Mystery Meat Substitute

[actual_size]

Can any of you guys please tell me what soy bacon tastes like? I ask this as someone who has recently eaten some. It was crunchy, at least until I mixed it into the lentils and veggies, at which point it became...flexible. It had a mildly salty taste that was somehow familiar, but I could not match the flavor to any meat product in my taste memory

Comments

[sapphorlando]

[sapphorlando]

My friend 'Vegan Life' Mike says you really need tempeh bacon for this. He says it's at WholeFoods, but that Stop & Shop has it sometimes. Good luck.

[actual_size]

You joke, but it occurred to me while I was eating that these might have been an improvement. At least they look more like bacon.

[sapphorlando]

It might well work. I don't know if it works better if you use the magical purple fire.

I'm also trying to figure out what kind of dog the guy most resembles.

[actual_size]

I've enjoyed soy sausage in a number of dishes, which is why I don't want to believe there's not a good bacon substitute somewhere. I kept thinking, "C'mon guys, I know you can do better than this!" If I can't find reasonable soy bacon, I'll probably just use soy sausage next time I make something like this. They did have tempeh at WF, just not tempeh bacon. When I ran the problem by Stef, he said, "Soy bacon? Has it really come to this?" He sounded genuinely saddened that I would forsake real bacon. Can't say I blame him, especially considering how he feels about bacon. If he were a religious man, he'd have gone fire & brimstone one me and said that soy bacon was stepping way over the line into "false idol" territory.

The recipe I used was from Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon, a woman who does not usually let me down. Her Gumbo Zeb, for example, is labor-intensive but well worth it. Ah, well. Can't hit 'em all out of the park.