Vegan Smoky Crispy Bacon Alternative - great for fry ups!
This is a simple and quick way to make a great alternative to crispy bacon for fried breakfasts or even a vegan bacon butty*!
Ingredients: (Ideally, use a non stick pan) Stage 1: Slice your tofu.  Slice your smoked tofu into thin strips.
If you do not have any soy sauce see the 'VeggieStuff Kitchen Tip' below about pre-soaking in salty water. Heat your pan and when hot add a drizzle of oil (try to keep the pan quite dry -a non-stick pan is best for this). Stage 2: Sizzling smoky strips  Add your strips to the non-stick pan and let them sizzle away in the oil. It is up to you how crispy you want them to be, but note that the tofu will get a bit crispier once it is taken out of the pan and looses a little more moisture - so if they are crispy in the pan they will be more crispy when served.
Avoid turning them too much, but you should aim for a golden looking colour as you can see in the image here. What is happening is that the water is being cooked out, which means the tofu strips will absorb the soy sauce well.. Stage 3: Soy sauce - Splash it all over!  Once the tofu strips are golden and starting to go crispy, shake a little soya sauce over the top and shake the pan and flip the strips using a spatula. The water in the soy sauce will quickly cook of leaving you with golden brown crispy tofu strips.
This whole process takes only a few minutes, so if you are making a meal, it is probably best make the tofu stips last so they are at their best when served. Or if no-one is watching, stick in some white bread with brown sauce and scoff them quick!!  Cooking for more people: When you add soy sauce you will need to clean the pan afterwards, so you can fry the tofu strips in batches and than add them all back into the pan for the soy sauce stage.
Non-Stick Pan : We always recommend using a non-stick an for these type of recipes, because steel pans that have sratches may cause the tofu to stick and grip onto the pan, which can cause it to fall apart and leave small burnt bits behind. Also a non-stick pan means you can use very little oil. Soya Sauce: We recommend a good fermented soya sauce like Kikkomans that adds deep flavours as well as saltyness. Avoid using the cheaper types in supermarkets - especially if they contain sugar and caramel as a colouring (may be listed as E160). These are not much more than coloured salty water and the sugar will burn and cause a bitter flavour. If you can't find Kikkomans or a similar fermented soy sauce let the tofu strips sit in some salty water for a while before patting them dry and frying. You can then ignore the soy sauce stage. * For those of you outside the UK, 'butty' is Northern slang for a sandwich - usually anything hot held between slices of buttered bread becomes a butty - such as a Chip Butty or Sausage Butty. A bacon butty is a popular type of fast food served in the less sophisticated cafes and burger vans. A typical Bacon Butty uses sliced white bread, with butter filed with fried bacon often with ketchup or 'brown sauce'.
It's only natural that people who have become vegan miss some of the 'guilty pleasures' they grew up with - but a vegan bacon butty is 100% guilt free, so you can enjoy it while feeling guilty about something else!! | 
