close up carrot bacon
December 19, 2020

Carrot Bacon

By Ange's Table

Good morning.  How are you all doing today?  

Have you ever heard of carrot bacon?  I did not, until I started looking for a vegetarian bacon replacement.

Before becoming vegetarian, I could not understand why anyone wanted to have bacon made from vegetables.  I always thought if you wanted bacon, you should eat bacon.  But now I can’t eat real bacon, and I am missing it so much!

Now don’t get me wrong, I know that vegetables are not going to taste like meat.  And honestly, I don’t want them to.  I just miss the smokey flavor of bacon in a dish.  Or some crispy bacon with my eggs for breakfast.  So I did some Google searching, and I learned that during quarantine, a woman on TikTok came up with this carrot bacon, and it became a viral hit.  She has also done banana peel bacon, but that does not look appealing to me at all.

So I looked around, read loads of recipes, and decided to try to make some carrot bacon for myself.  What was the worst that could happen, it didn’t taste like bacon?

So I got everything I needed together, loosely followed the Food Network version of carrot bacon, and honestly was pleasantly suprised.  It was actually pretty good.  Sweet, spicey, crunchy, smokey.  All the flavor elements I was looking for.  In a carrot.  

Carrot Bacon does not taste like bacon.  It tastes like carrots flavored like bacon.  And you know what, it worked.  It satisfied my craving.  This is definatley something that I would make again.

all the ingredients for carrot bacon
Everything I need to make delicious carrot bacon
use vegetable peeler to get super thin carrot ribbons
Use the vegetable peeler to get thin slices of carrot
carrot ribbons for carrot bacon in marinade
Mix the sliced carrot well in the marinade
cooking carrot bacon in the air fryer
Lay the carrots in a single layer on a well greased air fryer rack
close up carrot bacon
The carrots get super crispy
carrot bacon blt on dish
This CBLT was delicious!

Carrot Bacon

Based on FoodNetwork’s AirFryer Carrot Bacon
  • 2-3 carrots
  • 2 Tbsp Buckwheat honey
  • 3 Tbsp golden honey
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • seasoned salt mix to taste
  • olive oil cooking spray

In a medium bowl, combine both honeys, spices salt and pepper.  Mix well, set aside.

Using a vegetable peeler, shave very thin pieces of carrot.  The thinner you can make your carrot, the crispier it will be in the air fryer.

Once you have all the carrots shaved down, toss in the bowl with the marinade.  Let the carrots marinade about 30 minutes.

Heat the air fryer to 375’F.  Generously grease the air fryer tray or basket with olive oil.  Lay the carrot slices in a single layer.  You will have to work in batches.  This recipe yielded  about 4 1/2 trays. 

Air fry 4-6 minutes.  Be careful, they go from golden delicious to burnt very quickly from all the sugar in the carrots and honey.

Remove from air fryer immediately, sprinkle with desired amount of salt mix , set aside on a dish to cool.  They will crisp up more as they cool.

Serve on a sandwich, as a salad topping or pop it right in your mouth for a great snack. 

Store any left over in an airtight container or zip top bag.  This was great the next day mixed into some scrambled eggs. 

Enjoy!

Have you tried any new recipes lately?  We would love to hear about them.

Leave us a comment below.  You can also tag us on Instagram @Anges_Table.  Like us on Facebook at Ange’s Table.  We can not wait to hear from you.