Recipe: Make Your Own Vegan Bacon With Rice Paper

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I Woke up this morning and decided, you know what – the world needs more chaos. Embrace that chaotic energy and let’s try out that rice paper fake vegan bacon recipe. Vacon (Vegan-Bacon) has been around for ages, from using mushrooms, to eggplants. From Soy-based products to banana peel bacon.

But there is another contender to the world of “BuT WhY Do YoU mAke FoOd LoOk LIke Meat?” – says the angry meat-eater that has never had a vegan food product in his life according to themselves (lol) and this is rice paper vegan bacon.

I decided, what’s the harm to go give it a try and see if it works or not. If it does, brilliant. If it does not – I can hide my head in vegan shame and no one would ever know, right?

Bacon is one of those things that most people tend to miss the most from switching from meat-eater to vegetarian to vegan. The animal-free bacon options currently on the market are growing exponentially as great and fitting alternatives make our lives easier for a quick snack or full-on meal. Realistically, It will not, and is not actual bacon so therefore it will not (thankfully) look and taste like the actual animal it is created from. I mean… we are more after the texture, aroma, and taste here which can all be created through ingredients at the end of the day.

Here we go!

The below recipe is for 4 – 6 rice paper sheets (More than enough for two people). Adjust accordingly for your needs and family.

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons of soy sauce
4 tablespoons of olive oil (Mine was courtesy of Stella Artois)
4 tablespoons of maple syrup
2 teaspoons of liquid smoke
1 teaspoon of garlic salt / flakes
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of ground paprika
1 teaspoon of black pepper
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
Vegan honey for taste (Herbivore honi was used, delicious!)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius.
Mix all of your dry ingredients (spices) together.
Whisk the soy sauce, maple syrup, olive oil and liquid smoke well in a shallow bowl and add the dry ingredients to it. Mix well to have a smooth consistency.
Stack two pieces of rice paper on top of each other and cut into slices with scissors to the desired ‘bacon’ shape and size that you would like to have.
Take two pieces of the same size and soak together in a water bowl for a few seconds, basically ensuring that the two pieces stick together well – rice paper is quite thin, two together makes for a better ‘bacon’ texture.
Glaze with a brush, each strip with the soy sauce, ensuring you do this on both sides.
Add some vegan honey onto after glazing with the brush for that extra sweetness factor.
Place on a piece of parchment paper which you will use to place directly on the oven rack to cook.
Bake in the preheated oven until the strips are dry, roughly 6 to 8 minutes – keep in mind though, your oven, your rules, also your tastebuds. Your oven might take a while longer, or you might want it crispier.

Once cooked, let it cool off by either placing the ‘bacon’ on a cooling rack or on some kitchen towels to remove some of the oil – if that is your preference.

In the end, your ‘bacon’ should look like below, ready to be devoured!

Now that your ‘bacon’ is ready, what to do with it? The simple quick and easiest method is to create yourself a killer Vegan ham, tomato, cheese, and bacon sandwich on some buns with some delicious Nandos vegan PERinaise sauce.