As with all of our Summer Dessert Recipes in this series, we try to offer simple recipes. Today we have a unique summer dish for you, Carrot Bacon a Vegan Recipe. This is not a dessert but a great alternative recipe to the normal carrot side.

If you have a garden that grows lots of carrots or if you have access to lots of carrots, this recipe is for you.

The name of the recipe, Carrot Bacon, suggests that is it just like real bacon.  But it is not. If you go into this experience thinking that you are going to get real bacon from this carrot, you will be disappointed.

If you go into this with the mindset of “this sounds cool, let’s try it out and see what we get”, then you will be fine. And you may find out you even like it.

We tried this recipe a while back when we had a large number of carrots and everyone was tired of eating them the same old way.

This recipe will give you a carrot oven-fried to a crisp and looking like a strip of bacon. But the taste is not exactly real bacon. Just be warned. This is a nice recipe and it gives you a very tasty side dish but it is not real bacon. If you use a lot of carrots and want a new way to cook them, this is it.

You will need:

2 large carrots

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons vinegar (balsamic or apple cider)

1 tablespoon syrup (maple, Karo, or pancake)

1 Tablespoon garlic salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon paprika (smoked is best, to add the smokey flavor of bacon)

We prefer a more smokey, less tangy bacon. For this, we use smoked paprika and pancake syrup. We are not, in general, fond of Balsamic vinegar.

Add the ingredients, except the carrots to a bowl.  A long, flattish pan or dish works best.  Stir well or the spices will not mix with the olive oil.

Slice the carrots very thin. A slicer is best for this, it is almost impossible to get a thin enough slice by hand with a knife.

You want long, thin slices, so they look like bacon strips.

Put the carrot slices into the mixture. Make sure every carrot slice is well saturated with the mixture.

Line a cookie tray with waxed paper or parchment paper.

Lay the carrot slices out on the tray. Be sure each carrot slice is laid out flat and none are touching. Depending on how many carrots you sliced, you may need more than one tray.

Put the tray or trays in the oven at 350. Cook for 10 minutes.

If you want a very crispy you can flip the “bacon”. We did not flip our “bacon” and it did not seem to matter.

Check the carrot slices now and then. They should be bubbling slightly from the oil. This is basically oven frying.

When the carrot slices are the darkness and as crispy as you want them, remove the trays from the oven.

Let the “bacon” cool just a bit, they will get a bit harder as they cool. DO NOT let the carrot bacon get cold, this is not a good experience at all.

Gently remove the carrot bacon from the trays and serve warm.

One thing this bacon and real bacon have in common is that they will be scalding and then cold. Serve warm, re-heating was not great.

As we said at the beginning, this carrot bacon does not taste very much like real bacon. But it does give carrots a good flavor and a nice crisp.

Serve as a side dish with any meal that you would normally serve carrots with.

This carrot bacon does make a wonderful crumble to top a salad.

You can adjust, tweak, add or subtract any of the ingredients that you want. Make your own unique spice blend for your carrot bacon vegan recipe.

We hope you have enjoyed this slightly odd bacon recipe. Try it out and see for yourself. As long as you are not expecting real bacon, this is a nice carrot recipe.

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.