Recipe Directions

1. Wash your eggplant and beets well. Run your beets through the juicer and set the juice aside. Don’t forget to admire the amazing juice color.

2. Slice your eggplant lengthwise to create 4 long wedges. Then carefully take those wedges and slice your eggplant into long strips with you mandoline slicer. The mandoline blade is extremely sharp and wants to eat your fingers. Be very careful.

3. Let’s create the marinade. Place your fresh beet juice, olive oil, sea salt, vinegar, and honey into a casserole dish and stir until completely mixed. Please note that the marinade will not look uniform in color because of the oil. Just mix all of the ingredients until they are blended to the best of your ability. You can always add a step if you wish, and blend your marinade on low speed in the blender too.

4. Pour a little bit of your marinade into a bowl. Dip a slice of eggplant into this bowl, coating both sides with the marinade, and then place your dipped slice eggplant into the casserole dish.

5. Repeat with all strips of eggplant, creating layers of coated eggplant until all slices are nestling in marinade in your casserole dish. Pour the marinade from your dipping bowl on top of the eggplant.

6. Cover the casserole dish with plastic wrap, or a cloth and place in the fridge. Marinate for 8 hours.

7. Every 2-4 hours re-coat the strips with marinade by spooning the marinade from the bottom of the dish onto your strips. You could also flip the pieces in the dish with a spatula as well. Whatever works. Just coat.

8. After the slices have marinated, place your “bacon” flat on Teflex sheets on your dehydrator trays. Dehydrate for 4 hours anywhere from 95-110 Fahrenheit.

9. After 4 hours, you will want to transfer your “bacon” from the Teflex sheets to the dehydrator screens so the air can get to both sides of the “bacon”. To do this, simply place a dehydrator tray with the screen on top of your “bacon” that is already on the Teflex sheet and dehydrator tray. Place one hand underneath the Teflex tray and one on top of the screen tray. Quickly flip. Remove the top tray and then peel back the Teflex and your “bacon” should be resting proudly on the screen. Pop the tray back in the dehydrator for another 4 hours.

10. Keep checking on your “bacon” and when it is super crispy, you are good to go and you can turn off your dehydrator. If you reach the 8-hour mark and your “bacon” is still not crispy enough, keep dehydrating until you reach the crunch-factor that will make you happy. You can keep your “bacon” in a covered glass dish on the counter or in your pantry since it is dried. You can also keep it in the fridge.

Options: 

Try adding the Liquid Smoke. Try raw maple syrup instead of honey or agave. Use less olive oil. Just have fun with it.

Crumble your “bacon” on salads, spread some almond butter on manna bread and top with “bacon”, munch on it plain, make a BLT with your “bacon”.

Inspiredbyeverything's Thoughts

By inspiredbyeverything

I grew up on meats and the one that I miss most, only flavor-wise, is bacon.

I enjoy creating recipes that taste as close to my old unhealthy loves as much as possible.

After researching this recipe and making my own adjustments and additions, I have been able to bring that salty crunch back into my life.

 

 

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Comments

Top voted

31 votes
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I do a similar raw bacon .... I love the beet juice idea . You can also use smoked sea salt instead of liquid smoke, it's raw:-) Most good health food or specialty stores have smoked sea salt. it's nummy.

29 votes
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I absolutely hated this recipe, but thanks for posting. Maybe I can tweak it a little and let you know how it turns out. Mine was too sweet.

27 votes
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ItVeganAtGenesis's Review

Bacon
1
1 out of 5

Ok, it was the honey that made it so horrible. IT is just too sweet for me. I used Braggs instead of salt. I do love this recipe! I didn't use the beet juice because it was dark enough to look like bacon.

All

12 votes
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Just wanted to tell you that your recipe is interesting. Although it does look more like beef jerky rather than bacon. Keep up the creativity because it is inspiring!

27 votes
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ItVeganAtGenesis's Review

Bacon
1
1 out of 5

Ok, it was the honey that made it so horrible. IT is just too sweet for me. I used Braggs instead of salt. I do love this recipe! I didn't use the beet juice because it was dark enough to look like bacon.

Top Voted
31 votes
+
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I do a similar raw bacon .... I love the beet juice idea . You can also use smoked sea salt instead of liquid smoke, it's raw:-) Most good health food or specialty stores have smoked sea salt. it's nummy.

Top Voted
29 votes
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I absolutely hated this recipe, but thanks for posting. Maybe I can tweak it a little and let you know how it turns out. Mine was too sweet.

Top Voted
14 votes
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Hi, friends! I live in Vermont - land of maple syrup - and we have 50+ acres of woods that are mostly sugar maples. My husband makes maple syrup. There is only one way.

First, you collect some sap from the maple trees. This is done by drilling a small hole and putting a little spout in - then the sap drips out the spout and you collect it in a bucket. The sap looks like water, and if you taste it there is just a faint maple taste.

Then you boil this sap until most of the water in it is gone and the remaining natural sugars are caramelized, giving the maple sap, which is now syrup, it's golden brown color. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of syrup.

So, to recap, all maple syrup is natural, and organic. No maple syrup is raw. And it cannot be dehydrated (I thought of that) because the sap goes bad very quickly and it wouldn't last long enough to become syrup in a dehydrator. Whether or not you choose to use it is your choice. I will use a spoonful now and then in a recipe as I would an herb or spice.

12 votes
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So I made this the other night. I'm not a fan of beets or eggplant, but this was yummy. I actually tried it twice, the first time I used 1 small beet and one small carrot and no smoke flavor. it was weird tasting but I could tell it had potential. So I got beets and tried again. I didn't use a juicer because it's just not necessary with beets. I blended the beets with 1 tablespoon of water in the blender and then added the other ingredients. The oil emulsified judt fine in the blender and there was no need to continually re-coat.

They are highly addictive! Also, another idea is to marinate strips of young Thai coconut meat, because it get super-crispy and ends up with a truer texture and crispieness to bacon ( I think - I've been vegetarian for 17 years and have only had the fake stuff since then). Also - I think the beets are essential to the recipe.

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Yep. Unfortunately maple syrup is boiled. :(

These look great! Going in my favs. :)

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Hello everyone,

Thank you for all the wonderful feedback. In addition to the rich, vibrant color, the beet also adds a sweetness that I think is a nice level to contrast the salt. And as far as I know, Maple syrup is heated a bit before it is ready for sale, but do your research and find a solution that is comfy for you depending on your level and rules of rawness. Enjoy!

18 votes
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I made this a few months back. Matthew Kenney uses chipotle chili as the smoke flavor. Awesome. I like the idea of the beet for coloring.

15 votes
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I cannot wait to try this. I will make it with maple syrup ( I didn't know you could get it raw) and I have hickory-smoked sea salt. Oh yeah - this is gonna be so yummy. I would think the beets would add a very distinct, earthy, meaty taste - not just add color as another poster suggested . Please advise. I appreciate the additional instruction on your web page.

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that picture looks great!

19 votes
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You can make it w/o the beet juice, it just won't be that maroon bacon color. I made mine w/o beet juice and added a smidgen of liquid smoke.

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Wow that is a wonderful recipe and you make it sound so easy and cheerful to do. I have an eggplant but no beets at the moment. Maybe a trip to the shops on the way home?... Thank you for such a cheery recipe.

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