a madness that needs no introduction – but my method does.
The Method to My Vegan Bacon Madness
I am meticulous by default, and even more so when I’m testing. Plus, since vegan bacon can be a divisive subject, I was highly critical of each product. Yet I also respect my fellow bloggers! If a recipe received a horrible review, I didn’t name its creator.
I tested 2 recipes each of 5 different vegan bacon foundations for a total of 10 recipes. However, only 4 of these recipes are linked. Click to discover which ones were worth naming:
NOTE: I am aware mushrooms and tempeh are commonly used for vegan bacon. My goal, though, was realism; these foundations simply do not come close.
Seitan: Best Bacon-on-the-Side “Bacon”
Overall, seitan bacon is the closest to real bacon a vegan can get. It’s just a lot of work: two dry mixes, two wet mixes, two doughs, at least two cooking methods. This is not “bacon” to hide in a sandwich; this is “bacon” to be displayed proudly next to a short stack.
The Good Seitan Bacon
Adam Sobel of Cinnamon Snail offers one of the most realistic “bacon” recipes on the Internet. Using the vital wheat gluten method for making seitan, he guides you to blend a “fat” and a “meat” dough in your food processor.
Cultural ingredients such as dried Mexican chilis and Indian asafetida impart deep color and flavor in ways liquid smoke, garlic powder, and onion powder can only approximate. My kitchen smelled like real bacon!
Unfortunately, I was dismayed that the reconstituted and blended chilis speckled my “meat” dough. I was also feeling impatient by the third time I had to apply heat; this vegan bacon must bake, cool, fry, marinade, and bake again.
Yet the only reason I won’t be remaking it is because I developed my own recipe incorporating everything I learned herein.
The Bad Seitan Bacon
The opposing seitan bacon could’ve been a recipe for vegan pepperoni by someone who hates flavor. Furthermore, after the final application of heat, even thin slices were more challenging to my molars than a stack of pumpernickel crackers would be to my front teeth.
And I cooked it three different ways!
Once chilled, slice the bacon to the thickness of your choice, you can eat cold or pan fry, grill or bake until golden & crisp.
None of them produced markedly different results.
Yet the worst part happened before chilling. These instructions clearly state to wrap the layered seitan in parchment and plastic wrap, then simmer for 2 hours. Despite 9 layers of protection, my package burst causing much flavor to leech into the cooking water. Fennel was the only one of 23 ingredients (!) to remain strong turning my loaf into the most pathetic pizza topping I’ve ever had.
Rice Paper: Best BLT “Bacon”
I could also title this section Rice Paper: Least Forgiving “Bacon”. Done well, rice paper bacon is so good Gordon Ramsay promotes it. The crisp and wave of this analog can indeed be uncanny! But it’s easy to burn, and even easier to make tough.
Additionally, rice paper bacon can only be served by itself or within a sandwich to be consumed immediately; these starchy sheets go limp within minutes of contact with moisture.
The Good Rice Paper Bacon
Monica Davis, the blogger behind The Hidden Veggies, seems to be the inspiration for Gordon Ramsay’s rice paper bacon. Both culinary creatives sprinkle a little seasoned tofu between dunked rice paper strips before oven frying.
The flash-marinated rice paper softens and seals the tofu crumbles, then crisps delivering incredible textural contrast…
in pieces that bake well. I made this recipe three times attempting to produce a full batch of evenly cooked “bacon”. Unless you meticulously place larger strips along the outer rim of your baking sheet, a smattering of burnt and soggy pieces is inevitable.
The Bad Rice Paper Bacon
As dry rice paper shards fell while preparing Davis’s recipe, I thought, “I look forward to the other formula. I bet rice paper is easier to cut when moistened first.”
I was wrong. The first strip cut well! But rice paper begins to lose structural integrity immediately after being dampened. By the last cut, I was wrestling limp and sticky sheets as best I could.
Some pieces, lamentably, doubled-over and stuck to themselves. And once cooked and cooled, they hardened into something I might give a dog to clean its teeth.
Tofu: Best Bacon-Flavored Snack
Tofu bacon walks the line between “bacon” and jerky. The better of the two recipes tasted like bacon, but chewed like jerky. There was little to no crisp.
That said, I could eat a batch and call it a meal!
The Good Tofu Bacon
I adore Brian Watson, AKA Thee Burger Dude. He specializes in vegan deli, comfort, and fast foods, so of course he has a vegan bacon recipe! (He has several, in fact, but the tofu one looked best to me.)
Indeed, Watson’s tofu bacon is an irresistible snack – it’s just more like jerky. After 40-50 minutes of baking at 375°F/190°C, I expected more crunch.
I likewise expected the super firm tofu he recommends to hold its shape. Yet as I attempted thin slices, it fell apart.
The Bad Tofu Bacon
The other tofu bacon was good tofu, but bad bacon. All slices refused to crisp beyond their edges despite tripling the cooking time.
What’s worse, they didn’t taste like bacon! With a 66% soy sauce marinade, they offered little other flavor.
At least they cut well. The crumbly issue I had with super-firm tofu was nonexistent with extra-firm.
Carrot: Best Healthy “Bacon”
At this point, we’re not making “bacon” anymore. But these smokey carrot chips are good! I almost didn’t make them because I feared running such a long and narrow root through my mandoline would land me in the ER. With a cutproof glove, however, I managed this task with ease. (Only the last ⅛” – 3 mm – wouldn’t slice safely.)
And I’m grateful – both for the protection and the snack. I could eat an entire tray of these smoky, crispy sticks in one sitting!
Oh, right…I did.
The Good Carrot Bacon
Admittedly, I avoid recipes for fad appliances. (I technically don’t even have an air fryer, but a toaster oven with an air fryer setting.) Yet each time I researched carrot bacon recipes, the one on All Air Fryer Recipes run by Jordan Zelesnick caught my eye.
And I’m so glad it did. Save for being a little too sweet, her carrot bacon made me giddy! I think swapping the soy sauce and maple syrup measurements would create the perfect bacon-y vegetable chip.
UPDATE: It did not. After nearly a dozen attempts, I discovered that using less and/or different sweetener(s) amplifies bitter compounds to an unpleasant degree. Stick with Zelesnick’s recipe.
The Bad Carrot Bacon
The frying instructions for the second carrot bacon recipe were so off I quit after two batches and ate the remaining strips raw.
I daresay pan frying marinated carrots is, plainly, wrong. Salt draws out water. Consequently, after an hour of absorbing a soy sauce-based dressing, my carrot slices looked like they were swimming in more marinade!
Yet the increase in liquid volume was not surprising. I was alarmed this recipe never said to pat anything dry – or even shake off excess moisture. Instead, it instructed me to transfer the wet strips directly into oil over medium to medium-high heat and cook for 3 minutes per side. The dripping wet slices predictably smoked and burned.
Banana Peel: Best Avoided “Bacon”
The Bad Banana Peel Bacons
Banana peel bacon is for anyone who wants a seasoning ritual for their trash before throwing it out. This is world’s most impractical “bacon”.
First of all, you can never be ready to make banana peel bacon; banana peel bacon must be ready for you. There’s a scant 24-hour window in which your bananas will be perfectly ripe for these formulae. Act sooner or later and you risk a starchy or flaccid product.
Secondly, though banana peel bacon isn’t particularly demanding, it leaves you with, well…bananas. There’s no shortage of what to do with these mellow yellow berries! But even if you merely eat or freeze them, you still have to do something.
There’s also quite a bit of trash to your trash. Once you scrape off the inner flesh, you realize half the peels can’t be used. There’s probably a recipe calling for “banana strings” (as my children call them), but at what point are we wasting resources to avoid wasting?
Lastly, it’s not good. Even the recipe that instructed me to fry, marinate, and bake my banana peels failed to elevate this garbage. Bottom Line: I wouldn’t touch these greasy black peels with a 39 & ½-foot pole.
Lasting Impressions
I tested 10 vegan bacon recipes specifically for this post. Starting with the most highly recommended, here are the 4 worth repeating:
- Adam Sobel, Cinnamon Snail: “Marbled Seitan Bacon Recipe”
- Monica Davis, The Hidden Veggies: “The Best Vegan (Rice Paper) Bacon”
- Brian Watson, Thee Burger Dude: “Tofu Bacon”
- Jordan Zelesnick, All Air Fryer Recipes: “Air Fryer Carrot Bacon”
Over the years, though, I have encountered several other “bacon” formulae including mushroom and tempeh bacon. I even tried banana peel bacon by Charles Hunter III of The Salted Table! Long before the two unnamed recipes above, I’d revisit his creation. It was at least decent enough that I thought banana peels were a good idea going into this post.
No one, however, can beat the marinade by Melissa Huggs of Vegan Huggs. Molasses makes the balance between browning and burning a little precarious, but the savory flavor profile she’s crafted is superb.
The Ultimate “Bacon”
If I could only make one vegan bacon for the rest of my days, it would be my seitan bacon. All the knowledge I gained from my experiments is in that and the following posts:
