It's okay to feel both good and bad about buying vegan bacon from Safeway, or spending $12.70 on a lunch plate from your city's only alternative cafe. Yves brand bacon is pretty spot on, but you'll notice it gets crunchy pretty fast, eh? (By the way, I'm Canadian, and it slips out sometimes) I wanted to make a chewier version from tofu, that's just as crispy, just as smoky, but a good couple bucks cheaper. This recipe still brings the crispiness, though you'll be oven-baking it on a silpat sheet or cookie sheet, throwing some marinade on it around the halfway-mark of cooking. It's okay if you get some crispier (read: burnt, black, failed) pieces, there's even some in my photo above. Just cut it off, or be a rugged sunna'bitch and power through it.
Ingredients
One block extra-firm tofu, sliced into 20 rectangles* (then cut into triangles if you like)
3 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp LITE Kikkoman Soy Sauce
1 1/2 tbsp liquid smoke
2 tbsp sesame oil
Cracked black pepper
Rock salt, to taste
*be sure your tofu is sliced as evenly as possible, the odd super thin edge will burn to a crisp pretty easily. Slice as thin as you can, I cut mine to be a little less than 1/4".
In a zip bag, or a shallow dish, marinate your tofu for at least 30 minutes. Scoop the marinade over the tofu to ensure it's evenly displaced.
Preheat your oven to 425F
On a silpat sheet or cookie sheet, place your tofu down and spoon a bit of marinade over your tofu pieces. Bake for ten minutes then flip, spoon marinade overtop and bake for another 10-13 minutes. Let sit for about 10 minutes, they will then firm up. If you cut your tofu into smaller pieces, be mindful of the bake time.
I dig this in BLTs, on salads, with mashed or scalloped potatoes.. that kinda thing. Enjoy. x
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