This vegan lox sandwich is made with roasted and marinated carrots, cream cheese, capers, and fresh dill for a delicious breakfast sandwich.
Hey, hey!
It’s Friday and I have another fun recipe to share with you before I head out for another fun weekend with some of my favorite friends. After this, I am leaving Portland to enjoy some wine tasting, hiking, and beautiful Oregon countryside with two of my favorite people in the world.
I have been one loved person recently.
But before I leave you, I want to share this new breakfast recipe – a vegan lox sandwich made with roasted and marinated carrots, filled with lots of fresh vegetables, all inside my favorite sprouted wheat bagel from Alvarado St. Bakery Co-op.
Wanna take a closer look? Let’s dive in!
Recommended Ingredients and Equipment
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Whole Wheat Bagels – I recommend Alvarado St. Bakery Co-op Sprouted Wheat Bagels.
- Tomato – Use Roma, vine, or steak tomatoes
- Red Onion
- Vegan Cream Cheese – I recommend either Daiya or Tofutti. You can also make homemade cream cheese.
- Fresh Dill
- Cappers
- Salt and Pepper
- Carrots
- Olive Oil
- Soy Sauce
- Vegan Worcestershire Sauce – Not all Worcestershire sauce is vegan. Most varieties use anchovies. Make sure to find one that is specifically marked vegan.
- Liquid Smoke – This gives the recipe a delicious smokiness. Liquid smoke is found in the condiment aisle of most well-stocked grocery stores. However, if you can’t find it, it can be omitted.
- Nori Sheets – This is to add fishy flavor to the carrot lox. It can be omitted if you like.
Recommended Equipment
For this recipe you will need a large shallow dish for marinating the carrots, baking sheets, and basic kitchen utensils. (<<affiliate links)
Check out the full list of my recommended kitchen tools and gadgets.
Best Vegan Replacement for Lox
If you do a quick search of vegan lox you’ll find quite a few recipes using a variety of vegetables as mock lox.
For this recipe, I went the carrot route for two reasons: color and texture. The color part is fairly self-explanatory. To create a texture similar to that of lox, the first step is to roast the carrots until they are tender and buttery.
Once roasted, the carrots get peeled into thin strips and placed in a salty marinade that fills them with the flavors of the sea. Because the carrots are roasted, they will quickly soak up the flavors creating a delicious mock lox.
Best Bagels for Vegan Lox Bagel Sandwich
Now that you’ve got a good vegan lox, let’s focus on the other important factor of this sandwich – the perfect bagel. The perfect bagel turns out to be this sprouted wheat bagel from Alvarado St. Bakery Co-op – a whole wheat bagel made with sprouted wheat berries and organic wheat flour for a delicious taste and delightful chew.
You are probably familiar with Alvarado St. Bakery Co-op, that incredible bakery that’s been making organic products for almost 40 years . And you may remember when I first introduced them to My Darling Vegan with this Tempeh Reuben. But I only scratched the surface of the awesomeness that is this organic co-op.
Beyond doing organic way before it was cool, Alvarado St. Bakery Co-op is also dedicated to running a green business with sustainable practices. I mean, did you know that the bakery runs on a solar power? Their roof, which is 1.5 acres big, contains 1722 solar panels that powers 40% of the operation!
The co-op is also dedicated to practices such as water conservation, waste reduction, and pollution prevention which are used throughout the entire business. Alvarado St. Bakery is not just making bread that is good for the body, they are doing it in a way that is great for the environment!
Aren’t they the best?
How to Make Vegan Lox Sandwich
Step One – Prepare the Carrots
Preheat the oven to 400. Brush carrots with olive oil and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes until tender and fragrant. Meanwhile, whisk together the remaining lox ingredients and transfer to a shallow dish.
Using a vegetable peeler, cut carrots in thin strips. Place in the marinade, making sure carrots are completely submerged. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This can also be made the night before.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
Step Two – Assemble the Sandwich
To prepare the bagel sandwiches, slice the bagels in half and lightly toast. Spread both layers with cream cheese and top with tomatoes, carrot lox, onions, fresh dill, and capers.
Serving and Storing
Once assembled, you should enjoy this vegan lox sandwich immediately as part of your weekend brunch.
Leftover carrot lox can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
More Vegan Brunch Recipes
- 10-Minute Banana Pancakes
- Vegan Tofu Eggs Benedict
- Best-Ever Vegan French Toast
- Vegan Quiche with Caramelized Onions
- Huevos Rancheros
Vegan Lox Sandwich
Ingredients
Vegan Lox
- 3 large carrots, washed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 2 nori sheets, broken into bits
Bagel Sandwich
- 2 Alvarado St. Bakery Sprouted Wheat Bagels
- 1 roma tomato, sliced
- 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
- vegan cream cheese
- fresh dill
- capers
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400. Brush carrots with olive oil and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes until tender and fragrant. Meanwhile, whisk together the remaining lox ingredients and transfer to a shallow dish.
- Using a vegetable peeler, cut carrots in thin strips. Place in the marinade, making sure carrots are completely submerged. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This can also be made the night before.
- To prepare the bagel sandwiches, slice the bagels in half and lightly toast. Spread both layers with cream cheese and top with tomatoes, carrot lox, onions, fresh dill, and capers.
- Serve immediately.
Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m a 14-year (and counting) vegan, professionally trained photographer, former pastry chef, founder of My Darling Vegan, and author of the
Becky says
As a new vegan, I am so excited to try this. I love salmon and it might be the hardest thing for me to give up.
Mallory says
Wanted to make this recipe fast, so I peeled my carrots, then just threw them in the pan with the Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke and soy sauce. Made the whole thing in less than 15 min. Tasted amazing! Im pregnant and have been craving lox, this hit the spot! Thanks so much for sharing I will be making again! (next time i will cut the ribbons up a little more, i found myself pulling off way more carrots then i wanted to in one bite)
Haylie says
I absolutely loved this recipe! I used one tsp kelp powder instead of the nori and found my two larger carrots required about 10 minutes longer in the oven. I let the carrots sit in the marinade over night which I think helped make them extra flavorful. I realized I actually prefer the texture of these carrots to smoked salmon, plus this is much cheaper than smoked salmon! I will make this again and again.
Lee and perrin says
Just saw this listed on a news page, great formula but most worchestershire is not vegan!! It has anchovies!
Sarah says
That’s true. That’s why I specify using vegan. Here’s a link to my favorite vegan Worcestershire:
Cyndy Goulet says
This was a hit ! Even the true lox folks were fooled ! I made this and another recipe with a lot more ingredients and this one was by far the better one ! Didn’t have the sea weed product but it reall wasn’t missed. I just used all the ingrgients minus the water and sea weed. I was sure to double the recipe as it was used for breakfast ,lunch and supper !
Denise says
Woke up this Mothers Day morning craving a bagel with lox. This recipe was spot on! Only problem I had was the roasted whole carrots were difficult to peel into ribbons so had to slice them very thin. Would perhaps cut down the roasting time in the future. The liquid smoke and nori are musts IMO. Thank you Sarah!!
Sarah De la Cruz says
This looks incredible! Irving loves lox (the non vegan kind 🙁 ) so I need to make him some of yours!!! I’ll win him over!
Valerie says
I must be a little slow today. I cannot figure out what to do with the nori sheets. Do you crumble them up in the marinade? Thanks. I’d really like to try this recipe.
Sarah says
Thanks for pointing that out. I clarified it a bit in the recipe.
Linda from Veganosity says
This is so interesting! My son called me from LA last week to tell me about carrot lox that he had at a restaurant, and he asked me to create a recipe for him. I’ll definitely try this soon. Thanks!
Becky Striepe says
Oh wow! This is the easiest carrot lox recipe I’ve ever seen. I love that you roast first to bring out the natural sweetness. Can’t wait to try it!
Amy Katz from Veggies Save The Day says
I never liked lox, but carrot lox is pretty good! It’s very popular in restaurants where I live. Now I can make it at home with your recipe!
Cadry says
I’ve been curious about vegan carrot lox for a long time! I had a bad experience once before I was vegan with standard lox while at Zabar’s in NYC. A friend insisted I would love it and had the deli give me a sample. Once I had a mouthful of it, I knew it was a terrible idea. Swallowing it was the quickest way to get rid of it. But since I love carrots & salt, I’d like to try a vegan version!
Trinity says
What a tasty treat. I am in!
Sarah says
Thanks, Trinity!
Jenn says
I’ve never had lox before either, but I’m 100% certain I would prefer this carrot lox anyway! It looks totally legit. Can’t wait to try it!
Sarah says
Couldn’t agree more!