Sunday, July 15, 2012

Vegan Bacon

Ok, I'm not too sure you can handle this. Do you think you can? Do you even remember what bacon tastes like? I don't.. but hey, this sounded too exciting to not try.

I found this on a few sites that have been taken down for some reason, but I also found it on Vegan Nosh, who also credits more people for passing it on. This is what I love about the vegan community! Passing on amazing recipes!

Dry stuff, part 1:
3/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup soy or garbanzo flour
2 T nutritional yeast
2-3 t smoked paprika **
1-2 t garlic powder
1 t black pepper
** (I didn't have smoked paprika, so I added liquid smoke - worked out really well)

Wet stuff, part 1:
2/3 cup water
3 T soy sauce
2 T maple syrup
1 T tomato paste

Dry stuff, part 2:
1/4 cup plus 2 T vital wheat gluten
2 T soy or garbanzo flour
1-1/2 T nutritional yeast
1/2 t garlic
1/2 t salt


Wet stuff, part 2:
1/4 cup plus 2 T water
2 t canola oil

You’re making two batches of seitan. 'Part 1' is the red, bacony 'meat'. 'Part 2' is the white-ish streaky 'fat'.

Part 1: mix the dry stuff; mix the wet stuff; mix together. This dough is easy to work by hand.

Part 2: see Part 1, only do it in a different bowl. I had 4 bowls going at one point, you are probably more efficient than moi.

Divide the reddish, Part 1 dough into 3 pieces.

Divide the white-ish, Part 2 dough into 2 pieces.

Lay down a piece of plastic wrap. Put one piece of the Part 1 dough on it. Lay another piece of plastic wrap over the dough. Roll the dough out until it’s about 1/4″ high. You don’t need to worry about shape all that much. Put the rolled dough on a piece of sprayed foil.

Repeat the rolling process (steps 5-8) for the other pieces of dough and stack them on the first piece, obviously alternating the white and reddish parts. If they don’t stack perfectly, that’s good. If you get really anal and precise about this stuff, it’ll look like it was made by a machine.

Put a piece of plastic wrap on top of the stack of doughs. Rest a heavy book or something on the plastic wrap for 20 minutes or more. Wrap the slab of scarily realistic bacon in foil.

Bake at 325 degrees F for about 90 minutes.

Cool it, slice it thinly, eat it cold or heat it up. I have been frying it in my iron skillet and it is pretty yummy. I think my slices were a bit too thick, but it was still delicious! Keeps in the fridge up to roughly 10 days.

I just realized that I forgot to take pictures...which is UNLIKE me, so this one is from Vegan Nosh.

I promise I'll take pictures next time because there definitely will be a next time with this recipe!

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