Have you mastered coconut bacon and tempeh bacon? Snacked on crispy carrot bacon galore? World’s biggest fan of rice paper bacon? Well, fellow pork-free bacon enthusiasts, do we have a game-changer for you: Banana peel bacon. Yes, really, you can make tantalizing bacon to serve with your tofu scramble from the humble yet mighty banana peel.
As Charles Hunter III, a personal chef and blogger behind The Salted Table, shared in a recent Tweet that has since gained some 3,178 likes and counting, all you have to do is salt the inside of a banana peel, let it hang out, scrape out the pulp from a banana peel, and then season it to your liking. Once that’s done, into the frying pan the peels go, to be cooked over medium-low heat until the “bacon” reaches that gorgeous brown color. More specifically, as Hunter describes the process, “I cooked it over medium low, and flipped it a couple of times to give the marinade a break, and to control the speed at which the sugars caramelized giving you that rich brown bacon colour [sic]. Have a pan, and wire rack ready. I would not put this on a paper towel.” Hunter recommends avocado oil, but using any type of cooking oil of your choice should do just fine with this recipe. (Though you may want to steer clear of any intensely flavored oils to let the seasonings shine here.)
Hunter recommends one tablespoon soy sauce, a teaspoon of Worcestershire, ¼ teaspoon onion powder, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder,¼ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon dark brown sugar, ½ teaspoon liquid smoke, ½ teaspoon smoked paprika, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Of course, feel free to get a bit creative and add other seasonings as you like, but Hunter stresses that the liquid smoke is “the most important ingredient.”
With a delightful crispy texture and smoky flavor, we have a feeling this banana peel bacon is going to become a regular in our Sunday brunch plans.
Share with us: What’s your favorite vegan bacon substitute? Or have you lost a taste for all things breakfast meat after making the plant-based plunge?
I’m proud to be a native Manhattan-ite and lucky to have spent time growing up far from Gotham’s madding crowd in the Catskills. After graduating from Columbia University with a B.A. in psychology, I’ve held a variety of staff roles, the most recent being a senior staff writer at Southern Living. I’m currently a freelance writer for publications like the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, Business Insider, Men’s Journal, Architectural Digest, TODAY.com, and others; I also am a freelance editor for Tripadvisor and recently wrapped writing Real Simple’s ecommerce newsletter thrice weekly.
Though I prefer the pen or keyboard to a chef’s hat, I’m a culinary school grad of Natural Gourmet Institute’s chef’s training program and I’ve worked for Mark Bittman as a writer on his cookbooks team, as well as serving as his digital and social media editor.
Find me on Twitter at @66PerriStreet.
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