Nut Free ✣ Gluten Free ✣ Vegan

There’s a lot of options out there for vegetarian or vegan ‘bacon’. Some call for tempe, some for wonton wrappers, however, most call for coconut of some kind. Combined with some element of of liquid smoke and a variation of the theme with other ingredients. This slightly intimidated me for some time, however, after working through a couple recipes, this basically just takes having the ingredients in your kitchen & a bit of time.

I do encourage you to try it. Start with the recipe as is. If you love and want to have on hand, feel free to double your batch. The veggie bacon goes great on salads, potatoes… deviled eggs, in sandwiches… etc. Pick your poison. You can go bits & get flakes, chips, or you can do larger ‘strips’ and grab the coconut slices. If you’re going for more of a veggie ‘BLT’ situation, I would recommend the tempe version (coming soon).

Veggie Coconut Bacon

Yield: 1 1/2 C / Time: 30 mins / Difficulty: 4/10

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C Coconut Flakes, chips, or shreds (unsweetened)

• 1 Tbsp Soy sauce -or- gluten free soy sauce

• 1 Tbsp Molasses

• 1 Tbsp Liquid smoke

• 1 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

• 1 Tbsp Cider vinegar

Steps:

1. Pre-heat oven to 325. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a bowl, whisk together soy sauce, molasses, liquid smoke, oil and vinegar. Add your coconut flakes and let sit for at least 10 minutes, until all the liquid is absorbed.

3. Spread coconut in even layer on your parchment lined baking sheet and bake about 15-20 minutes, stirring every 3-5 minutes to ensure even toasted crispiness. Bake until deeply toasted.

4. Once out of the oven, let the coconut bacon bits cool completely and then store in an air tight container. If needed, re-crisp in the oven at a low temperature for about 5-10 minutes.