Banana Bacon Alternative

Hey guys!

Creating more of my meat alternative series, I wanted to bring attention to a recipe I used a few times this year after working with the World Food Program at the start of lockdown. They set me the challenge to create something that was resourceful and used food that normally we dispose of and one of the recipes I was fascinated by was a bacon alternative that you can use in sandwiches, as an alternative in pasta dishes, in mixed recipes. It’s just easy and tastes nothing at all of banana.

So the basis for this recipe is to firstly clean the bananas, dry the bananas and use a spoon to scrape out the inner pith, that stuff is all gonna taste banana like so get rid of it and the skins itself should be pretty easy to go ahead. Slice it into your bacon like streaks and heat up some toasted sesame oil in a pan. You want to add layers of flavour so they really taste crispy and full of delicious smokeyness. I added cumin seeds, thyme, rock salt, black pepper to the pan and then the bananas. I added vegan WC sauce, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and a little bit of tomato purée, sort of like a ketchup with a bbq undertone. I tweaked this so there was no real recipe for this, it was more to my taste.

Then add a lid to your pan, let the flavours smoke through the banana and flip them on each side until they are a delicious texture, and you’ll be shocked. Because they taste amazing, and in the past I’ve used alternatives from brands which have tasted sort of smokey but have none of the texture. This is nowhere near real bacon, obviously, but it is amazing and it’s good to be resourceful.

Let me know if you try this at home, add it to some pasta or try in a sandwich.