Have as many of these bacon biscuits as you’d like without feeling like you’ve gone off track. This biscuit recipe perfectly bridges comfort with health, and your taste buds don’t have to compromise.

Get your diet back on track with bacon biscuits. Suspicious? Don’t be. These sweet potato bacon biscuits are as comforting as their namesake would suggest, only they are free of white flour, refined sugar, and white potato, making them a healthier alternative to traditional biscuits.

Bulked up and lightly sweetened with sweet potato and coconut flour, the bacon, garlic, and spices add a savory touch to these biscuits. Pair with a slab of coconut oil, ghee, or regular butter.

Sweet Potato Bacon Biscuit Recipe

Makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 4 garlic cloves, roasted
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 slice bacon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wrap the garlic cloves in aluminum foil and put into the oven. Poke the skin of the sweet potato liberally with a fork and wrap it in aluminum foil. Place the sweet potato into the oven as well. Bake for 50 minutes, until both the sweet potato and garlic are tender.

Remove both from the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Let the sweet potato cool.

Once cool, peel the sweet potato and add it to a bowl with the garlic. Use the flat end of a fork to mash to two together.

In a skillet over medium-high heat, fry the bacon. Once cooked, remove the bacon and pour the bacon fat into the bowl with the sweet potato. Add in the egg, rosemary, salt, pepper, coconut flour, and baking powder. Stir until well combined. Chop the bacon and fold it into the mixture.

Spoon the batter onto a greased baking sheet into biscuit-like sizes. Pop the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Let the biscuits cool for a few minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Related on EcoSalon
Vegan Whole-Wheat Biscuits Recipe with Jam
Recipes for Gingerbread Pepparkakor Cookies
Vegan White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies

The post Sweet Potato Bacon Biscuits Recipe (Because Everything is Better with Bacon) appeared first on EcoSalon.

When did bacon become a seasoning?

In case you missed it, bacon is now so much more than just the cured meat of a dead pig. It’s also a flavoring. Like cinnamon. Or chocolate. Sometimes, it is even paired with cinnamon or chocolate.

There are bacon candy canes.

Jack In The Box restaurants were selling Bacon Shakes a few seasons ago. That’s basically: a smoothie with bacon in it. If that’s too heavy, you can swill back a bacony soda. Or Bakon vodka.

There’s bacon in chocolates.

And in cookies.

The Food Network posted an article called “50 Things to Make with Bacon“, including a peanut butter and bacon sandwich with banana slices.

One of the Food Network recipes is for “bacon oatmeal.” Because there’s nothing better than turning a healthy breakfast into the one that causes the heart attack. And forget having a pancake breakfast with bacon only on the side of your plate. Every bacon lover knows you also put the greasy stuff inside your pancake batter (recipes #45, #47).

According to LiveScience, sales of bacon in 2013 reached nearly $4 billion just in the U.S. Of course that’s an all time record high. “And since the introduction of the Perfect Bacon Bowl, anything you can put into a bowl — cereal, pasta, rice, soup — can now be served in a container made of hot, crispy bacon.”

I get it. People love bacon.

But this needs to stop.

We don’t need any more burgers with bacon or bacon with burgers.

We don’t need to wrap slices of bacon around any other food. Or chop it up and add it into foods where it has no business being.

There will come a time when humans will look back at America’s bacon obsession in horror. In shock.

It’s not just because pigs are seriously intelligent. Or that they’re capable of showing love, curiosity, compassion, joy. Although, all of those things are worthy enough reasons to stop this bacon insanity. All of those are reasons to see pigs as much more deserving than being carved up into strips.

More than 65 million pigs—right now!—are wasting away in filthy, dank, dark and otherwise horrific factory farms across the country. If they’re breeding sows, they can’t turn around. They’re in awful gestation crates that would be considered unacceptable methods of torture if we used them on our worst criminals.

And think about the toll 65 million 200+ pound animals take on our environment. On our health. If you’ve ever gotten sick from a salad or a piece of fruit, or even from drinking water, you may have factory farm runoff to thank. “Pork products are known carriers of foodborne pathogens, including E. coli, trichinella, listeria, salmonella, and pork tapeworms. One study of 256 pork samples taken from 36 different grocery stores found that up to 63 percent of the samples were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus bacteria,” reports PETA.

According to recent research, diets high in meat are more likely to cause an early death. Researchers for the National Cancer Institute have linked meat to an increased risk of prostate cancer. A study from Yale University found that meat-based diets can cause stomach cancer and esophageal cancer as well as lymphoma. “Cured” meats such as bacon, sausage and hot dogs are also linked to a higher risk for pancreatic cancer, which is almost always fatal.

Conservatively, it takes 1,630 gallons of water to produce a pound of pork.

Conventionally raised animals, including pigs, are fed diets high in genetically modified corn and soy. The production of GMO grains involves heavy spraying of herbicides and pesticides, which pollute the air, water and soil, as well as pose risks to human health.

Pigs, like all conventionally raised animals, are also fed high amounts of antibiotics, which make pathogens resistant to treatment with antibiotics.

And then, of course, all those pigs have to go poop. In just the U.S., factory farm animals produce nearly two trillion tons of animal waste per year. The waste is a high pollution and contamination risk that we’ve barely begun to feel the repercussions of.

No, you’re not just eating bacon, or bacon flavored whatever.

You’re eating GMOs, and antibiotics, and fear and anguish. You’re eating away our water supply. Our clean air. Our healthy fruits and vegetables. You’re eating the poop that gets into our water supply. You’re breathing it too. You’re eating the destruction of our nation’s land—land that could be farming low impact foods and empowering small, family farms to thrive. You’re eating pigs who deserve a better reason for living.

So, please. Please stop putting bacon in everything.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Related on EcoSalon

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Image: Zanthia, the impulsive buy

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 ColumnA virus threatens a spike in bacon prices. Shouldn’t we be more concerned about the food system that got us here in the first place?

Let’s talk pigs.

There’s currently a virus taking a toll on hog farms in the U.S. and Canada. Since last spring when it was first detected in Iowa, porcine epidemic diarrhea, or PEDv, has killed about 1 million baby pigs. While that’s a small percentage of the approximate 66 million pigs in the U.S., there has been much talk of rising pork prices. Because you know what pigs mean: Bacon. And if there’s anything we should get really concerned and riled up about, it’s a rise in bacon prices.

Meanwhile in Germany, farmers protested a proposed trade agreement between Europe and the U.S. that would lift restrictions on American meat sold in European countries. A gathering of pigs outside of Angela Merkel’s office building to underline the commitment to sustainable as opposed to industrial farming.

The lesson? We are talking about these kind of things in the wrong way.

We support an industrial food system that, in this case, keeps animals in tight quarters, limiting hygiene and health, and when a widespread virus hits, we question whether or not the price of food will increase. It’s not the increase in the price of bacon that we should fear, it’s our industrial food system that gets us into this position in the first place that we should be questioning.

The pig industry is a dirty business. Nowadays, most of the swine we consume are raised on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. In fact, to call these places “pig farms” is a terrible use of the term. These are pig factories. Between 1997 and 2007, the number of hogs raised in factory farms grew by one third. That comes out to about 4,600 additional hogs per day.

Besides affecting the health of the animal, these factory farms have a severe impact on the environment. Manure spills from these factory farms, that often seep into waterways, often release more sewage than the equivalent human sewage of a metropolitan area.

But we turn and look the other way, happy with our “bacon on everything” menus. Even John Stewart is reminding us to think about where our beloved bacon with a capital B comes from. If you think pigs are raised in comfy stalls with lots of hay, think again. Breeding sows often only have enough room to lie down and stand up. Pigs can live up to 15 years, but often they’re slaughtered at six months.

How did we get here?

By eating, and eating without thinking.

Everything we put in our mouths has an impact. The more cheap meat you consume, the more factory farms will grow. In the end, a rise in the price of bacon could be a good thing; we should all be eating less meat and thinking more about where it comes from.

Concerned about your price in bacon? You should be more worried about how that bacon was made.

Related on EcoSalon

It’s Time We Put Up a Food Fight

Hey McDonald’s, Sustainable Meat Doesn’t Make You Responsible

10 Infographics on Farming and Agriculture

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: LaurelF

The post Fear of More Expensive Bacon or Fear of the Food System? Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

Conventional bacon is chock-full of calories and fat and is often made from low-quality meat. But eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to go without the smoky, salty goodness that bacon provides.

Who better than Mother Nature to provide us with a compromise? When she made eggplant, she also gave bacon-lovers near and far a healthy, animal-free alternative to this guilty pleasure.

First, let’s break down why bacon can be bad for your health and physique. In just 3 ounces of cooked bacon, there are 763 calories, 85 grams of fat, 27 grams of saturated fat, 23 milligrams of sodium, and no fiber. These are off the chart quantities!

While enjoying bacon once in a while isn’t going to kill you, it’s a good idea to have an alternative up your sleeve so you can cut down on the fat and calorie overload. This recipe for vegan eggplant bacon is infused with the smoke and spice reminiscent of real bacon without the fat and salt overload. Enjoy!

Eggplant Bacon

Makes 8-10 slices

Ingredients:

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the eggplant, lengthwise, into thin slices. Use a mandolin slicer to make the job easier.

Mix soy sauce, brown sugar, cayenne, liquid smoke, and maple flavoring.  Set aside.

On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, brush an even layer of olive oil. Place eggplant slices on the greased baking sheet. Turn them around so that now both sides are lightly greased from the sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the eggplant begins to brown lightly.

Remove from the oven and brush both sides of the eggplant with the soy sauce and seasonings mixture. Bake for another 4-5 minutes. Be sure that they do not burn and become too hard. They should darken because of the soy sauce mixture and slightly crisp.

Set them aside to cool and bend them as you like so they cool in a shape similar to that of bacon. Enjoy in salads, sandwiches, or in this scrumptious bacon cup recipe.

Related on EcoSalon:

Grilled Eggplant Salad Recipe with Sun-Dried Tomato and Bocconcini

Overcooked: Bacon Bonanza

Image Credit: Dinner Series

The post Vegan Bacon Recipe: Healthy And Delicious! appeared first on EcoSalon.

Eggs from a coworker and bacon from a local ranch makes the simplest brunch recipe.

It’s Saturday morning. On Friday a coworker handed off a carton of eggs from her own chickens, and later that day you broke down and bought a package of local bacon from Niman Ranch. What do you do? Make bacon cups, of course.

Or at least that’s how it went in the EcoSalon kitchen a few weekends back when we were brainstorming brunch ideas.

To be perfectly honest, we’re (almost) over the bacon internet meme, and we really don’t want to be one of those people, but these bacon cups are kind of amazing. And simple!

So if you want to impress your bacon-and-egg-loving friends – we make plenty of vegan fare, too, honest! – give these a shot. You won’t be disappointed.

These are also ideal for large breakfast or brunch parties because you can pop in several muffin tins into the oven at once, solving the perennial “How to fry eggs for 10 people and all sit down to eat at the same time” conundrum.

EcoSalon’s Bacon Cups

Ingredients:

• 6 strips of local, organic bacon
• 6 organic eggs, preferably from chickens you know
• Some type of crumbly cheese: goat, blue cheese, parmesan, etc.
• Green onion, chopped

Directions:

• Line each tin hole of a muffin tin with bacon. If you like your bacon a little crispy, put tin in the oven at 350F for 10 or so.
• Crack one egg into each hole.
• Sprinkle with green onions and cheese.
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• Pop the bacon cups out of pan onto a plate and serve immediately.

See, easy. And the best thing about this recipe is that you can vary it however you want. Add in some sundried tomatoes? Why not. Sprinkle in a pinch of Herbes de Provence? Sure.

Enjoy!

Images: Anna Brones, Natalie Dee, Anna Brones

The post In the Kitchen with EcoSalon: Bacon Cups appeared first on EcoSalon.

I didn’t think I was going to have to write this. I thought it had passed, but the bacon pairings just keep on coming. I love bacon. Really I do. A well-made BLT is one of life’s greatest pleasures. And bacon is delicious with many many things besides tomatoes and mayonnaise. Sweet things, savory things, chocolaty things, caramely things, beery things. But I’m just so tired of hearing about it. Can we go back to when bacon was bacon and bacon in something unusual was, well, unusual?

Products like bacon vodka and bacon coffee don’t even warrant a raised eyebrow any longer. As for bacon desserts, this piece details the history of bacon desserts going all the way back to 2004. Are we done yet?

So what is it that makes this trend so darn sticky and alluring?

I think it’s a potent combination of rebellion and conformity. During the height of fat phobia (remember when people were downing boxes of Snackwell’s cookies and wondering why they were still fat?) bacon and its entire ilk of delicious fatty pork products was forbidden. So even today, it still feels a little naughty to enjoy it. It’s sort of an outlaw foodie pleasure. Then came The Atkins Diet, essentially giving the finger to the fear of fat and introducing an aura of permissiveness when it comes to pork. These seemingly conflicting views on fat combined to make bacon incredibly HIP. That’s why we can’t let go of it. It helps that it’s salty, fatty, and crispy.

But it’s tired now. If you really want to be cutting edge, make your own bacon, fry it up in a pan and enjoy it with a couple of eggs and some toast.

Of course you can make your own bacon. Bloggers all over the country are doing it. Check out Charcutepalooza on Facebook and join the fun. This is a year-long project in which bloggers cook their way through Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie.

Not quite ready to take that on? Check out this recipe on Culinate. Peruse the bacon posts on Punk Domestics or go straight to Ruhlman’s recipe.

Now excuse me while I go order a few boxes of this Bacon-Chocolate Peanut Brittle. Come on, you’ve got to admit is sounds good.

I guess I will be a little sad when this trend finally dies.

Editor’s note: This is a new column by Vanessa Barrington. For the lighter side of all things foodie, read Overcooked weekly. Overcooked: helping you make the most of today’s trendiest ingredient…before it’s overdone. Be sure to catch Vanessa’s original EcoSalon column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: Joelk75

The post Overcooked: Bacon Bonanza appeared first on EcoSalon.

Bacon is oh so hot right now, and if you’ve missed the bacon trend you may have been living in a cave. There’s bacon chocolate, bacon vodka, baconnaise. Restaurants are experimenting with a variety of bacon wrapped delectables; if you’re feeling edgy try bacon wrapped asparagus from Bacon Underground.

But why bacon? Maybe it’s the taste, or maybe it’s the fact that even bacon is seeing a sustainable revival. Portlanders can now enjoy the benefits of a Bacon of the Month Club, launched by the city’s favorite meat man, the Ethical Butcher, otherwise known as Berlin Reed. The former vegan is changing how the city – which already has a solid bacon obsession – thinks about the conventional American breakfast food. The new BCN/PDX Fridays allows people to sign up for six months or a year’s worth of specialty cured bacon that includes some crazy flavors, like jasmine tea and lemon and even cutting edge lamb bacon.

Promoting sustainable meat is allowing Reed to encourage people to change how they think about meat and their eating habits in general. “I’m doing more now than I ever was before, to ensure that these animals are being raised right, and that the meat’s coming from a good place, than I did in the last 14 years participating in veganism,” he told one of Portland’s alternative weekly newspapers, Willamette Week.

In a city that even has its own meat collective, which focuses on making local meat accessible and teaching people about how to carve as well as eat it, it’s no surprise that people are opting for ethical choices when it comes to their meat. But the Ethical Butcher is so popular, that he’s taking his bacon and other meats on a national tour, hitting foodie hotspots like San Francisco and Brooklyn which are already experiencing an uprising in artisanal bacon.

Curing bacon is a craft, and some underground charcuteries do so rogue-style, with amateur meat curers doing so in their own homes and selling it to those with a taste for, and love of, the craft, despite questions of legality. But even the professional industry is having a bacon love affair. Chef Amy Jurist, who runs Amy’s Culinary Adventures, recently hosted her second underground bacon dinner, aptly titled The Bacon Affair. The event sold out.

Interested in joining the bacon movement? The key is find the stuff that’s made by small producers and from meat raised on local pastures where the animals are treated in a humane manner; happy pigs means happy bacon-eaters. Or, just leave the selection to guys like the Ethical Butcher.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Image: Dave77459

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