Rice paper bacon

Where do I start?  With my love of all things smoky?  With my fascination for all vegan bacon substitutes?  With my memories of pork crackling as a child?  Ok let me start with my recent excitment at the idea of making bacon from rice paper and the claims of how crispy and crackly it is.  And indeed it was easy and amazing and brought back childhood memories.

Yes all I had to do was dip two sheets of rice paper in water, cut into thick slices, dip in a bacon marinade and bake for 7-8 minutes.  I wish I had had some fresh soft bread to try a bacon butty.  I took a photo of it on a plate with some breakfast food but really it was just amazing to eat as it was in crispy crunchy slightly chewy (depending on how much it was baked) strips.

You might be surprised at this transformation of the humble rice paper that is better known for making rice paper rolls.  Yet if you have ever tried baking it to make spring rolls you will understand how pleasingly crispy it can be.

Tofu bacon remains my special facon sweetheart.  It is versatile enough to go in most places I would put bacon.  It also has lots of nutritional goodness.  Yet I think when just want easy and crispy I would turn to this rice paper bacon.  I can imagine it being loaded on a proper fry up for brunch with tofu besan omelette or besan scramble , vegies sausages, baked beans, fried tomato and spinach.  Or maybe crumbled over a salad.

Rice paper bacon is weird but it works.  Unlike thunderstorm asthma which is just weird and upsetting.  I had never heard of thunderstorm asthma until this week when Melbourne had a freak weather occurrence of a 35 C day which turned into a thunderstorm.  Our hospitals and ambulance systems were overwhelmed and sadly three people have died.  Thunderstorm asthma, super moons and earthquakes!  Nature does seem quite odd lately. 

More vegan bacon recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Bean and buckwheat bacon (gf, v) 
Coconut bacon (gf, v)
Eggplant bacon (gf, v)
Tempeh bacon (gf, v)
Tofu bacon (gf, v)

Rice Paper bacon
Adapted from yup it's vegan

8 rounds of rice paper

Bacon marinade:
3 tbsp tamari (soy sauce)
2 tbsp maple syrup'
1 tbsp tomato sauce or tomato paste
1/2 tsp nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 tbsp liquid smoke
1 tsp smoked paprika

Preheat oven to 200 C.  Line a few baking sheets with baking paper.

Make the bacon marinade by mixing all ingredients and pouring into a long dish.  Now take two rounds of rice paper stacked on top of each other.  Dip in a large shallow dish of water.  Take out a shake as much water off as possible.  Cut into about 5 thick strips with large scissors.  Dip each strip  into the marinade and shake a little off.  Place on lined baking sheets.  Bake for 7-8 minutes.

NOTES: I have only made this once but I would like to experiment more.  The top bacon is quite crackly but a tiny bit charred around the edges.  The bottom one is less crackly and more chewy but not so charred.  I would like some time to try this and get a good sense of how long it should be in my oven.

On the Stereo:
Bella Vista Terrace: The Best of the Go Betweens

This post is part of the Vegan Month of Food (Vegan MoFo) in November 2016.  Go to my Vegan MoFo list for more of my 2016 Vegan MoFo posts. 

Week 4's theme is Memories and Traditions