Eggplant Bacon and Roasted Red Pepper Mayo

I saw a recipe for eggplant bacon that required liquid smoke. This seems to be an ingredient that crops up a lot in vegan cooking, to mimic the smoked flavor of various meats (read: bacon). I have yet to buy a bottle, because I'm too suspicious of it. It is the liquid run-off from smoke. Hm. If I really wanted to ingest that, I'd still be hacking up whatever it was I produced in the morning after an evening smoking mentholated cigarettes. "Genotoxic under an acceptable level?" Mmm, pass.

So, without consulting a recipe, I marinated eggplant strips (cut thinly into planks) in soy sauce, and a little molasses and smoked paprika, which appealed to me a bit more as a stand-in for the smoke flavor.

I broiled the strips on each side on foil in the oven, watching them closely, until they were crispy.

While standing around the kitchen, I put a peeled, roasted red pepper in my food processor with some Vegennaise. This also works well with sun-dried tomatoes: you just cover the tomatoes for a few minutes with boiling water, then drain, then add to the food processor. I seasoned it, too, to taste.

Wish I'd had some fresh tomatoes on hand, but this makes a great ELT sandwich with the sun-dried tomato mayo as the "T," and of course some avocado. The salty, smoky and crunchy eggplant was great in the balance with the other elements of the sandwich, and I had plenty left over.