Pizza Night and Mushroom “Bacon”
On Saturday, all I could think dream of was Jess’s eggplant “bacon.” One problem: I didn’t have eggplant. Or liquid smoke. In other words, I didn’t have any of the ingredients to make said eggplant “bacon.”
There was an even bigger problem that I was supposed to be studying instead of dreaming of a vegetarian version of bacon, but that’s a whole different story. Lucky for me, I was feeling creative and came up with a solution.
Solution:
Mushroom “Bacon”
Inspired by Healthy Exposures
- 8 oz. mushrooms
- 3 T soy sauce
- 1 T balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon ancho chile pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Mix all ingredients in a ziplock bag and let marinate 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Drain excess marinade and arrange mushrooms on a greased baking sheet.
- Bake 25 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes.
It looks burnt, but I promise it doesn’t taste that way. In fact, it’s meaty without actually being meaty and packs a kick of heat.
The first thing I ate with this “bacon” was a wrap but I was thinking something a little bigger for dinner tonight. So what’s bigger and better and carb-ier than a wrap?
All together now…
PIZZA!
Start with rolling out your dough.
I always prebake my pizza crust. Okay, I don’t, but I should because my crust never cooks by the time the toppings are done so it’s better to cook the crust ahead of time.
Top with “cheese” sauce, aka hummus mixed with nutritional yeast and a bit of almond milk.
Top with sundried tomatoes and “bacon.” Ooh, la la.
How good are sundried tomatoes? And how expensive, too! I wanted to make sure to use them up before we leave for vacation on Saturday 
When I told Joey dinner was made and just needed to be popped into the oven to heat up. He responded that he loves “no school, no job Lauren.”
I had a stroke of genius on the way home from my final and had Joey add spinach to the pizzas. He had to be fancy and saute his. Psh.
His
And hers
This topping combo was a match made in heaven, if I do say so myself. ‘Twas the perfect celebratory dinner.
I turned in my one and only final paper and took final exam #2 out of 3. Is it just me or shouldn’t my finals all be papers since I’m an English major? I thought so too, although to be fair my hip hop poetics final today was an in-class essay. One more to go, my friends!
What’s your idea of a celebratory dinner?
Lauren Loves Good Food 
That looks super good.. I would of added artichoke hearts!
I love SD tomatoes.. but they are really price-y. I always get them from Trader Joes.
I have issues with artichoke hearts. I blame it on the fact that I once ate an entire jar of them and now they make me feel slightly nauseous.
That pizzzza actually loooks super goood girl! Yummm!
I LOVE the idea of using mushrooms instead of eggplant!! Pure genius, really :] I’ll have to try that with my liquid smoke next.
The pizza looks awesome, too. And yes, my mind always wanders to “hmmm, what can I bake…” when I’m supposed to study, too. For some reason I allow it because I’m still at home…whereas if I went out to do something, I’d be breaking the laws of studying. Yeah, that makes no sense.
I firmly believe being in the vicinity of my open notes is the same thing as studying, in which case, I’ve been studying all day!
Oh my gosh, those mushrooms sound amazing! I love the idea of mushroom bacon! Although, I’m not going to tell myself it’s bacon, because it probably doesn’t match up to real bacon!
Yeah, now that I think about it, it’s nothing like bacon.
Mexican! Because I can’t get enough of it so it’s a huge splurge for me 🙂
I hope you’re splurging on Cinco de Mayo then!
What a great idea to make your mushroom taste a bit like bacon! This is such a fun recipe, Lauren, and I bet it tasted just amazing. Thanks for sharing. You have a beautiful blog and I’m going to explore more of your recipes! 🙂
That’s such a compliment. Thanks, Georgia 🙂
I love mushrooms, in fact I have them on my salad now! I will have to try this soon. It looks delish 🙂