Rice Paper Bacon
The easiest, tastiest and cheapest vegan bacon I’ve ever encountered: RICE PAPER BACON!
I’ve made a bunch of different homemade vegan bacons, and lord knows I’ve bought plenty. This Rice Paper Bacon (along with my new TOFU BACON) is by far, my favorite homemade vegan bacon. It’s easy to make (it does take a little practice but once you get it, it’s like riding a bike!), super tasty, easy to customize, and pretty dang cheap!
why you’ll dig rice paper bacon
Probably my favorite thing about using rice paper is we can get bacon that’s crispy on the outside, and slightly chewy in the middle. I personally prefer frying mine in a bit of oil in a skillet because I can really monitor the texture, but you can totally bake these too.
Now will this rice paper bacon recipe fool a non-vegan? Absolutely not! BUT like with most things, I think it’s really good on it’s own, and I enjoy the taste as much as I did pig-based bacon. In fact, I like to eat this the same way I ate old timey bacon, mostly as part of a Vegan BLT sandwich, or crumbled up onto a salad or baked potato.
Or heck, maybe a Vegan Western Bacon Cheeseburger!
Or maybe a classic WEDGE SALAD! I haven’t had one since going vegan and this was just as good as I remember! I wish vegan blue cheese was more common, I used the kind by Follow Your Heart! It’s pretty magical stuff.
Ingredients for rice paper bacon
- Rice Paper – Obviously we need rice paper for these! They are often labeled as spring roll wrappers too. I can find them at most grocery stores in the “Asian” section, and you should be able to find them at any East Asian Market like 99 Ranch.
- Neutral Oil – any neutral flavored oil will do! I don’t recommend Olive Oil as it has too strong a flavor.
- Soy Sauce – for some umami and color. Use Tamari to make it Gluten-Free.
- Liquid Smoke – To make it smoky! If you can’t find this stuff use more smoked paprika.
- Maple Syrup – A little sweetness to balance out all the salty smokiness!
- Sriracha – I like to add a little heat to mine.
- Nutritional Yeast – For added umami of course!
- Garlic & Smoked Paprika – Because this rice paper ain’t gonna season itself!
- MSG – optional but recommended for some added flavor.
how to make rice paper bacon
Making Rice Paper Bacon couldn’t be easier! First, we’ll whip up an easy bacon marinade.
Add the some water to a skillet or high rimmed plate. Do the same with the marinade in another skillet or plate. I don’t recommend a small bowl, you need something with a wide bottom.
Then grab a couple sheets of rice paper.
Then simply hydrate the rice paper in some water until softened, about 10 seconds. They will continue to soften after you take them out of the water. It’s important to not over soak them as it will make it difficult or impossible to get them crispy.
After they’ve been hydrated, coat them in the marinade, feel free to brush some of it on if needed. Flip them over and make sure each side is coated thoroughly.
Then slice into strips about 3/4″ thick. I like using a Pizza Cutter for this, you may need to roll it back and forth to cut all the way through.
Lastly, fry the rice paper strips up in a little oil! You will likely need to do this in batches.
Let them rest on a wire rack so the excess oil drains, and then they are ready to eat! It’s that easy!
Then simply use it the way you would use regular bacon. And even though I like mine in a sandwich, it totally works with some Vegan Eggs or a Tofu Scramble & Toast!
Maybe make a VEGAN BACONATOR?
Baking Rice Paper Bacon
While I do prefer frying these in a little oil, you can bake them as well. Cook them on a wire rack lined baking sheet in an oven set to 400 F / 200 C for about 8 minutes, or until cooked to desired crispiness. I would check them after 5-6 minutes as ovens vary and you don’t want them to get too crispy / burned!
I haven’t tried air frying these, but I I would be worried they might fly around from all the air, but I could be totally wrong about that. If you do try it, make sure to keep that in mind!
How to make vegan bacon bits!
To tun this rice paper bacon into bacon bits, just chop them up and add them to a salad, baked potato, whatever you want!
Storage & reheating
You can store these in some Tupperware or air tight container either at room temperature for a few days (like 2-3) or in the fridge for about a week. I recommend reheating them in a pan. The oven is good if you want to make them super crispy. Bake them at 350 F / 175 C for 5 minutes to heat up, and longer to get crispier.
You can also simply marinade them and then store them to fry later on. Just keep in mind they will stick to each other, so layer them in between parchment paper or something similar.
TROUBLESHOOTING rice paper bacon
I’ve heard a few folks complain of the issues below, so here’s some extra guidance!
“My Rice Paper Bacon didn’t come out crispy!”
This is likely due to one of two things. First, you may have over-hydrated the rice paper. You only need to dip it in some water for about 10 seconds.
The other reason could be that you didn’t cook it long or hot enough. Make sure you are using medium heat and cook it until the edges are fairly browned.
“My Rice Paper Bacon was burnt!”
This is likely due to the opposite problem. You cooked it at too high a temp and / or for too long. Try testing out a strip or two at first to get a hang of it and how your stovetop cooks.
can I use this rice paper bacon in dips / soups?
Over time I’ve experimented with different ways to use this rice paper bacon and I’ve discovered that it won’t stay crispy in wet environments. So making a bacon jam or dip with it won’t work. Or cooking it in a soup either. It’s great as a soup topping, but if it actually cooks in the soup it becomes soft and gummy.
So don’t introduce it into any wet environments if you want it to stay crispy!
If you want to do something like this I suggest using my Tofu Bacon!
handy dandy video here!
Other recipes you’ll dig!
- Tofu Bacon
- Tofu Scramble
- Breakfast Burritos
- Elvis Sandwich
- Western Bacon Cheeseburger
- Sourdough Jack
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Rice Paper Bacon
Ingredients
- 8 Sheets Rice Paper
Bacon Marinade
- 2 Tbsp Neutral Oil (Vegetable, Canola, Avocado etc.)
- 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce (use Tamari for Gluten-Free)
- 1 tsp Liquid Smoke
- 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- 1-2 tsp Sriracha
- 2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- 1 tsp MSG
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a large rimmed plate or skillet.
- Add some water to a skillet or rimmed plate. Take two pieces (or three for thicker bacon) of the the rice paper, and gently coat them in the water for about 10 – 12 seconds. Gently press them together and try to get rid of any air bubbles. Make sure you don't oversoak the rice paper as it can get too soft and unable to crisp up.
- Then lay your rice paper bacon sheets in the marinade and coat both sides, flipping it over to coat as thoroughly as possible.
- Add the rice paper to a cutting board, careful not to let the rice paper fold onto itself. Seal off the edges with your fingers so there's no air bubbles and to make sure the pieces are stuck together.
- Using a knife or pizza cutter, slice the rice paper into bacon strips (about 3/4 – 1 inch thick).
- You can add the strips to a wire rack or leave them on the cutting board until they are ready to fry. Additionally, if you only want a few pieces of bacon, you can store them in a tupperware container and fry them later. Or fry them all and store the cooked bacon. Again, up to you!
- Bring a skillet up to medium heat with a bit of oil. Fry the strips to your desired doneness. I recommend doing a few test pieces to figure out what kind of texture you like. They will crisp up a bit after frying so keep that in mind!
- Once they are cooked, use them any way you want. You can literally use these them same way you would use non-vegan bacon!
- ENJOY!
You you omit the msg? I don’t have any. Or what else could you use?
Hi, you can omit it, the bacon will be good without!
Premade vegetable stock usually contains msg, so it is a good substitute.
What is msg ?
A flavor enhancer. Monosodium glutamate.
Pretty awesome! I had trouble cooking in a skillet since my non-stick pan wasn’t so non-stick. I then used the airfryer with parchment paper. I will need to experiement more with the temp and time but they came out quite tasty and with a little crispness. I agree the skillet method made them taste more like bacon. My BLT sandwich was quite satisfying!
Awesome! Yeah I’ve made these a lot and everytime they get a little better, so it definitely is something that you can finesse based of what you like and have to work with!
This recipe beats EVERY/ANY other vegan bacon recipe, I can hardly stop eating it, THANK YOU for sharing it!
Thank you!! Glad you like it!
This is a tremendous recipe. Best vegan bacon I’ve ever tasted.
For best results, just be careful not to oversaturate the rice paper with water. If overexposed to water, it become rubbery, like in a spring roll. For this recipe, I found it really helps to have the rice paper still pretty firm, which makes it easy to slice and transfer to the skillet.
Thank you! And yes, that’s a good tip. I’ve found if I over soak it’s pretty much impossible to get them crispy. I’ll make a note, thanks!
Just made this and so delish✅❤️👌🏼 Thank you!
Bonjour
C’est quoi le msg ?
Est-ce que vous superposez plusieurs feuilles de riz ? 😀
Merci beaucoup pour votre recette, j’ai hâte d’y goûter ! 🥓🥓🥓🥓🥓🥓🥰
Salut, le MSG est du Glutamate Monosodique c’est un rehausseur de saveur. Il est vendu en épicerie comme étant une alternative au sel. La marque que j’ai chez moi est Accent, mais il y a aussi Herbamare qui contient du MSG.
Pour la recette, oui c’est bien ça il faut superposer 2 à 3 feuille de riz les tremper dans de l’eau tiède pendant 15 seconde avant de les faire mariner et ensuite les couper.
This is the best vegan bacon recipe I’ve ever tried, and it’s so easy (as long as you have a nonstick skillet)! Is there any way to save and reheat leftovers that will return the bacon to its former crispy glory? Should I refrigerate the leftovers? (The only time I’ve even had leftovers is when I was saving some for a friend to try, but the bacon had softened by the next day.)
Glad you like it! Storing in the fridge is an option, but I feel like they stay crispier if you store them in an airtight container at room temp. I need to experiment more with reheating them, but I would think the air fryer would work best. I’ve found that they actually get softer when reheated in a pan, which is strange. I’ll do some experiments and update the blog. Thanks!
Hi. I can’t wait to try, thanks for your great recipes. The non-extreme-crisp issue with reheating in a skillet may have to do with steam that develops first between the bacon and the pan, which can prevent deep crisping.
When it comes to crisping up things like thin crust pizza, I’ve found that even the shallowness of the cast iron pan makes a real difference eg crispier results with a relatively rimless griddle vs a pan with higher sides. (The higher sides encourage steam to stick around a bit more than if there’s no rim.)
Love to nerd out with fellow cookers.
So, so good!!! Did without the MSG and they turned out awesome! Not sure if I missed the nutrition facts for these.
Seriously good bacon. It is so easy to make and I don’t worry about what’s in it like I do with the mock meats that are highly processed. It’s like a little high in sodium, but it’s bacon. Of course it is.
I made this yesterday because I really miss BLTs. This turned out so great and was easier than I was expecting! I would add more salt to really get that BLT flavor but that may just be personal preference. I will make this again and again.
This was unbelievable! The marinade is great, and I found that I like the bacon best when it’s both crispy and chewy. I also tried baking these at 400°F for 4 minutes on each side, the results were great but I might try for 3 minutes for more chewiness.
Thanks for this awesome recipe!!
Excellent, thank you, glad you liked it!
Definitely going to try this. Question: Why not eliminate water and soak in marinade instead ?
Not enough liquid in the marinade to hydrate them from my tests, thanks!
This really is the best vegan bacon. What a great idea
Glad you dig it!!
I’m here to beg Vegans to purchase a stove top smoker box (or build one, YouTube videos available for that). smoke earth balance or Miyokos unsalted butter for 40 minutes on low smoke using hickory chips with a cut out disposable muffin tray to place the butter. Make sure the smoke is low enough to not burn, but smoking enough to infuse in the fat. Better to do this outside on a little burner because the smoke does escape.
This will make your seitan’s , tofu and starch bacons taste indistinguishable (except for some textures) from the real thing. Up your vegan game to new levels with bacon, ham, sausage, brisket and even homemade barbecue sauce. Store the smoked “fat” in the frig for future recipe use.
BTW, Recipe is wonderful- -signed the real smoker:-))
This is the most genius fake bacon recipe I’ve ever found, and I’ve tried quite a few. I love that it doesn’t have any weird hard-to-find ingredients and doesn’t take 3 hours to do.
Just letting people know who are wondering about an air fryer option…. I haven’t made your specific recipe yet but I make a big batch of rice paper bacon every couple of weeks and I bake mine at 400 degrees for 8-9 minutes (it will typically be cooked to the chewy stage so it needs to be cooked more later but some strips might come out crispy at this point. If you go a little longer, most will be crispy) let cool and then store in the fridge (I bought a special long bacon container) when I want to eat some, I air fry it until crispy. It works great this way!
I also take two pieces of the rice paper on top of one another and cut strips before I dip into the water.
This is my second time making the bacon. I usually cut up the bacon afterwards. Love this recipe! Thank you!
Excellent, thank you for the feedback!
So fun fact- square rice paper is a thing, and I’m going to try it out with that next! Also, I tend to reduce the temperature to 350-375, since I like my bacon soft. The real challenge with this is getting it just crisp enough that it doesn’t stick to itself anymore, while still having it be pliable. Also, chocolate dipped bacon, here I come!
I’ve seen the square sheets! And that chocolate bacon sounds scrumptious!!
So good!! Even though my cook wasn’t perfect on the first batch, my partner and I devoured this bacon (sans msg). I’m making it again today and I added to my favorite recipes book! Thank you.
Awesome, glad it still worked out and is in the rotation! Thank you!
This is hands down the best recipe for fake bacon flavor anywhere! We have used this with various types of veggie protein as well, it makes great bacon bits if you use pressed and crumbled firm tofu. The most decadent/closest to bacon is if you can find fried bean curd sheet at an Asian grocery store. Marinade and then lay it out on a baking sheet and bake it (oven also worked with the rice paper, though there will be variation in crispiness).
Awesome thank you! I have a Tofu Bacon recipe too and it’s basically this marinade with tofu! I wanna try the yuba / soy skin bacon soon too, thank you!
This was fantastic. I made your turkey and used the rice paper to make it crispy. That worked great. So, I decided to use the rest for this facon. Both my daughter and I said, “Wow!.”
Holy moly what a fantastic idea! I gotta try it, thank you!!
I’ve been vegan for a long time and tried so many vegan bacon recipes (banana peel, carrot, seitan, tofu, coconut, etc.) and this is by far the absolute best and most creative recipe ever. I’m astounded. It took me a few tries to really get it right, but now it’s super easy. The bacon is so smoky and flavorful and so crispy and comes together quick. Will be using this for everything forever! Wow! Thee burger dude becomes thee burger goat. Thanks so much!!!
So glad you found this one and like it so much! It does have a bit of a learning curve, I’m thinking I need to redo this and be super specific to try to mitigate that but so glad it worked out for you, thank you!
Thanks for this excellent rice paper bacon. The best recipe I’ve used, ever! PERFECT even without MSG or Srirachaa and wonderful in a toasted sandwich.
Excellent, so happy to hear you liked it! Thank you!