Super Bowl Sunday is nearing, and I wanted to veganize a recipe my parents used to serve at their Super Bowl Parties. Scallops wrapped in bacon! I’ve been seeing hearts of palm used as all kinds of seafood substitutes lately, and I love them, so I decided to try it. And I am so excited that I thought to experiment and create this recipe! It came out so amazingly delicious and is pretty looking too.

Not much else to say except that I am so excited to share this recipe!

So without further ado,

Vegan “scallops” wrapped in “bacon” or as I prefer to call it, “Hearts of Palm Wrapped in Tempeh Bacon”

Servings 8-12 depending on how thin you slice the tempeh and other various factors

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp liquid smoke
• ½ tsp hot sauce
• ½ tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (optional if you can’t find it)
• ¼ tsp smoked paprika
• ¼ cup coconut palm sugar or brown sugar (I used coconut palm sugar because I had some and it’s healthier for you…but brown sugar will work just as well if not better…)
• About 3 stalks of canned hearts of palm
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp Old Bay Seasoning
• ½ tsp kelp granules (if you can’t get your hands on this, double the Old Bay)
• 1 tbsp oil

You will also need some toothpicks, a small shallow bowl, a small frying pan, a cookie sheet, cooking spray, and some extra Old Bay…(I love to make rhymes…but it is true)

Directions:

1. Slice tempeh with a long knife into 10-12 thin pieces.
2. Place in a Ziploc type bag
3. Pour all ingredients in order ending with the smoked paprika into the bag.
4. Seal bag and gently toss to coat the tempeh. Place in the refrigerator.
5. You probably want to marinate the tempeh bacon for about an hour, shaking the bag lightly every 15 minutes or so and placing back into the fridge.
6. In the meantime while the tempeh is marinating, take about 3 hearts of palm stalks from a can.
7. Slice them to be about 1.5 inches tall or so. Maybe 2.
8. Place them into a shallow bowl and pour 2 tbsp of lemon juice over them.
9. Then sprinkle the Old Bay Seasoning over the tops, making sure each piece has some on it.
10. Repeat with the kelp granules.
11. Place some plastic wrap over them and also place them into the fridge like you did with the tempeh bacon. Turn over every time you shake the bacon. The idea is to let the hearts of palm soak up the flavors a bit and marinate.
12. Around halfway through marinating both items, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
13. When the bacon is done marinating, spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and place the tempeh in a single layer. Do not put any extra marinade or liquid into the pan. Just the marinated tempeh.
14. Take the coconut palm sugar or brown sugar and sprinkle onto the pieces of tempeh. Rub it a bit into the tempeh with your fingers. This will make the tempeh bacon more like actual bacon in my opinion. It ends up getting crispy, sticky and extra delicious when done.
15. Heat in the oven for 15 minutes.
16. When there’s about 5 minutes left for the tempeh bacon to cook, take out the hearts of palm.
17. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a smallish frying pan.
18. Place the hearts of palm without the marinade liquid into the pan and sprinkle with some extra Old Bay, maybe some salt if you desire too. Be very careful as it may splatter a bit.
19. Heat on each side until it begins to brown, 1-2 minutes each side.
20. Take out the bacon at 15 minutes and let it cool while you finish the hearts of palm.
21. Place the hearts of palm on a plate.
22. When you can handle the tempeh bacon with your hands, take one heart of palm piece and one slice of tempeh bacon. Wrap the bacon around the circle…if it breaks it’s ok, just finagle the toothpick into it so that it sticks on as well as you can. It’s all going into the same place anyhow. It’s kind of difficult to explain the procedure though. If you look at the pictures of the recipe it might give you a better idea of a strategy for handling it.
23. Serve as soon as possible afterward. They’ll be best when still warm. You can try reheating them in a toaster oven on broil if you have that capacity later…microwave may work too but no guarantees it’ll taste the same when reheated. I’m pretty sure if you have a lot of people over or even just you, they’ll be tasty enough to polish off quickly

the hearts of palm marinating

the hearts of palm after they’ve been cooked

all asembled!

One more picture for good measure!