The Ultimate Vegan BLT that’s also gluten-free and soy-free. Smoky eggplant bacon, crisp lettuce, ripe tomato, and a homemade tahini based mayo, sandwiched between two toasty pieces of your favorite bread. Lunchtime will never be boring again!
I’m serious here. The is the ultimate BLT. I’ve always been fond of BLTs and hadn’t had one in years and years! As a little girl, my favorite place to get a BLT was…believe it or not, Friendly’s! They made the best and I always got one with a side of mashed potatoes (yea…I have no idea). Obviously, since I was diagnosed with Celiac and don’t eat meat, that meal was soon a no-go. Thus, I hadn’t had one of those glorious white toasty sammies in so long. Add in a soy allergy, and most vegan BLTs are out of the question too (i.e. tempeh/tofu won’t work!). But I don’t let silly things get in the way of my cravings!
But what’s a girl to do? Well, considering I was gifted the wonderful fabulous Excalibur Dehydrator for Christmas, the solution was rather simple. The “bacon” would be made from the glorious nightshade of eggplant! Thinly sliced, coated in smoked paprika, and dehydrated for a couple of hours. Bam! Vegan bacon at it’s finest!
I’m serious, this tasted like bacon (from what I remember). No, I lied, it tasted BETTER than bacon! That might just be my love for all things smoked, but I digress, you’ll love it too! If you don’t have a dehydrator though, you can make this in oven. You’ll just have to super thinly slice the eggplant and cook it at a very low temperature for a few hours.
So not only do we have wonderful smoky plant-based bacon on this BLT, but also an egg-free “mayo”! If you weren’t excited enough, this also ties into the giveaway at the end of this post. Again, there are a lot of soy-based vegan mayos out there and they all are just so processed and icky. Plus, I didn’t need a whole jar, so I decided to make my own.
Soom tahini and Silk cashew milk to the rescue! The perfect healthy vegan mayo with my favorite ingredients! The tahini was a no-brainer, but with the splash of cashew milk, I created the perfect creaminess for a wonderful spreadable mayo. You get a chance to win some of my favorite tahini too! Soom makes the absolute one and only best (I rave about it all the time. From my first taste, to now slathering it on everything!
I’ll give you this crazy delicious recipe first though! Basically, if I could eat this for lunch (or dinner) every day, I would. It definitely satisfied my BLT craving! Feel free to use what ever type of bread is you favorite! I wish I’d had a rye bread…that would have been killer!
The Ultimate Vegan BLT
Ingredients: (ingredients for 1 sandwich, with additional eggplant bacon for more sandwiches)
To Make 1 Sandwich:
+ 2 Slices of Toasted Gluten-Free Whole Grain Bread
+ 3 Thick Tomato Slices
+ 2 Leaves of Lettuce
+ 4 Slices of Eggplant Bacon
Tahini Mayo:
+ 1 TB Soom Tahini
+ 1 TB Cashew (or Almond) Milk
Directions:
+ For the eggplant bacon, follow directions in recipe link.
+ For the mayo, simply combine the tahini and milk in a small bowl and mix together until you get a creamy spreadable consistency.
+ To assemble the sandwich, first make sure you toast you bread. Then, in this order, layer one slice of bread with half the tahini mayo, 3 tomato slices, lettuce, the eggplant bacon, and finally the last piece of bread spread with the rest of the tahini mayo.
+ Slice it pretty and devour! So good! My mouth is watering….better go set that dehydrator again!
I actually think this may be one of my favorite recipes now on the blog. I really love this sandwich! I never make sandwiches like this either. It’s usually just the nut butter + fruit butter combo or a hummus tortilla sandwich. This BLT is super fancy for me, haha! I need to start making more sandwiches now!
Now for the giveaway! I asked Soom if they would let me give some tahini away since I absolutely adore them and their tahini! They were totally on board with the idea, so they’re letting me giveaway 1 Soom Sampler which includes: 1 12oz jar of tahini and 1 12ox jar of chocolate tahini! You want to win this…you do!
I also have another crazy tahini recipe for you guys, yet to be posted. It was between this glorious BLT and the “other” secret recipe. I went with the sandwich though 😉 But don’t worry, the other one is coming too! Now, make this sandwich and enter the giveaway which will be open for 1 week! I’ll choose the winner and contact them directly!
So tell me:
+ What’s your favorite sandwich?
*Recipe linking up for the week! Allergy Free Wednesdays, #RecipeFridays, #RecipeOfTheWeek, #StrangeButGood, Gluten-Free Wednesdays, Real Food Friday, Gluten-Free Fridays, Tasty Tuesdays, Savoring Saturdays, Healthy Vegan Fridays, Real Food Recipe Roundup, Tasty Tuesdays, Meatless Mondays, Lena’s Tasty Tuesdays!*
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