Fake Bacon — GMO-Free, Vegan, Gluten Free Bacon
Make this simple and easy vegan bacon the next time you host a veggie night, or party, and enjoy the rich tones of bacon without the fat, mess, and grease. Bonus, it’s gluten-free and made with coconut chips.
“Fake Bacon” made with Coconut Chips
This recipe uses Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil and Tropical Traditions organic coconut chips, which are thicker and larger than other dried coconut products. Please note, if you do order from Tropical Traditions using my affiliate links, and you are a new customer, you’ll get the Virgin Coconut Oil Book free with your first order. (Thanks in advance for your support.)
Yesterday I took a mason jar of my Fake Bacon to a potluck dinner, as a garnish for a salad that I brought. The Fake Bacon had such rave reviews that it was passed around with a spoon for people to help themselves. I only had ½ cup left to bring home. But it’s so easy to make that I didn’t mind.
What’s Fake Bacon?
Fake bacon is offered as a vegan option or kosher option for lovers of smokey flavoured meat who have dietary restrictions, it can also be classified as vegan bacon. There’s no meat in these and you can adapt the recipe according to what you have on hand and your own family’s preferences. These have the same smokey, sweet, sour, salty flavour as real maple smoked bacon, and the same melt in your mouth fatty texture. Better than commercial bacon bits because they are made from wholesome natural, organic ingredients and are GMO-free. If you want them soy-free, too, substitute Braggs amino for the Tamari sauce.
I was playing around in the kitchen on Friday motivated by a post for Vegan Bacon that was shared in the 30 days of Scratch Cooking group on Facebook. I didn’t have the recipe on Friday so I decided to concoct my own version based on the ingredients that I had on hand. The method is a lot like making granola, where you take your dry ingredients and your moist ingredients, mix and then bake on a baking sheet, stirring often, till dry and crisp.
Ingredients:
4 tbsp. melted virgin coconut oil
2 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
½ tsp. Dijon mustard, I used the kombucha Dijon mustard.
30 drops of natural liquid hickory smoke, don’t add too much, as it is bitter in excess
2 tsp. smoked paprika (get the kind from Spain, not the cheaper, generic kind that has soy based smoke flavour added)
2 tbsp. dark maple syrup
2 tsp. organic tamari sauce
2 tbsp. maple infused balsamic vinegar (I used Olivia brand, you could substitute regular balsamic vinegar)
1/2 tsp. Celtic salt (optional)
4 cups of dried coconut chips, I used Tropical Traditions brand
Method:
Add the coconut oil and the sesame oil together, in a pint size, wide mouth jar. Beat in the Dijon mustard into the oils, with a fork, until smooth, and all the lumps are gone from the mustard. It is used for thickening in this recipe and to emulsify the oils with liquid ingredients. Add the liquid smoke and the smoked paprika. Beat with a fork until the paprika is fully mixed in. Add the maple syrup, tamari, and balsamic vinegar and beat with a fork. The mixture will become thick and glossy. Taste mixture and add salt to taste, if you like, for a saltier version.
Measure the 4 cups of coconut chips into a glass bowl. Pour the spicy mixture over the coconut chips and fold together gently, until all the coconut chips are evenly coated with the flavouring mixture.
Prepare a baking sheet by greasing generously with coconut oil. Spread coconut mixture evenly over a baking sheet.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Bake for 20 minutes, stirring and turning the coconut to keep it from burning. This is very important because the maple syrup will brown easily if the temperature gets too high. I set my timer for 5 min. and stir it every five minutes until it is brown and crisp, but not burned. If it starts to burn, turn the heat down to 325F.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely at room temperature. Fake, vegan bacon will crisp up as it cools. Once completely cold, store in a glass jar in the fridge with a tight fitting lid. Will keep indefinitely if kept cool and dry.
Serve as a garnish for baked potatoes, or salads. Don’t mix this vegan bacon into moist ingredients as the coconut will become limp, although the taste will remain smoky.
Print
Fake Bacon
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 4 cups 1x
Description
Soy free bacon-bit substitute.
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp. melted virgin coconut oil
- 2 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
- ½ tsp. Dijon mustard
- 30 drops of natural liquid hickory smoke
- 2 tsp. smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp. dark maple syrup
- 2 tsp. organic tamari sauce
- 2 tbsp. maple infused, or regular, balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tsp. celtic salt (optional)
- 4 cups of dried coconut chips, I used Tropical Traditions brand
Instructions
- Add the coconut oil and the sesame oil together, in a pint size, wide mouth jar.
- Beat in the Dijon mustard into the oils, with a fork, until smooth, and all the lumps are gone from the mustard.
- Add the liquid smoke, and the smoked paprika.
- Beat with a fork until the paprika is fully mixed in.
- Add the maple syrup, tamari, and balsamic vinegar and beat with a fork.
- Mixture will become thick and glossy.
- Taste mixture and add salt to taste.
- Measure the 4 cups of coconut chips into a glass bowl.
- Pour the spice mixture over the coconut chips and fold together until all the coconut chips are evenly coated with the flavouring mixture.
- Prepare a baking sheet by greasing generously with coconut oil.
- Spread coconut mixture evenly over baking sheet.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Bake for 20 minutes, stirring and turning the coconut every five minutes to keep it from burning. If it starts to burn, turn the heat down to 325F.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely at room temperature. Fake bacon will crisp up as it cools.
- Once completely cold, store in a glass jar in the fridge with a tight fitting lid. Will keep indefinitely if keep cool and dry.
Notes
Serve as a garnish for baked potatoes, or salads. Don’t mix into moist ingredients as the coconut will become limp, although the taste will remain smoky.
I hope you like this easy Bacon Bits recipe, part of the #30fromscratch medley of recipes and tutorials.
Your Turn
If you’ve made this vegan bacon, what did you think of it? Leave a comment.
Where did you get the maple infused balsamic vinegar? I am very excited to try this. Just want to say I really enjoy your blog and have learned alot.
Olivia’s in Kelowna at Orchard Park. (BC)