Vegetize It! - Creamy Brussels Sprouts and Bacon Gratin
Bacon is an ingredient that many meat eaters say is the thing that is keeping them from going fully vegetarian. It’s got so much great flavor and texture that makes is hard to replace in dishes. What I like to keep in mind is what role is the bacon playing. Is it adding smokiness? Is it adding umami? Is it adding texture? Knowing how bacon is being featured in a dish will change what approach I take to vegetizing it.
So when my friend Cynthia requested assistance in vegetizing one of her favorite Thanksgiving sides, Creamy Brussels Sprouts and Bacon Gratin with Shallots and Gruyère, we knew we had to set up an experiment.
Top left: Sweet Earth Benevolent Bacon
Top right: Morningstar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips and Bacon Salt
Bottom left: Lightlife Tempeh with Bacon Salt, shiitake mushroom powder, and vegan Worcestershire
Bottom right: No bacon substitute, Bacon Salt, shiitake mushroom powder
We basically followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of using cream instead of milk because all the bacon substitutes have less fat than traditional bacon. We had to adjust the amount of oil and butter used when browning the meat and/or shallots, again due to the lack of fat in the replacements, but nothing too crazy. Everything turned out delicious, but here are our notes and recommendations.
Winner: Sweet Earth Benevolent Bacon
This is our go-to bacon in general, so it’s no surprised that it ended up at the top of our rankings. It’s easy to do a simple straight substitute with no major adjustments other than perhaps adding a little more oil or butter to compensate for the lack of fat. It has good umami, good smokiness, and plenty of flavor. It’s heavy on the paprika, which makes the dish end up looking darker than the others. Our only downside is that this brand can be hard to find, typically only at Whole Foods or at online specialty stores.
Runner Up: Morningstar Farms + Bacon Salt
The Morningstar Farms bacon isn’t quite as “bacon-y” as the Sweet Earth brand, which is why we amped it up with a little bit of bacon salt. We felt like this version was just as tasty as the Sweet Earth version, but with slightly more accessible ingredients.
Needs Work: Lightlife Tempeh
I chose tempeh as a possible substitution because I thought it might add a bit more of a meatier texture than just the strips, which tended to be more crispy. However, since it is unflavored, we needed to make it bacon-y on our own. We cubed the tempeh then marinated it in bacon salt, homemade Worcestershire sauce, and dried shiitake powder. The texture ended up feeling a little more like sausage (which isn’t terrible, it’s just not bacon, might still be a good option) and the flavor was not quite there. If we were to do it again, we might try making some vegetable grease and actually looking up a recipe to flavor tempeh to taste like bacon. lol
Do Not Recommend: Just bacon salt and mushroom powder
As a sort of control dish, we tried not using a bacon substitute at all and just adding the bacon flavor with the bacon salt and the umami with some mushroom powder. However, the flavor fell flat and it was clear that a more robust bacon solution was needed to round out the dish.
We learned a lot while making this dish and we hope you take these notes in mind the next time you want to substitute bacon in your dish!
