The Sneaky Way to Make Everything Taste like Bacon

Bacon is one of those rare foods that can be right at home next to your pancakes at breakfast, do all the heavy-lifting on your lunch BLT, pair perfectly with tender Brussels sprouts at dinner, and garnish a caramel sundae (see above) or a chocolate malt, but–you probably shouldn’t have it for every meal.

Okay wait, before you go full torch-and-pitchfork-mob crazy on me, I have a solution! And it has fewer than 10 calories! (Now I really have your attention)

You know the red stuff you see sprinkled on deviled eggs all the time? That’s paprika. It adds a pretty pop of color and mild bell pepper flavor. Like, real mild. Like, some might even say it doesn’t have much flavor at all, which was totally me, until I had some of the good stuff.

Spain and Hungary take their paprika very seriously. Between the two, there are nine different varieties (we sell four!), all with different characteristics and processing standards. Some are sweet and smoky (aka bacon flavored), some are spicy and a touch bitter, and exactly zero of them are flavorless.

My favorite, and the hero of this bacon love story is Smoked Spanish Sweet Paprika. In Spain, it’s known as dulce and made from a Spanish variety of Capsicum annum that looks like mini red bell peppers (they’re real cute, guys). The ripe peppers are dried in adobe smokehouses before being ground up into a deep red, silky powder. How spicy the paprika ends up being depends on how much of the seeds and pith (Did you know this is also sometimes called the placenta? Yeah.) are ground up in the final product. Both are sources of capsaicin, the compound responsible for spicy heat. If you’re into that, our Smoked Spanish Hot Paprika is your girl.

I first unlocked the bacon-ifying powers of this paprika when I experimented with a quick dash on my morning eggs. It was like bacon had magically appeared on my plate. Next up, whisked into salad dressing. Amazing! Then, chili. At this point, it’d be faster to tell you the things I haven’t added it to yet (breakfast cereal, PB&J’s, and cheesecake).

I promised you a sneaky way to make everything taste like bacon and it’s really as easy as a sprinkle or a tsp. (about 6 calories) of Smoked Spanish Sweet Paprika. But hey, we’re having a saucy summer, so why not another, saucier, way to drown unsuspecting foods in bacon flavor? Introducing the newest condiment to your fridge door line-up: “Bacon” Sauce. Make a batch of this and add it to (nearly) any food in need of some bacon love. Mushrooms add the essential “meatiness” of bacon and the other ingredients are most likely already in your pantry.

Bacon Sauce Recipe