First The Eggplant, Then The Bacon

A plant-based recipe

I’m not going to lie.

I am not going to declare that this tastes just like regular bacon! Some vegan recipes can fool omnivores when their goods stand in for certain foods. This one doesn’t quite deserve that claim but it’s yummy in its own way. It mimics classic bacon in producing a slightly sweet, smoky, crispy food that is delicious as a snack or a condiment, crumbled into eggs, salads and soups, or layered onto sandwiches, even though it lacks the unmistakeable mouthfeel and fattiness of meat bacon.

I started a batch at the crack-of-dawn because other people were going to need to be in my kitchen during the day and this piece has been lingering too long in the back of my mind. After mentioning eggplant bacon in my Road Food piece Come Again way back in February, a reader asked me to post a recipe, and I promised I would.

Dear reader (you know who you are), thank you for your patience. Since you messaged me, I’ve bought eggplant multiple times with the intention of answering your request with illustrative photos, and then one thing or another happened and I never got to it before the eggplant wrinkled up too much on me. Eggplant is a sensitive fruit. It can degrade quickly, shriveling up into flimsy, spongy, bitter flesh. Minor, superficial wrinkling on your eggplant, like the one I used today for the bacon, is fine. Simply inspect the flesh once you cut into it. If it is creamy off-white, you’re good to go. Any brown indicates that your eggplant has already started to turn, and you’re better off composting it.

Since Substack lacks a “Jump To Recipe” feature, let’s jump right in:

Eggplant Bacon

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Japanese eggplant

• 2 tbsp soy sauce, tamari, or coconut aminos

• 1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 1 tbsp maple syrup

• 1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil

• 2 teaspoon liquid smoke

• 2 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper

TOOLS

• Mandoline or very sharp chef’s knife

• Cutting board

• Medium sized mixing bowl

• Baking sheet(s)

• Baking parchment

• Measuring spoons

Tool tip:

Many mandolines come with a guard piece to grab on to your produce to protect your hand from the blade. I recommend using it with eggplant. Because eggplant is softer-fleshed than say, a potato, it can wiggle a bit so that it does not glide smoothly. The end of the veg tends to get stuck, especially if your mandoline blade is dull and overused like mine, making it hard to slice rhythmically, and it can be tricky removing the stuck bits from the blade. It’s no fun and a bloody mess to get nicked by a mandoline, so please, play safe in the kitchen.

If you are using a chef’s knife, make sure your blade is very sharp. You will have more control in creating uniformly thin slices. I usually sharpen my blade beforehand to ensure a fresh edge.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 250F. Place a large sheet of baking parchment on your baking sheet(s).

2. Wash and dry eggplant. Cut off the stem. There is no need to peel the eggplant before slicing. Slice the eggplant very thinly using mandoline or very sharp knife. Optimal thickness is about 1/8”.
   
   Depending upon the size of your mandoline, you may need to cut the eggplant in half cross-wise to make it easier to slide up and down the blade.

   

   

   Ready for seasoning. Photo by Elizabeth Dowd, 2025

3. Mix the brown sugar, spices, and wet ingredients together well in mixing bowl.

4. Add eggplant slices to the mixing bowl. Gently slosh them around in the seasoning solution until they are well covered on all sides.
   I simply use clean hands, but if you don’t like getting your fingers wet and a little sticky, my favorite cooking utensil — tongs! — or long cooking chopsticks would serve well to do this.

   

   Soaking up flavor! Photo by Elizabeth Dowd, 2025

5. Gently lift out the eggplant strips one by one. Massage the marinade gently into the eggplant before placing each strip onto the prepared baking sheet.

   

   All dressed up and ready to go into the oven. Photo by Elizabeth Dowd, 2025

6. Bake the eggplant slices for about 25 minutes. Thicker slices may take more time, add another 5-10 minutes. Use tongs to gently peel the slices from the parchment paper and turn each over to continue cooking for an additional 15 minutes.

   

   Halfway mark, ready for flipping. photo by Elizabeth Dowd, 2025

   Oven temperatures vary, thickness of eggplant slices will vary and so, too, may your mileage, as my son says… meaning, the cooking time will vary depending upon your circumstances. Add time if you need to, but keep an eye on the eggplant. Because of the sugar in the marinade and the thinness of the pieces, they can burn quickly.

7. The slices tend to crisp a little more as they cool.
   Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
   You can recrisp/reheat eggplant bacon in a 325F oven. Place the pieces on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and heat for up to 10 minutes. (Use your judgement, based on how thick they are and quantity you are heating.)

Finished product. photo by Elizabeth Dowd, 2025

Notes on Eggplant

I use Japanese eggplant, as does Chef Matt McPherson, who inspired me to start testing eggplant bacon recipes in the first place. Its long, skinny shape is perfect for imitating bacon slices. If you cannot find Japanese eggplant, you can use other varieties, but you will have to trim your slices into strips before seasoning them.

While I advocate pre-salting eggplant to tamp down its bitterness for many recipes, I do not recommend it for this one.

Eggplants are a kind of nightshade. Some people are very sensitive to this family of plants, especially due to a compound called solanine, which may cause stomachaches, nausea, or headaches. Former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady famously eschewed nightshades in his diet out of concern that they create inflammation. However, they have figured into Mediterranean diets for a long time. They are a healthy choice, but they’re not for everyone.

Rub It In

Some of the recipes I’ve tried call for brushing the seasoning marinade on each slice, some recommend dipping them in the solution, others call for marinating the slices for anywhere between an hour and overnight. The instructions I’ve written out for you include the secret step Chef Matt advised me to do: massage the marinade into the eggplant flesh to help saturate it with flavoring.

“Healthy” Is Relative

Some of the recipes I tested simply use maple syrup to sweeten the bacon. They’re not bad, but they lacked that je-ne-sais-quoi that I first tasted at Matt McPherson’s cafe that made me want to replicate the recipe so badly in the first place. Well, naturally, it turned out to be sugar. I should have guessed! I probably use a smaller amount of sugar than Matt does because the bacon from this recipe falls a bit shy of the give-me-another-piece-now taste that Matt’s has. But I’m trying to keep my sugar intake low.

So, you might increase the amount of sugar to 2 tablespoons. Your eggplant bacon will still relatively healthier than pork bacon, especially sweetened pork bacon!