Meatless Monday: Faken Bacon

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Welcome to another wonderful Meatless Monday!

This week we’re dealing with eggplants! Eggplants rule! Most people that I’ve come across hate eggplant. I just don’t think most know what to do with it. I’m always looking for new ways to prepare it. My favorite way to use eggplant is in Ratatouille. I do need to post that recipe sometime because it’s a GOOD one!

My mother in law planted two different varieties this year- Black beauty & Japanese and she’s been harvesting them out the wah-zoo. Due to the extreme heat this summer a lot of our veggie plants didn’t start to yield until early September. In trying to keep up with the abundance, I found that the dehydrator is a fantastic way to preserve eggplant and use it! Once I realized I could dehydrate it – I began to look for recipes.

I found an excellent raw vegan recipe using eggplant to create  bacon (except, this version is way less greasy)!

Once I saw the pics and read the recipe I was sold. I had to try it out…and I did…over the weekend!

This recipe is from the happy raw kitchen!

Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant, sliced thin, lengthwise*
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1 tablespoon paprika
or
1 tablespoon smoked paprika, not raw
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2-3 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 tablespoon agave, or maple syrup
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons water, or a little more to thin mixture

Mix and set aside.

* Cut eggplant into vertical strips. I used a butcher knife and did the best I could.  You can use either a mandolin or electric slicer if you have them. An electric slicer is your best option.  You can also cut the eggplant into rounds if you want for an eggplant fakin’ bacon chip. I wanted to get the real effect on my first go- but think I will do rounds next time.

Prep:

1. Mix all ingredients, except eggplant.

2. Lay the slices out on parchment paper.

3. Brush one side of the sliced eggplant lightly with mixture, add water to mix as needed. I use my fingers or a pastry brush. Turn each slice over, and brush the other side. The eggplant will become soft and if you like you can shape it to resemble real bacon

4. Transfer with the parchment to dehydrator trays.

5. Dehydrate at 115 degrees till crisp, flipping and transferring to mesh sheets 1/2 way through. Mine took about 12 hours as they were very thin.

Store in glass jars 2 weeks. If they wilt, you may re-crisp in dehydrator about 1 hour.
Adjust all ingredients to your own taste. Quantities also vary according to the size of your eggplant, and how thinly it is sliced. I use organic eggplant, which is usually a bit smaller than conventional.

Both the hub and I were very impressed at how these turned out. Even though we don’t have an Excalibur dehydrator- which is ideal to have in this recipe- it still came out looking like real bacon! Impressive. We tried ours in a salad last night and it was terrific. Sorry, I didn’t snap a photo- I remembered as I was finishing! You can enjoy these fakin’ bacon strips in a  veggie wrap, make a vegan BLT sammie, chop em’ up and us as fakin’ bacon bits and add to a salad or simply just enjoy as a snack, if you like! The other dehydrated eggplant pictured is some I did the weekend before using a soy sauce marinade and I left the skins on.  I will use that eggplant for soups and sauces.

Make sure you check out the recipe post at happy raw kitchen because her photo’s give you a better idea of what it can really look like (and her site RAWKS) – lol!!

I could easily do without pork fat having these eggplant  fakin’ bacon strips around!

Happy Meatless Monday!

What are you cooking or uncooking in the kitchen?