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- Hey, Munchies, I'm Alyssia.
Welcome to the channel.
If you're new or if you're not,
I am so happy you're here either way.
Today, we are making vegan bacon two ways.
Well, technically, we're doing it four ways,
because we're gonna make tempeh bacon,
which you may have heard of,
and also mushroom bacon.
And we're gonna try baking
and sauteing or pan-searing both of them.
And then we'll test them out
and see which variety and cooking method we like best.
Let the cook-off begin.
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First up, the marinade.
Combine coconut aminos,
or you could use tamari or soy sauce;
avocado oil, maple syrup, liquid smoke,
paprika, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper,
and optionally, a dash of hot sauce.
Mix to combine.
Then prep the bacon, itself.
Slice your tempeh into thin strips,
about an 1/8 of an inch thick, if you can.
But really, go as thin as you can, without it falling apart.
I also take a medium sized portobello mushroom
with the stems removed,
and slice those as thin as I can
without compromising their structure.
Add both the tempeh strips
and the mushroom strips to the marinade,
and allow them to sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
First, I get these onto baking racks,
which are placed on top of baking sheets
to go into the oven.
They each took about 18 to 20 minutes.
Wow, look at those babies.
Okay, before I tell you how they were, though,
we gotta pan-sear some of each.
I decided to use a griddle
so that I could do them all at once over medium heat.
Onto the griddle, I add more marinated tempeh strips
and marinated mushroom strips.
And then I turned the heat up to high
and cooked for about three to five minutes on each side,
until brown and beginning to crisp.
The mushrooms took a few minutes longer
than the tempeh in this version,
but both got really nice browning.
All right, so what's the verdict?
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All right, the verdict.
Our filming team was a little bit split on the decision,
but there was a fair winner.
So the oven-baked tempeh was the crunchiest
and had the most smoky flavor.
It was almost like jerky in texture,
the way that the moisture had dried out of it.
It did still resemble bacon in texture.
But even though it was smoky,
it didn't hold the rest of the marinade flavors as well.
The sauteed tempeh, on the other hand,
really held onto the marinade flavors.
Some of the sweetness and the spices
came through really nicely, along with the smokiness,
so it tasted more balanced and better-infused.
It was less crunchy, though, than the oven-baked.
The sauteed mushrooms also held the flavors
from the marinade really well, super infused.
The texture, it was more obviously a mushroom,
or maybe like when you get a piece of bacon
that's not crunchy at all.
It wasn't bad.
In fact, it was actually really tasty,
but texturally, it was a tougher sell for bacon
if you like it crispy, like we do.
So honestly, with our various votes,
all three of those sort of ended up tying.
But there was a clear winner.
We all agreed
the oven-baked mushroom was our personal favorite.
The marinade came through to offer a bacony bite
more so than the tempeh that was baked.
But the main thing was that the texture was more balanced.
It was crunchy, but not too crisp.
But it really wasn't like a mushroom at all.
And it was delicious.
So that was our winner,
but really, all of these were so tasty.
It was really fun to try all of these out
and rank them like this.
I hope that you will give them a try.
And if you do, be sure to comment
and let me know which one was your favorite,
and let me know if you want me
to do more cook-offs like this.
Last year, we did a similar style competition with meatloaf,
and we did it in the oven and the air fryer.
I'll link that below if you wanna check it out.
Thank you so much for being here.
I will see you next time with a brand-new episode.
And remember, it's all a matter of Mind Over Munch.
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