Vegan Bacon

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5 from 5 votes

My vegan bacon never lets me down! Bubbles and crisps like real bacon and takes only minutes to prepare!

Prep Time2

Cook Time8

Total Time8

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: All

Keyword: vegan bacon

Servings: servings

Calories: 146kcal

Author: Richard Makin

Ingredients

2 sheets paper tofu see ingredients notes below
60 ml dark soy sauce
4 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoon liquid smoke
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 tablespoon beetroot juice see ingredients notes below
2 teaspoon potato starch

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

To make the vegan bacon, carefully tear the sheets of paper tofu into rasher-sized strips.
2 sheets paper tofu
In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.
60 ml dark soy sauce, 4 tablespoon vegetable oil, 3 tablespoon liquid smoke, 1 tablespoon maple syrup, 2 tablespoon beetroot juice, 2 teaspoon potato starch
Place the vegan bacon rashers in a small baking tray or container and pour over the marinade. Cover and leave to marinate for at least 2 minutes. Alternatively, place in the fridge for up to 8 hours, but this is not required.
When ready to cook, preheat the grill (aka broiler) to its highest temperature. Place a grill rack on a grill tray and spread the vegan bacon over the rack, allowing it to ripple and fold over the bars of the rack. Brush with some of the remaining marinade. Drizzle with a little extra oil. Place under the grill for 4 minutes then remove, flip, brush again with marinade and grill the other side. The paper tofu is liable to burn easily, so don’t take your eye off it.
Remove the vegan bacon and serve hot.

Notes

1. Paper tofu is a form of bean curd which is formed in thin sheets. You'll find it in the refrigerator section of most Asian supermarkets, usually in a sealed plastic packet.

2. The beetroot juice in this recipe is mostly for colour, so it can be omitted if necessary. If you plan to use it, you can avoid buying a whole bottle of beetroot juice and instead just buy a vacuum pack or jar of cooked beetroot. These usually come with a few tablespoons of beet juice inside.

3. It’s also possible to fry this vegan bacon if you wish. My advice is to use a low heat as the bacon burns or crisps very quickly.

4. It would seem obvs that the longer you marinate your vegan bacon, the more it'll taste of bacon. But honestly this only really matters for about 8 hours. After this point I've found the paper tofu sort of gets saturated with flavour and it stops soaking up the marinade. You can even just brush the marinade onto the paper tofu and grill straight away, but I'd really recommend letting it marinade for at least two mins, if you have the time.

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