Bacon! Glorious Bacon!

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that everything is better with bacon. I miss the flavor of bacon. Early in our raw vegan journey I tried an eggplant bacon recipe. I was disappointed. I don’t know if it was the recipe or if I expected too much from the eggplant. I may not have seasoned the eggplant properly. In any case, I walked away with no bacon tasting eggplant. Here we are four years later and I decided to try it again. I found another recipe from #TheRawChef. He has videos on YouTube. It sounded good so I gave it a try. Don’t laugh at my cuts. I tried to show you the best of them. The mandoline and I are still working on our slicing consistency. 🙂 I adjusted the recipe a tiny bit. I added liquid smoke to give a smokier flavor. The smoked paprika did well but I wanted more. I also adjusted the maple syrup. I didn’t want it too sweet. First I put very little in the marinade but it was bitter from the paprika; regular and smoked. That had to be balanced so added a little several times until I was satisfied with the taste. What can I say. The chef knew what he was doing. I put the eggplant slices in the marinade for an overnight stay. I then dehydrated them according to instructions. The results were satisfactory. They are a little spicy but I am okay with that. I have bacon. Oh glorious bacon. I put some slices on my veggie burger and it was a good lunch. Now for those of you who are purest and can’t understand why this is important, that’s okay. I am a southern girl who grew up with bacon. I don’t want the pig but I like the flavor in certain sandwiches and meals. If you desire the taste of bacon, try The Raw Chef’s recipe. He has several others I would like to try.