Double Bacon BLAT Sandwich

Phoebe Thorburn -

As someone who hasn't eaten so many sandwiches in their life that now they're now sick of them - I've very much been fabulously surprised at how flavourful and delicious vegan sandwich fillings can be. So tasty in fact - I'd say i'm experiencing a late bloom/late life (...relatively) peak in the sandwich quality department. I distinctly remember sandwiches at school never really being my favourite lunch box feature, especially is they possessed some tough-chewy-cold meat in the middle, that to be honest, biting through it always felt like a particularly uncomfortable man-oeuvre. Soft bread and chewy filling really isn't the best match, so in case you've found yourself in a sticky situation with some grizzly bacon in a BLAT/BLT in your life, I here now have the answer for you. Tender flavourful tempeh bacon and some crunchy and somehow juicy at the same time, coconut bacon in an epic vegan BLAT that I know will blow your socks off. You'll be biting through this one with ease and being happily transported by it's cruelty free flavour-punch in no time.

Ingredients

  • 220g block tempeh (or close enough to that amount)
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 tbsp tamari
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp onion powder
  • 1-2 tsp smoked paprika (more if omitting liquid smoke)
  • 1 tsp liquid smoke (optional)
  • 1 1/2 cups coconut flakes
  • 1-2 tbsp grapeseed oil (or another light flavoured oil)
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 tbsp tamari
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp liquid smoke (optional)
  • sprinkle of onion powder
  • sprinkle of garlic powder
  • sourdough (or GF) bread, vegan mayonnaise, tomato slices, avocado & iceberg lettuce to serve

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 200C.
  2. Cut your tempeh block into thin strips of about 1/2 cm, then set aside. In a medium airtight container, whisk together the next six ingredients (down to and including the liquid smoke - if using) until incorporated. Put all the tempeh strips into the marinade, ensuring each side is coated, before covering with the lid. Shake the marinade over and around the tempeh strips (over a sink just in case) before putting it in the fridge to do its thing.
  3. In a large bowl, combine the shredded coconut with the remaining ingredients sans the last listed bullet point (with all the sandwich toppings). Stir to thoroughly coat.
  4. Get out and line two baking trays with baking paper, then on one layout the tempeh bacon, and on the other layout the coconut bacon. You will have some marinade left over from each bacon variety - and don't throw this away.
  5. Cook the coconut bacon for 5-7 minutes in the preheated oven, stirring once while cooking. Keep an eye on it as it can burn and start to smoke rather quickly. Cook the tempeh bacon for 20-25 minutes, flipping at the halfway point and also pouring over any leftover marinade from both bacon varieties if you have it at the half way point too.
  6. Once everything is cooked and crispy, assemble your sandwich by gently toasting some bread and then building up your BLAT with some mayo, tomato, avocado, lettuce and both varieties of bacon. Delicious.