Cookbook Thursday: Have your bacon without the pig

The bacon craze had me confused — not the tasty part; I got how everyone loves bacon. But there was bacon ice cream, chocolate and bacon, cocktails with bacon. And everyone was eating it up, pun intended.

I kept thinking, “Bacon isn’t good for you. Did people forget that?”

Apparently so. A study emerged saying just that — can I get a Duh! Bacon made from pigs comes loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol, plus processed meat has been linked to a host of health problems.

There’s another side to this story, and that of the poor pig and the harmful effects raising animals have on the environment. Vegans and vegetarians have been shaking their heads during this whole pork mania.

Good news. Leinana Two Moons, author of the Vegan Good Things blog, offers ways to satisfy those bacon cravings without the unhealthy after-effects and involving an animal. Her cookbook, “Baconish: Sultry and Smoky Plant-based Recipes from BLTs to Bacon Mac and Cheese,” just may convert the most dedicated bacon (meat) lover out there.

The cookbook begins with recipes to create different styles of bacon, including seitan bacon, tofu bacon, mushroom bacon, eggplant bacon and the popular coconut bacon, which is part of the recipe below for the “Famous Coconut BLT.” There’s even carrot bacon!

The rest of the cookbook mirrors the rest of America and its craze for bacon flavor, offering recipes from everything that makes sense — bacon and cheddar scones, pigs in a blanket, smoky split pea soup with bacon — to the innovative — bacon fried rice, baconish granola, maple-bacon doughnuts. Because this is a vegan cookbook, published by Vegan Heritage Press, no ingredient contains animal products.

The pigs — and your heart — will thank you.

Here’s that Famous Coconut BLT recipe with instructions for making the coconut bacon. But get the cookbook and learn more about the process of producing bacon from plants. It’s fascinating.

Coconut Bacon

3 tablespoons tamari

1 tablespoon liquid smoke

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon maple syrup

3 cups unsweetened large-flake coconut

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk the tamari, liquid smoke, water, and maple syrup together in a large bowl. Stir in the coconut and mix well to ensure that the flakes are evenly coated. Spread the coconut in an even layer on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 10 minutes, then stir. Bake another 8 minutes, keeping a very close eye on the coconut in the last few minutes. The coconut will go from almost done to completely burned very quickly. Remove from the oven when the coconut flakes on the outer edges of the pan are becoming a deep, dark brown, but not black. Place the baking sheet on a cooling rack. The coconut will continue to crisp as it cools. Coconut bacon will keep 1 to 2 weeks in an airtight plastic container, but will become less crisp the longer you store it. So make those BLTs right now and eat up.

The Famous Coconut BLT

8 slices sandwich bread

Vegan mayonnaise

2 cup coconut bacon

1 large ripe tomato, sliced

Lettuce leaves, washed and patted dry

Directions: Spread each slice of bread with a generous amount of mayonnaise. Top the mayonnaise with about 1/2 cup of the coconut bacon per sandwich, followed by slices of tomato and lettuce leaves. Top each sandwich with the remaining bread slices. Cut each sandwich with a serrated bread knife and serve immediately.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is the author of several Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire. She is also the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.