Bacon.
We live in a world that covers its wounds with bacon-strip bandages, provides children with plush bacon dolls, and challenges its artists to create the ultimate bacon sculpture.
Soy-free, pig-free, and homemade.
This obsession has earned the honor of a dedicated Wikipedia entry to bacon mania. The country is so in love with its smoky, salty goodness that even the most gung-ho meat-eaters are willing to sprinkle bacon-flavored TVP bits all over their salads and baked potatoes.
But if you think bacon mania is only for meat-eaters, think again. During college I waitressed at a vegetarian cafe, where the "fakon" routinely sold out during Sunday brunch.
Most fake bacon barely counts as food
At that same cafe, I remember serving one unsuspecting elderly diner who had not yet noticed that all the "meat" on the menu was written in quotes.
He took one bite of his tempeh "bacon," threw down the strip, forced the plate back into my hands, and declared:
"This is the worst food I've had since the war!"
And really, who could blame him? Besides being heavily processed and expensive, most veggie bacon, well, just plain sucks.
The surprising secret to great vegan bacon? Beans and buckwheat
Today, after a lot of tasty research, I finally have an inexpensive, gluten-free, whole-food and freaking delicious solution. If you've ever woken in the middle of the night and found yourself drooling to the scent of unexplained bacon, this recipe is for you.
Yes, this bacon is not only ready to stand in for pancetta in your pasta carbonara and gourmet mac'n'cheese, but is even good enough on its own during breakfast or as the star of an avocado BLT!
This batch makes about 24 slices, or 1 cup total. You'll be surprised about how quickly that amount disappears, so do yourself a favor and triple the batch, store in the freezer, and enjoy the luxury of pigless-but-obsession-worthy bacon at a moment's notice.
Homemade Vegan Bacon
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup dried adzuki beans or other small red beans
- 1/3 cup hulled wholegrain buckwheat (not buckwheat flour)
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon hickory liquid smoke
- 4 teaspoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon Braggs Liquid Aminos (May be substituted with soy sauce)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
Rinse the beans and buckwheat, place in large bowl covered with several inches of cold filtered water; let soak overnight.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Strain the soaked beans and buckwheat and rinse. Place in the bowl of a food processor. Add the onion powder, liquid smoke, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, aminos or soy sauce, salt, tomato paste, coconut oil, and maple syrup. Pulse several times to combine, scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl and continue pulsing until uniform but not as pureed as hummus.
Line a 9×13 casserole dish with parchment paper and coat pan with baking spray. Place bacon mixture in pan and spread as much as possible with a spatula. To get the mixture very thin and evenly spread, spray another piece of parchment paper lightly with baking spray and press the paper on top of the mixture and flatten with your hands. Remove and discard the top piece of parchment paper, then use a spatula to spread over and fill in any bare spots.
Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes, then slice into 24 strips, about 1 inch by 4 inches (Do this by making one lengthwise cut down the center, and then twelve cuts across the shorter side). Remove the strips with a small spatula.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Fry the bacon slices for 2-3 minutes, flipping once. Alternatively, before frying, you can freeze the bacon, then fry when ready to serve (no need to thaw first).
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Oh, unabashedly miss bacon. Will have to try this!
This is really good. It does soak up the oil in the frying pan… but with healthy oil.. that's not a bad thing. i used kamut and adzuki beans. i think i'll try the molasses replacing the maple syrup suggestion. i have both, but molasses is much cheaper.
This is outstanding! I cannot convey my excitement enough, for real.
You advertise this recipe as gluten-free, which would be great, except Braggs and most other soy-sauces contain wheat. Of course, most people sensitive to gluten will realize this and opt for gluten-free soy sauce or tamari. I wanted to call that out, just in case!
Steven, Braggs is gluten-free. http://www.bragg.com/products/la.html
this looks sooooooo good!
Wow, I can't wait to give this a try. I've only had tempeh bacon twice and I'm not a fan. I hope this is as tasty as you say it is
Why, why, why must I be allergic to buckwheat? So bummed…
Hey Sunshine, You could try bulgur or farro in place of the buckwheat!
Oooh, thanks for the bulgur suggestion! I can def get my hands on that. Triple batch coming up…
Ooh, good to know!
Yeah, I have been missing blts with avocado! We use to eat the Morningstar bacon, but I read the ingredients.
i am SOOOO intrigued by this – it sounds like the PERFECT weekend activity!!!
I actually like tempeh bacon, but THIS be given a try. So clever! And soy free!! Buckwheat is one of my favorite ingredients, too. I would have never thought to do this. Yum!
This is actually GF! Yay, thank you so much, Matt for finally posting a GF recipe.
I will be trying this out, and my husband will be doing the taste testing since he is the bacon expert!
I was so excited to try this until I saw the nutritional yeast in the ingredients (allergic). Are there any substitions for the yeast, and if not do you think this recipe might work without it?
I've been a vegetarian for over 16 years but have never gotten over my craving for bacon…
Hey Victoria,
The nutritional yeast provides another dimension of flavor, but is not absolutely necessary.
Nutritional yeast has a nutty, cheesy sort of flavor. I'd recommend replacing it with a vegan parmesan cheese substitute if you have it on hand, but some brands contain nutritional yeast also.
Otherwise, I would try subbing in 3 teaspoons of ground flaxseed or almond meal, and 1 teaspoon ground dry mustard.
These are all flavor recommendations- if you just want a filler even 4 teaspoons of cornmeal or flour should be fine and not affect the taste too much.
Hope that helps!
Christine
Another brilliantly creative recipe Christine, thank you! I hope you don't mind, but I really wanted to flag up that kidney beans can be toxic if not prepared properly- the phytohaemagglutanin levels being so high that an initial rolling boil for at least 10 minutes is needed to degrade it sufficiently- which is why you can't prepare them from scratch in a slow cooker… I'm sure you already know this, just wanted to check you did!
Maybe cranberry/borlotti or even pinto beans could be used if there are no adzukis to be found?
Laura,
Thank you for your comment. I have heard about lectins in beans, but did not realize that kidney beans have levels 90% higher than most other beans. I only called for them because I assumed they were a common bean that readers would have on hand, so for now I will change it to just any red bean.
I did some research and saw at the FDA's site for foodborne illness they cite the Public Health Leadership Society's recommendations to soak beans for 5 hours, discard water, and boil in new water for 10 minutes to destroy the lectin.
Unfortunately, they do not mention what temperature will destroy the lectin, and I do not know if baking at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes (and additional frying time for 2-3 minutes) is equal to boiling at 212 degrees F for 10 minutes.
The FDA does mention the slowcooker problem, saying that in most cases the internal temperature of the beans does not reach above 75 degrees Celcius, or 167 degrees Fahrenheit.
I have emailed the Public Health Leadership Society, who made the recommendations that you are citing, for clarification. Hopefully they can clear this up.
Thanks,
Christine
Thank you SO much for this! I can't wait to try it. I would really love to have a good BLT sandwich one of these days!
Thanks Christine! Soy bacon is so intensely disgusting I'm really looking forward to it. And how did you find that talking bacon! That's disturbing and funny all at the same time.
Sounds good! I'll try it! Thanks!
If you haven't already seen it, I recommend Googling in The Bacon Flowchart…
With best regards.
Stephen
[...] No-Meat Athlete's Vegan Bacon [...]
Wow! I made this today and it is AMAZING! Even before going vegan (and I'm still new), I didn't eat beef or pork and the smell of bacon drove me mad. This hits the spot!!
[...] How to Make Perfect Vegan Bacon by NoMeatAthlete [...]
This is fabulous, I can't wait to try it! Also, I wanted to let you know that I added this to my favorite recipes from last week. This would be so cool to try! Thanks!
OMG, this looks delicious! I am always trying new fakin bacons and they are never very healthy nor very tasty. They either taste too salty or don't have enough taste at all….I am definitely trying this. Thanks Matt!
[...] in the kitchen Whether I am cooking or baking, kitchen time relaxes me. I made a big batch of vegan bacon on Sunday. It is no substitute for crispy bacon in my opinion but it was super tasty and I will [...]
Wow, wow, wow. This really IS perfect. I made it the other day, and proceeded to eat half the pan before even getting to the frying part. Yeah, not much self-control, but whatever, it was worth it!
With the remainder, I marinated it in additional paprika, sugar, Bragg's, and a little barbecue sauce because I didn't have liquid smoke.
I also used red lentils, because it is what I had on-hand. Ahhhh, enough cannot be said for this! Perfect on the side, on sandwiches, it is superb! Thank you for posting!! A new favorite!
To conclude this novel, would it be okay to post this photo/link on my new site, GlutenFreeFeed.com? Thanks
Hey Jenn, I'm glad to hear you liked it. Amazing, isn't it? You should try the liquid smoke next time; I think it adds a lot. Then again, if the BBQ sauce you used was smoky, that might be enough.
Definitely feel free to post the photo and link on Gluten Free Feed.
Made this last week and loved it. We're having BLT's for dinner on Wednesday and cannot wait for the rest of the family to try it…they're gonna love it as much as I do.
I am so intrigued by this recipe! I don't have a lot of the ingredients on hand, but I'll definitely be bookmarking it to make later.
Hi Christine!
Great blog! I'm trying this recipe and I have buckwheat groats. Is that what I'm supposed to be using?
Hey Heather,
Yep, groats are fine. I believe "hulled" and "groats" both indicate that the buckwheat kernel is stripped of its outer inedible coating and are ready to go.
Just as long as it's not ground into flour, it should work in this recipe.
Thanks!
You Rock Hard!!
This is awesome stuff! I'm sitting here taste testing my first batch, and all I can say is that this will become a staple around our house. The omni-hubby even likes it! I've never cared for any of the fake pre-packed stuff, even some of the homemade recipes that I tried were….ehhh?!
Having been raised in Mississippi, bacon is just a staple of life. You know meat and grease in everything. Thank goodness those days are over. I've been vegetarian for twenty plus years, and vegan now for four. I see Yummy BLTs are on the horizon, and who knows what else!
I did have to sub the buckwheat with Kamut, and used Molasses with a few drops of agave instead of the maple syrup.
Thanks again for the recipe, you've made this Southern Girl VERY Happy!
[...] Finally – Perfect Vegan Bacon You Can Make At Home (and Without Any Soy) [...]
Delicious.
Made a lovely "B"LT.
Thank you for the recipe!
[...] in the kitchen Whether I am cooking or baking, kitchen time relaxes me. I made a big batch of vegan bacon on Sunday. It is no substitute for crispy bacon in my opinion but it was super tasty and I will [...]
Would it ruin the recipe to boil the beans 10-15 minutes and then drain and cool them before processing to eliminate any concerns about toxins? I don't think they would cook much in that time.
I can't eat soy so I'm looking forward to trying this recipe. Thanks Christine!
[...] (a.k.a. Amazing Homemade Vegan Bacon)adapted from No Meat Athlete via The Ordinary [...]
I made this today, it turned out to be very tasty. I left out the liquid smoke simply because I don't like smoke flavor. Now I'm going to try and use the bacon in a family recipe which calls for bacon. I'm always trying to veganise my favorite childhood recipes.
[...] 11, 2011 I will be making this IMMEDIATELY upon returning home from my vacation! Having access to gluten free, homemade, vegan [...]
Hi Christine,
I've been making your vegan facon bacon since you posted it last year – almost every 6 weeks would you believe it as my husband a vegetarian by association absolutely enjoys it. He has wondered why I have never posted it on my blog. I tell him because its on your blog and other bloggers have made variations of it. He still insists it should be on my blog too for my readers to enjoy. So if its okay with you, I'll be posting and sharing your recipe on my blog in the next week or so, and please be assured I will link back to your original recipe. Once again, thank you so much for this super duper recipe.
Shaheen, feel free to share it. I appreciate the link back with the recipe!
Matt,
Thank you so much and absolutely no problem with the link back – its always courteous to acknowledge the original source of the recipe.
How important is the coconut oil? I'd hate to buy a whole bottle just for 1 tsp. Can I sub another oil? Can I mix 1tsp of canola with a drop of coconut extract?
You can use any kind of oil- sometimes coconut oil is used for "structure" because it is thick, but in this recipe it is just used to add some good fat. And it's such a small amount, any oil will be fine. There is no need to add coconut extract. Good luck!
[...] making tempeh bacon yourself with these recipes from Lunchbox Bunch and No Meat Athlete! July 30, 2011 alifevegetarian Categories: Fun, Recipe, Veg Eats [...]
I thought Bragg's aminos were made from soy beans, so this isn't totally soy-free, right?
If someone were allergic to soy, what could they substitute for that? More liquid smoke and/or paprika?
Hmm, good point. I've always thought of Bragg's as an alternative to soy sauce, but it turns out (I just checked) that it's a salt-free, preservative-free alternative, but still is made from soybeans.
I've tried these soy-free coconut aminos (http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Vegan-Coconut-Aminos-8-ozs/dp/B003XB5LMU) and they're pretty good. Not quite like real soy sauce, but not far off. I'd guess that would work pretty well.
Any particular reason for the kosher salt vs. whatever I have a large box of right now?
Trying to prioritize my purchases and buy one new thing from this ingredient list at a time!
Abby, until very recently I've used kosher salt because the flavor is much better than regular table salt (and though I'm not sure about this, I suspect that somehow it's less processed and lower in sodium). But recently I've started using sea salt, which has a much better flavor, is lower in sodium, and contains other healthy minerals.
Great answer, thanks!
I tried getting a little of it at Bulk Barn today. Next time, I'll look for sea salt, too.
Another followup — is the whole-grain buckwheat supposed to be toasted or not? They only had toasted.
Just posting again since I'm not sure if you saw it as a response.
Is the whole-grain buckwheat supposed to be toasted or not? They only had toasted.
Hey Abby, Christine (who came up with this recipe) is on her honeymoon this week, and I'm sure she's not checking email much. I think she'll respond when she gets back though.
But I would guess that the buckwheat is not supposed to be toasted, since most commonly the buckwheat I've seen (and have) is not toasted. But I doubt that would ruin the recipe, so you could give it a try.
Ahh, okay — no worries!
I'll start looking elsewhere for it, then!
Found it! Surprisingly, Bulk Barn in Canada only has kasha, but a small independent bulk food store did, as "hulled buckwheat".
Wow, this looks great. And thanks for the tip about the soy-free aminos!
Can the coconut oil be substituted? (allergy)
[...] Athlete made a really interesting vegan bacon with [...]
I found this uncomfortably crunchy despite soaking the beans & buckwheat for 14 hours. I'm wondering if the aduki beans were supposed to be cooked first?
This is fantastic! I've been eating Morningstar Farms forever, and now have a less expensive and tastier way to eat my bacon. Thanks so much, five stars!
Can adzuki beans be replace with another bean?
I'm answering my question….I need to read more thoroughly next time. It looks like any red bean will work.
Just so you're aware, soy sauce and braggs have soy in them. It's probably a good idea to have a soy-free alternative in a recipe you advertise as being soy-free. Thanks!
[...] perfect vegan Bacon? Posted on October 8, 2011 by Mike| Leave a comment http://www.nomeatathlete.com/vegan-bacon/ Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark [...]
is there a substitute for beans..i can't digest beans
That looks really good, but just so you know…that's not soy-free. Braggs contains soy. I have a severe soy allergy – I've checked.
[...] [...]
I just made these faux bacon slices and they are delicious! I was skeptical at first, the beans may be soaked but they are raw. I chopped 1/2 an onion very fine and browned on a low heat. Added the onion. Doubled the smokey paprika (left out the ole hickory smoke).
We will see how they digest in a few hours!
Thank you for your efforts.
[...] am linking the recipe for now from the No Meat Athelete. Try it and I promise you will not be disappointed. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the [...]
Hi, I want to try your recipe for vegan bacon but where I live they don't sell Buckwheat or aduki beans. I guess I could use red kidney beans, which are plentiful here in Colombia, as a replacement for the aduki beans but what would be a good replacement for the buckwheat?
I know this sounds ridiculous, but is there something I can substitute for tomato paste? I am allergic to tomatoes. It's so awful.
This was delicious! So glad I doubled the recipe! Thanks so much!!
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