banana peel bacon

I’ve played with many versions of vegan bacon—mushroom, eggplant, tempeh, coconut—and they’re all tasty. The truth of the matter is that they really don’t taste like bacon. Only bacon tastes like bacon. Not even turkey bacon. Not even fry beef. Just bacon. But, if you don’t eat bacon and want something that will give you the same sweet, salty, smokey, crispy effect, they’ll all do nicely.

All of these recipes use a variation of some sort on a basic marinade of maple syrup, liquid smoke, paprika, and soy sauce to approximate the sweet, salty, smoky flavor of the real thing. Some have a few more ingredients than the others. But they’re all good, from my experience. So what’s the easiest and most economical, most be-kind-to-the-planet version?

The question could also be framed like this: So what’s the best way to eat garbage?

By garbage, I don’t mean Twinkies and the like. I mean, real garbage; stuff you throw away. Specifically, banana peels. Seriously.

I have to tell you that when I first heard of this I thought the vegans had gone off the deep end. I was not interested, to put it gently. But, as I thought about it I became increasingly intrigued. Imagine—Those banana peels we’ve been tossing out our whole lives are actually food! Think of how many clowns we could have saved from slipping on them. Go know!

I had to try it. I was nervous, but I forged ahead.

Even as they came off the pan I was eyeing them dubiously. But by then there was no turning back. I took a bite. They were seriously good.

My first observation was that they were really fast and easy to make. Mix up a few pantry items in a flat bowl, slice banana peels into strips, scrape off the white part, and drop them into the marinade. Let them hang out while you go do other things. Then heat a skillet and add some oil. Shake off the excess marinade from the strips of peel and lay them out nicely in the pan. Cook for a minute or two, turn over, cook another 2 minutes, and set them to drain on paper towels. Watch them crisp up! Then eat them. They don’t hold up well over time, but that wasn’t a problem when I made them. My daughter and I made short work of them—they were all gone in 5 minutes. So let’s grab some banana peels and get going. You’ll want to use very ripe bananas, with plenty of black spots against the yellow peel. And think of all the wonderful banana breads, and cakes, and puddings you’ll make with those naked bananas.

I strongly recommend you use organic bananas for this. It might not be such a big deal when you’re only eating the inside, but you don’t want to eat peels that have been sprayed with pesticides.

Banana Peel Bacon

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe organic bananas, in their peels, washed well

• 3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce

• 3 tablespoons maple syrup

• 1tablespoon apple cider vinegar

• ½ teaspoon liquid smoke

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Method:

• Carefully cut a straight line through the skin of each banana, tip to tip, trying to avoid cutting into the banana itself as much as possible.

• Trim both ends of the bananas and toss the ends away.

• Gently peel back the skin and remove the fruit.

• Now, slice each peel vertically into 3 or 4 strips.

• Using the tip of a small spoon, scrape away all the soft white stuff on the inside of the peels. It’s pretty easy to do. Just go slowly and try not to tear the skins. If you get a small rip, no worries. Just keep going.

Make the marinade:

• Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a small dish that can hold the peels without having to fold them over. Add the peels to the marinate, make sure they’re all covered, and let them stay there for a minimum of 30 minutes. I left mine in the fridge overnight and they were fantastic.

• When you’re ready to make the “bacon,” heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat and add a generous glug of neutral oil, such as avocado or sunflower. Check to see if, when you put the end of a wooden chopstick into the oil, bubbles form around it.

• Carefully lay your bacon strips into the pan, side by side. You’ll probably need to do this in more than one batch. Let them fry undisturbed for about 2 minutes, then turn them over with tongs an cook them for another 2 minutes or so. Don’t let them burn—I sort of burned my first batch.

• When they’re done, remove them from the pan, one by one with tongs, and lay them out to drain on paper towels.

• As soon as they’re all fried, serve them with eggs and toast, in a BLT sandwich, or crumbled as a topping for a thousand things.