I wanted to make vegan carbonara the other day and thought of a bacon substitute. I had leftover tempeh so I decided to make tempeh bacon.
I didn’t make it too crispy and just crumbled into small pieces to put in carbonara sauce.
It takes time because it needs to be marinated at least for a few hours but it’s very easy to make.
I’ll show the step-by-step instructions but the shorter version of the recipe and the list of the ingredients are available at the bottom of this post. Let’s begin!
- Boil tempeh for 2 to 3 minutes. This step is optional but it removes “tempeh” smell and it’ll tastes better.
2. Drain and cool down tempeh
3. Mix the marinade ingredients in a shallow pan.
4. Slice tempeh thinly and marinade it overnight (at least for a few hours). Tempeh should be completely submerged.
5. Bake tempeh at 375 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until it becomes crispy. You want to put tempeh on a parchment paper so it won’t stick to the pan. You can also bake the shiitake mushrooms in the marinate and eat them which I did!
If you don’t have shiitake mushrooms and kombu, you can use vegetable broth instead. Also, you can use any sweetener of your choice to replace Japanese sweet rice wine “mirin,”
You can bake tempeh to your liking of crispness. I didn’t make it too crispy this time but I like to make it very crispy if I use it for BLT. You can eat it as is or crumble it and add to your favorite recipe. It can be stored in the fridge for a few days. They may get little saggy but you can bake it quickly to make it crispy again.
It’s easy to make and versatile. I hope you give it a try!
- 4 oz. tempeh (1/2 pack)
- *Marinade
- ½ cup water
- 1 large or 2 small dried shiitake mushroom
- 1 piece kombu (konbu) (kelp)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
- ½ teaspoon liquid smoke
- ¼ teaspoon smoke paprika
- pinch onion powder
- pinch garlic powder
- Boil tempeh for 2 to 3 minutes
- Drain and cool down tempeh
- Mix the marinade ingredients in a shallow pan
- Slice tempeh thinly and marinade it overnight (at least for a few hours)
- Bake tempeh at 375 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until it becomes crispy
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