This is my original carrot bacon recipe that started an internet craze! It’s salty and sweetly smoky, really delicious, and easily made from carrots and five other basic ingredients. Try it for yourself!
Okay, let’s get this straight – carrots are not the same as bacon!
I know that. However, a lot of people, when they give up meat, miss bacon, so my carrot bacon goes some way to filling that void.
I also know that some Americans seem to be obsessed with cooking their bacon to a cinder (why?!), and most Europeans, in my experience, don’t. While you can clearly see from my photos that my bacon is crispy, it’s not so crispy that you touch it and it shatters!
Ingredients
- carrot
- tahini
- rapeseed oil
- maple syrup
- all-purpose soy sauce
- liquid smoke
How to make Carrot Bacon
Making my carrot bacon is simplicity itself; simply peel and top & tail your carrots, slice really thinly, blitz the rest of the ingredients together, marinate for half an hour, then bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. As I said, it’s really simple!
Dehydrated Carrot Bacon
I’ve experimented with making carrot bacon in a dehydrator, and apart from being super-easy, the result is a very crispy ‘bacon’, without being in any way charred around the edges… which happened the first time I made it in my new oven when I moved back to Britain!
At Beet Bar (Margate), where I developed their entire menu, my dehydrated carrot bacon continues to be hugely popular, and a firm favourite with vegans and omnivores alike!
To make dehydrated carrot bacon, simply marinade as usual, and layout in a single layer on each tray – make sure you use the ParaFlexx sheets – and then set your dehydrator 150ºF, and let it work its magic for 12 hours. For the nine tray model I use, four large carrots are sufficient to fill it.
More Great Vegetarian Recipes
- Vegan “Bacon” From King Oyster Mushrooms
- Grilled sweet and sour squash with lentil salad
- Wild Mushroom Pot Pie with Fennel and Camembert
- Easy Vegan Enchiladas
- Tofu with Radish and Shiso
You’ll Love This!
Because it’s…
- salty
- smoky
- slightly sweet
- easy to make
- nut-free
- gluten-free if you use tamari
- soy-free if you use coconut aminos
- full of Vitamin A
- really, really delicious
If you can resist eating it straight from the oven (and no one would blame you if you can’t!), this carrot bacon is fab in BLTs, in bagels, in salads, added to pizza and pasta… there are so many possibilities. Enjoy!
The Original Carrot Bacon Recipe
2
servings35
minutes15
minutes50
minutesThis is my original carrot bacon recipe that started an internet craze! It’s salty and sweetly smoky, really delicious, and easily made from carrots and five other basic ingredients. Try it for yourself!
Ingredients
1 large carrot
1 tablespoon tahini
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil (AKA canola)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1½ teaspoon all-purpose soy sauce (or tamari, or coconut aminos)
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
Directions
- Peel and top & tail the carrot, then slice very thinly.
- Blitz the rest of the ingredients together for 20 seconds or so, until you have a thick marinade.
- Place the carrot and marinade into a dish, mix together so that all of the carrot slices are coated, and set to one side for 30 minutes.
- Heat your oven to 200°C/400°F
- Place the carrot strips side-by-side on a cookie sheet (lined with a silicone baking mat or baking parchment if it’s not non-stick), spread a little of the remaining marinade evenly over the strips, and then bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on how crispy you want your ‘bacon’ to be.
- Remove from the oven, and enjoy your delicious plant-based bacony treat!
Notes
- What is rapeseed oil? This is also known as Canola. It’s made from seeds of the Brassica napus plant, which is a member of the cabbage family. It’s not the same as grapeseed oil.
- Can I use a different oil? Absolutely! But do choose one with a neutral flavour, such as sunflower or rice bran, that’s suitable for roasting.
- Can I use olive oil to make carrot bacon? No, absolutely not! Olive oil really isn’t good for this type of baking, and the flavour it imparts really doesn’t work for this recipe.
- I can’t have soy, what can I use instead of soy sauce? Liquid coconut aminos are your friend!
- I can’t have gluten but I’m fine with soy, what can I use? Tamari is a gluten-free soy sauce.
- What can I use instead of liquid smoke? Try some smoked paprika. Start with ½ tsp, taste, and if necessary, add a bit more. It all depends on your taste and the age of the paprika.
- I‘m allergic to sesame, what can I use instead of tahini? Although I haven’t tried it, you could probably use a nut or sunflower butter. You may want to add a dash more liquid smoke though, to replace the smoky tahini flavour. Let me know in the comments if you’ve made it without tahini.
- Do I really have to marinate the carrots for 30 minutes? Yes, yes you do. Unless you want tasteless carrot strips instead of tasty carrot bacon!
- Know your oven! If you know your oven runs a bit on the hot side, either reduce the baking time or the temperature. Similarly, if you know that normally you have to increase the temperature by a few degrees for everything else you bake, then do so accordingly for this recipe!
