Rice Paper Vegan Bacon (tastes like real bacon!)

I'm going to keep my description of this recipe short and sweet. It's easy. It's fast. It sizzles, it's crispy, it's bacony. Bacon- the one thing most people could never give up to go vegan-- you now have a plant-based cruelty-free version at your fingertips. This one tastes best eaten right away because it will be so warm, crispy and delicious... and is great as a side to some tofu scramble, thrown into a breakfast burrito, or added into a sandwich or wrap. This recipe was taken from The Edgy Veg.



Ingredients:

rice paper (about 8 sheets)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
pinch black pepper
pinch paprika

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees if using oven. Toaster oven or microwave can also be used.
2. Whisk together marinade ingredients (everything except rice paper), until nutritional yeast is well incorporated. Prepare a second wide bowl filled partially with water.
3. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper (or microwave plate or toaster oven sheet).
4. Cut rice paper into thick strips or to the size that you want (strips will shrink in size a little after cooking). Use a large sharp knife to minimize cracking.
5. Take and stack 2 strips at a time and dip them quickly into bowl of water. The strips should stick together and gently squeeze excess water from the fuzed strips.
6. Dip the fused pair of strips into the marinade and coat well. Place onto parchment paper/foil on a baking sheet if using oven, on your toaster oven stray if using toaster oven, or directly on a microwave safe plate if using microwave. If you run out of marinade you can always whisk up another batch.
7. Repeat with additional strips until your sheet/plate is filled. Periodically stop to whisk marinate again because oil may start to separate.



8. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until crisp. Strips can burn easily so keep an eye on them and remove as soon as they're done. The end result should be mostly crispy with some slightly chewy parts (like real bacon!) *Toaster oven-- watch carefully as it cooks very quickly and may be done in a shorter amount of time. **Microwave: texture is not as perfect as oven but still great. Cook marinated strips in 30 second intervals until crispy. You will hear sizzling and may have to wipe excess oil away between batches if they don't all fit on the same plate.
9. Once fully cooled, store leftovers in an airtight container in room temperature for up to 3 days.



Optional "marbling" (for beautiful bacon aesthetics)- take a couple spoonfuls of extra marinade and add a dash of balsamic vinegar with an extra sprinkle of black pepper and mix. Use a brush to dab a light about of this onto various places on the rice paper bacon strips. Once baked, this will add an extra marbling and bacon-like visual effect.