Hell Yeah It's Vegan!

I ran out of bacon bits the other day. I know what you’re thinking. Bacon bits? Really? But no, I enjoy the occasional crunchy tablespoon of salty, smoky goodness, and I love tossing a handful into a batch of mashed potatoes.

The first grocery store I went to, I located the placeholder for bacon bits. The shelf . . . was empty. What kind of self-respecting American supermarket is ever out of bacon bits??? Blasphemy. Enter Plan B: the co-op around the corner from my apartment. Oh wait, what’s that? TWELVE DOLLARS A POUND for the most ubiquitous, devoid-of-nutrition food on the planet that’s probably going to give me cancer? For real? Before we know it, we’re going to be switching to bacon bits as our national currency. I think I visibly recoiled before returning home, empty-handed.

So it was with a sad heart and grumbling stomach that I returned home. I had to right this injustice.

One thing I often notice in vegan cooking is that, in veganizing traditional American foods, many vegans substitute healthy ingredients for unhealthy ones. This is all fine and well, and if health factors heavily into why you’re a vegan, good for you! However, I sometimes find that veganized recipes miss the mark (for omni tastebuds) because they’re trying to reinvent the wheel.

Case in point: bacon bits. I’ve seen a few recipes around the Web for bacon bits that call for soy sauce and maple syrup. Seriously, y’all, would the average purveyor of the Standard American Diet ever think to add such frou-frou ingredients to . . . anything? No way!

Skepticism aside, I figured I’d give the frou-frou version the old college try, and compare it side-by-side with a recipe that only a cheap American manufacturer would come up with.

Soy sauce and maple syrup before dehydrating:

My recipe before dehydrating:

The winner? While the frou-frou version was flavorful, the probably radioactive version won by a long shot, in terms of imitating the actual flavor of standard store-bought bacon bits.

Vegan Bacon Bits

makes 1/2 cup

2 tbsp iodized salt
2 tbsp boiling water
1 tbsp liquid smoke
2-4 drops red food coloring
½ c dry tvp granules

Whisk together the salt and water, until salt is fully dissolved. Add liquid smoke and food coloring and mix.

Add tvp and stir well to distribute liquid evenly, until all liquid has been absorbed. Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 250°, stirring frequently to prevent burning, for 15 minutes or until fully dehydrated and crispy. Allow to cool fully and store in an airtight container.

Mmmm, salt and chemicals. Uncle Sam would be proud.

And look, I’m not unreasonable. Just in case you don’t share my philosophy on bacon bits, here are the ingredients for the healthy version (follow the same directions as above):

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp maple syrup
½ c dry tvp granules

Enjoy!

Tags: veganmofo 2009

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 10:44 am and is filed under Recipes, Sauces and Condiments, Vegan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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