Coconut Bacon Salt

This easy plant-based bacon seasoning known as coconut bacon salt is the perfect smoky topping for a tofu scramble, salad, or baked potato! It’s a completely vegan bacon-flavored salt that’s easy to make and undeniably delicious!


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Coconut. Bacon. Salt…because you know you need bacon-flavored salt in your life.

About three years ago, I was searching Pinterest for fun new recipe ideas and found this recipe for a seasoning I had never heard of before called “bacon salt“. Obviously, I knew I had to veganize this and began dreaming of my morning plate of tofu scramble drowning in its salt-y, bacon-y goodness. 🙌🏻

Click here to Pin this recipe for later.

Given there are about a thousand ways to make bacon these days that don’t involve a pig, I wasn’t too worried about how I’d veganize such an obviously not-vegan food. T and I had recently begun experimenting with coconut bacon though, and I thought it could be the perfect animal-free bacon for this recipe.

I believe the first time we ever made this coconut bacon salt was live on Periscope (shout out to those of you with us for that long! 💚), and it quickly became one of our favorite things to make. We’ve used this coconut bacon salt in everything from our Coconut Bacon Pancakes to our Vegan Bacon Mac and Beer Cheese.

It’s one of the simplest recipes and just so fun to make and use in creative ways.

This vegan coconut bacon salt is like bacon-flavored salt. It's great on everything from tofu scramble to salads to pancakes! You'll basically want to sprinkle this coconut bacon salt all over your entire life. #veganrecipe #coconut #vegan // plantpowercouple.com

Coconut Bacon Tips

First, let me address two common concerns:

  1. If you’ve tried and failed at making coconut bacon before, WE SEE YOU! And we understand, trust me. Coconut bacon can be a tricky thing to master, but we have some tips in the recipe below to really guide you through this process. With a little patience and stirring, you’ll be shocked how easy this can be.
  2. If you’re hesitant to try this coconut bacon salt because you’re not the biggest coconut fan, give it a go anyway. I am not a fan of coconut-flavored things, but this stuff doesn’t taste like coconut. It tastes like bacon. And love and joy and hugs. Again, just follow the instructions and tips in the recipe below to be sure yours comes out as bacon-y as possible.

How to Make Coconut Bacon Salt

Ingredients in coconut bacon salt: shredded coconut, soy sauce, liquid smoke, maple syrup, and sea salt.

Making this coconut bacon salt is simple. You start by mixing together your wet ingredients: a little soy sauce (or tamari for our GF friends!) for salty, a little maple syrup for sweet, and liquid smoke for the smoky perfection. Pour this over some shredded unsweetened coconut and let it marinate to soak up alll those good flavors.

NOTE: A lot of coconut bacon recipes call for large flake coconut, but we dig this coconut bacon salt made with the shredded kind. Just make sure it’s unsweetened!

The first three steps to make vegan coconut bacon salt: Mix the marinade with a whisk, pour it over shredded coconut, mix with the whisk until totally combined.

From here, you’ll spread your coconut on a baking sheet and bake it low and slow, stopping every five minutes to stir everything around. This is definitely the most important step in the whole shebang because this stuff burns super easily!

Once your coconut is mostly browned and maybe even a smidge burnt (if you dig that crispy bacon taste), you’ll finish it off in the food processor with some coarse sea salt, and voila! You’ll want to pour coconut bacon salt all over your entire life.

The final steps in making coconut bacon salt: spread it our evenly on a baking sheet, bake until browned and slightly crispy on the edges stopping to stir every 5 minutes, and grind it down with sea salt in your food processor.

Looking for more of a strip-style bacon? Check out our rice paper bacon tutorial here!


How to Use Vegan Bacon Seasoning

Make this coconut bacon salt for all your bacon-flavored salt needs, including, but not limited to:

Or get crazy and throw it on some cantaloupe or that vegan salted caramel ice cream! 🤤🍦

This vegan coconut bacon salt is like bacon-flavored salt. It's great on everything from tofu scramble to salads to pancakes! You'll basically want to sprinkle this coconut bacon salt all over your entire life. #veganrecipe #coconut #vegan // plantpowercouple.com

[If you think a spicy version of this bacon salt would be awesome, you’re 100% right. Check out our spicy bacon salt recipe here.]

Yea, you gotta make this. And when you do, let us know about it and how you’re using it! Rate the recipe and leave a comment below or tag us in your most gloriously bacon-y photos on Instagram. We’re @theplantpowercouple with the ‘the’.

Until next time, friends. Enjoy!

This vegan coconut bacon salt is like bacon-flavored salt. It's great on everything from tofu scramble to salads to pancakes! You'll basically want to sprinkle this coconut bacon salt all over your entire life. #veganrecipe #coconut #vegan // plantpowercouple.com

Coconut Bac’n Salt

Brittany Roche
This easy plant-based bacon seasoning known as coconut bacon salt is the perfect smoky topping for a tofu scramble, salad, or baked potato! It's a completely vegan bacon-flavored salt that's easy to make and undeniably delicious!
5 from 2 votes
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 1/2 cups shredded coconut unsweetened
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari for GF
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp liquid smoke
  • 1/4 cup coarse sea salt

Instructions
 

  • Measure out your coconut and place it in a large mixing bowl.
  • In a large measuring cup, whisk together the soy sauce, maple syrup, and liquid smoke. Pour this over the coconut and mix thoroughly, so all pieces are coated with the marinade. Set aside to let marinate for 20 minutes (optional, but it helps!).
  • While the coconut is marinating, preheat your oven to 325F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. When the coconut is ready, pour it onto your baking sheet and use a spatula or wooden spoon to smooth it out as evenly as possible.
  • Place the baking sheet in your preheated oven and set a timer for five minutes. When the timer goes off, use your spatula or wooden spoon to flip / stir the whole tray of coconut, making sure there are no pieces stuck to the sides or parchment. Then, even it out again. This step is so important because this stuff burns easily! Place your baking sheet back in the oven and repeat this step 3-4 times, or until the coconut is mostly browned. It's okay if it looks a little burnt in some areas; once you mix everything together it will be purrrrfect.
  • Finally, add your coconut bacon to your food processor with the sea salt. Pulse about 10 times or until everything is combined and the coconut is a nice, almost powder-y texture.
  • Let the coconut bacon salt cool and store it in an air-tight container in your pantry. Sprinkle it all over your tofu scramble, pancakes, vegan mac & cheese, pizza, salads, basically your entire life!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

This vegan coconut bacon salt is like bacon-flavored salt. It's great on everything from tofu scramble to salads to pancakes! You'll basically want to sprinkle this coconut bacon salt all over your entire life. #veganrecipe #coconut #vegan // plantpowercouple.com

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14 Comments

  1. How do you think this recipe would be like with smoked salt? I'm going to start with the original recipe since it's my first time. I just wanted your opinion as well. Thank you!
    1. Hi, Jen. I think potentially it could, but we've never actually subbed it out. I'd think you'd need to mix it with a little more liquid (water?) to balance out the wet/dry ratio of the recipe. Hope that helps!
  2. This is great! We can only get the commercial "Bacon Salt" here as a very expensive import. I used up the little bit I brought from America years ago and my mother-in-law, who got hooked on it since she can no longer tolerate pork, has been bugging me to get more. Since I am a diabetic low-carber, and bacon here in Ireland is not sweet, I will probably give this a try with a few drops of natural maple flavouring in place of the syrup, and coconut flour (sure we're powdering it anyway, right?), and let the natural sweetness of the coconut stand for itself. Can't wait 😁
    1. Thanks so much, Speedwell! I'm not sure how the flour will act in the recipe. Yes, we are grinding the coconut flakes, but not exactly to a flour-fine texture. I'm curious to hear how it turns out.
      1. Hi Terrence! I wound up not using the coconut flour after all because it is defatted, and what is bacon without a little fat? I got plain desiccated coconut from the Asian store. To suit the local taste, I used only a half teaspoon of liquid smoke and cut the sugar down to a tablespoon (a little is necessary because without it vegan pork recipes taste like chicken). I did use a few drops of maple flavouring - again, not much because most bacon is neither smoked nor sweetened locally, but you need something that pings "bacon" in the brain. Since mum-in-law is not actually a vegetarian, just can't eat pork anymore, I tried adding a tiny drop of EU approved red food colouring (not vegetarian, but the US chemical is banned here) and a few drops of "bacon" natural concentrated food flavouring (who knows whether it is vegetarian or not). I had pink salt left over from a batch of miso so I used it since I think it has a softer taste than kitchen salt. I'm pleased with the result. My next batch, for myself, I'll try an American style "maple cured" bacon with xylitol and maple flavouring in place of the syrup (diabetic), the full dose of liquid smoke, and a few pinches of aji-no-moto (MSG) in place of the "bacon" flavouring. Incidentally we do not have any fear of MSG at our house as a careful search of recent studies shows that the common concerns are not well founded and the findings of the study that showed issues could not be replicated. Sure, we don't use it that much as soon you want that MSG "zing" in everything savoury. But that umami hit is just what you want in bacon. If you want natural umami and colour instead, try drying some super ripe red tomatoes and powdering them and adding a spoonful to your batch. I suspect nobody will identify "tomato" as an ingredient at all. :)
  3. Would this recipe work with date syrup instead of maple syrup, and then maybe a little maple flavoring for the maple flavor? Thank you!
      1. Hi! Thanks for the recipe. My nephrologist needs me to limit my salt intake. Would this be tasty without salt?
        1. Hi, Janis. I think it would still be good without the salt. It may get enough flavor from just the soy sauce. And if you find it doesn't, you can add minimal amounts of salt incrementally. Hope this helps!
          1. Janis, try using reduced sodium soy salt or salt-free "liquid aminos", and try replacing the additional salt with a combination of a safe salt substitute and some fresh lemon juice in the marinade. I suspect some white pepper (maybe a teaspoon) will increase "zing" without being excessively peppery, too.

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