Eggplant Bacon

This is me, doing my eggplant bacon prep!

As soon as I discovered this recipe for eggplant bacon, I began making it at least once a week. Not only is it pretty easy to make, but it is absolutely divine. I put it on sandwiches, serve it with breakfast, use it in sushi, stuff it with vegan cheese or pesto, and snack on it alone…although it is quite salty so I recommend serving it with something fresh.

I also live in Italy so my fridge always has one or two eggplants just sitting around. I love making eggplant parmesan and I make a number of other dishes with the vegetable as its base (baba ghanoush, caponata, etc..) but there are some days I notice the eggplants at the bottom of the vegetable bin and know that if I don’t do something with them quickly, they will probably go past their fresh date and be wasted. This is when eggplant bacon comes in! This, among other times.

There are a number of eggplant bacon recipes flying around the internet. I have tried out about 5 of them and they are all good. This recipe below, however, has been perfected by yours truly and received approval by a great number of meat eating cynics.

If you do try it out, let me know what you think!

Eggplant Bacon

Ingredients:

• 1 medium eggplant
• ¼ cup gluten free tamari
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp liquid smoke
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• cracked black pepper (about ¼ tsp)

Instructions:

• Thinly slice the eggplant lengthwise and sprinkle with salt. Place the eggplant in a strainer and let sit for about 20 minutes. (this will allow the water to drain from the eggplant)
• While the eggplant slices sit, stir together the remaining ingredients.
• Rinse the salt off of the eggplant and add the slices to the marinade. Stir to coat. Let sit for about 1 hour at room temp stirring/flipping every so often
• Place the marinated slices on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Pour about half of the remaining marinade over the pieces
• In a preheated oven (120C/250F), place the tray/s with the eggplant and let back for about 45 minutes.
• Flip the eggplant and drizzle a bit more of the marinade on top of the pieces.
• Bake for another 5-7 minutes or until the slices are browned on both sides.

*The eggplant bacon can be cooked in a skillet as well but I find that the texture comes out much more like real bacon when done in the oven