Like quite a few life’s pleasures, bacon is a love affair with consequences: blissfully delicious but deadly. Or is it?
That it’s irresistibly delicious, of that there is no doubt: many vegetarian friends have told me that bacon is the only thing they possibly sometimes miss. I’ve also heard it said that the smell of bacon in the morning is the best aromatherapy.
But is it indeed as deadly as it was perceived only a while back, with WHO comparing it to asbestos and cigarettes in its carcinogenic qualities? As it usually happens with food scares and media hypes, it turns out to be quite a hefty exaggeration. It’s not a health food, that’s for sure, but in sensible quantities it won’t do a healthy person any harm. And as recent research demonstrates, it is easier to maintain a healthy diet if it’s not drastically restrictive: in other words, a little bit of what you fancy does you good.
Check out then my top 10 recipes with bacon in the ingredients list – and enjoy them in moderation!
It doesn’t make it healthy, but banana, thanks to its fibre and micronutrient content offsets the damage a little bit, and anyway banana fried with bacon makes a great breakfast. Banana slices cooked in bacon fat, seasoned with maple syrup, are best served as a breakfast sandwich filling, on toasted sourdough.
In this recipe bacon is merely a flavourful protein insert in a bowl piled with plant food. And there’s no denying that cabbage and bacon go hand in hand. The two, tomatoes and mushrooms make a delicious main dish that can be served with plain pasta or potatoes. It can also be a hearty side dish, to go with fish or chicken.
Cabbage with bacon and tomato
RECIPE
Bacon also goes incredibly well with sweetcorn, especially fresh, shaved off the cob but use frozen when out of season. Here, cheesy bacon and sweetcorn enchiladas with red salsa are made with crisp, toasted corn tortillas. Best assemble and bake them straight away, so they don’t get soggy standing around.
Bacon and sweetcorn enchiladas
RECIPE
This is a classic example of ‘a little bit of nice’: bacon wrapped, grilled chicken chunks, a classic appetiser. When served with pan fried mushrooms, they are a wholesome main course.
Bacon wrapped chicken bites
RECIPE
A fantastic solution for brunch, lunch or supper: pear and bacon tart on puff pastry base spread with soft blue cheese. This tart is made with just four ingredients and assembled in five minutes. Quick, easy, delicious and seasonal too.
Bacon makes a fabulous salad dressing, did you know? And it makes a simple lettuce salad more filling and satisfying, especially with a combination of some crumbly blue cheese. Lettuce, bacon and blue cheese salad is the perfect recipe for light lunch.
Lettuce, bacon and blue cheese
RECIPE
Well, this is naughty but how delicious! Brown sugar bacon, crispy bacon baked with brown sugar and mustard glaze, is the best sweet and salty party hit. It’s streaky bacon double baked, first on its own until crispy, then with the glaze.
Sweetcorn with bacon again, this time in a salad with avocado and crumbled feta, on a bed of iceberg lettuce. Don’t skip the furikake seasoning, and use fresh sweetcorn whenever possible for one of the best main course salads ever.
It’s not carbonara but I like it: a dish of creamy pasta with bacon and Parmesan is made irresistible with a blast under the grill. Don’t let the purists spoil your enjoyment!
Spicy bacon and cucumber stir-fried with hot chillies and Sichuan peppers, served as a warm salad with new potatoes. It's an amazing combination, and not uncommon in Chinese cuisine: the recipe is courtesy of the chef Ching He Huang, so authenticity proven.
Spicy bacon, cucumber and potato salad
RECIPE