Vegan bagels and lox, you say? From scratch you say? Why yes, of course; creamy ricotta, smoky carrot lox, and soft home-made bagels make this a perfect lunch!
Place half of the salt into a loaf tin, and lay the still-wet carrots side by side on top.
Cover with the remainder of the salt, and bake in the centre of the oven for 90 minutes.
Once the carrots have been baked, remove the tin from the oven, and tip out onto a large baking tray. The salt should fall away from the carrots.
Leave to cool until you can handle the carrots, then brush away any remaining salt.
Remove as much skin as you can from the carrots: I find that the easiest way to do this is to use my thumbnail to break the skin, and then pull away the rest with my fingers. It can be a bit time-consuming but using a knife often results in losing large lumps of carrot flesh too.
Whisk together the olive oil, liquid smoke, and apple cider vinegar in a bowl large enough to contain the carrots and marinade.
Use a sharp knife to cut the carrots into thin strips, and then place them into the marinade.
Using your hands, gently massage the marinade into the carrot strips, ensuring that they're all well-coated. Don't worry if they seem overly greasy at this point, they won't be by the time they're done.
Cover the bowl with a lid or silicone bowl cover, and leave in the fridge for the next three days to marinate, turning the carrots over with your hands once a day to make sure they don't dry out.
When ready to eat, remove from the fridge, and bring up to room temperature.
Pile the carrot lox over the bottom halves of the bagels, and add the onion rings.
Sprinkle over some chopped spring onion and a little salt if using, then add the top half of the bagel.
Enjoy!
Notes
Nutritional information for this recipe has been calculated on the assumption that around a quarter teaspoon of salt will have been absorbed into the carrots.
My carrot lox is adapted from Erin's recipe, over at Olives for Dinner.
I know that the non-vegan version of bagels and lox should have capers and dill but I couldn't find any in my local supermarket, hence not using them! By all means add them if you want to though.
Nutritional data for the lox on their own is as follows (for ¼ of the recipe):