I must admit that, strangely enough, I was never a real bacon lover (according to my boyfriend I have very weird taste buds 🙂 ). Although I liked the saltiness and crunch, it was just mostly greasy and fat and just wasn’t one of my favourites food (keep in mind that growing up in Germany means loooots of meat and especially bacon aka ‘speck’). Probably for the same reason, I just recently found out that there is an actual expression for a bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich in America: BLT :-)! Apparently it’s a common known thing, but for me it just wasn’t…
Nevertheless, I have been wanting to try out a healthier, vegan version of bacon for a long time. Especially, since I know that there are millions of people out there who just LOVE bacon (including my boyfriend). Now, coconut bacon is all fine and delicious, but it has one key feature missing: the look! It might taste like bacon but it’s far from looking like it. That’s why the smart and creative people from veganer.nu have developed the legit bacon alternative: rice paper bacon :-)!
I adopted their original recipe and added my own touch, making it lower in oil and adding more spices. If you haven’t tried a BLT sandwich with rice paper bacon yet, I’d highly recommend doing so! The rice paper bacon is just amazing. It’s crispy, a bit chewy, smokey, satisfying salt cravings and, most importantly, way healthier and no animals were harmed in the process! 🙂
If you want to make a gluten-free version, just use tamari sauce and a gluten-free bread. Alternatively, if you want to cut down on the salt (like I do), use a low-sodium soy sauce. The outcome will be equally tasty!
As a spread I used one of my previous recipes for cashew cream cheese – SO YUM! Alternatively, you could also just mash up some avocado or use plant-based mayonnaise.
I hope you like this simple recipe – feel free to spice up your sandwich with more veggies, greens and spreads! 🙂 If you try it out, please tag me on Instagram or hashtag #thetastyk 🙂
- 2 rice paper sheets
For the marinade:- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 Tbsp tamari sauce (if GF) or low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- ½ tsp liquid smoke
- 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp paprika
- dash of black pepper
- ⅛ cup warm water
For the sandwich:- bread (gluten-free if needed)
- cashew cheese
- lettuce
- tomato
- Take two rice paper sheets, lay them above each other and cut into strips with a kitchen scissor.
- For the marinade, add all the ingredients together in a small bowl and mix well.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper and pre heat the oven to 200°C / 400F.
- Prepare a bowl with warm water and place it next to the bowl with the marinade.
- Take two strips of rice paper, press them onto each other and dip into the warm water until it becomes slightly soft. Next, dip the double strip into the marinade and place onto the baking tray.
- Repeat this process until all strips are gone.
- Place the baking tray in the oven and bake for 7-10 minutes. The baking time might vary, depending on your oven (for me it took about 15 minutes to get really crispy).
- Make sure to check the strips regularly as they burn very quickly.
- Once done, take them off the baking tray and let them cool down.
- Prepare your sandwich, by adding the cashew cream cheese, lettuce, tomato and rice paper bacon, and enjoy!
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What’s rice paper? I make eggplant bacon regularly, but this sounds good also.
It’s the stuff that Asian restaurants make their fresh spring rolls with (not the fried ones). You can find it in any Asian supermarket or the Asian section or regular ones + Health food stores 🙂