In my ongoing quest to try new recipes, I decided to try Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s seitan bacon from her “Fake Meat” cookbook. She has a few fake bacon recipes. This one looks the most like real bacon with strips of darker and lighter seitan mimicking the fatty streaks in bacon. What was a pleasant surprise is the chewiness of the seitan bacon after it was sliced and browned in a bit of oil. I can’t wait to make a BLT on homemade sourdough.

Method

You make two seitan doughs, but they come together pretty quickly. Tapioca flour adds stretchiness and chewiness. You make it by hand, so no need for a food processor or mixer. One dough is a pinkish color from the tomato paste. The other dough is lighter in color and less dense. This mimics the fatty streaks. You layer these doughs (3 red and 2 white) in a 6″ x 8″ rectangle. You then roll the doughs in foil and parchment and steam for one hour. Cool and then slice. They crisp up nicely in a lightly oiled pan.

What I Would Change?

It was difficult unrolling the seitan. It wanted to stay in a roll which made slicing it challenging. You want to slice 1/8″ pieces off of the ends so you have the lovely streaks. Next time, I think I will try steaming it in the square format to see if that works better.

I also added 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke for a bit more smoky flavor. I had white miso instead of red, which worked fine. A bit of maple syrup might also be good. The white dough has some sugar, so maybe substituting maple syrup would be work well? I’ll try that next time.

Update

I made it again the following weekend and tried wrapping it up in the rectangle and not rolling it. I still used the oiled parchment and aluminum foil, but wrapped it like a small gift. I made sure it would fit in my steamer basket. This worked just fine and made slicing even pieces a breeze. I don’t think you need to roll it up unless you need to fit it in a smaller steamer basket.

Will I Make This Again?

Yes, this is a keeper. It’s a bit of work but makes a lot of bacon. The recipe says 20 slices but depending on how thin you slice them you may get more. I didn’t count. Doubling the recipe would be easy and my guess is that it would freeze well.

Where can you get the recipe?

You will have to get the book, Fake Meat by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Either check it out from a library or buy it. Isa does not have this recipe on her website at this point. However, I am really enjoying the recipes I’ve made. It’s worth buying.