Salmon lox was one of those things that I used to eat a lot of as a pescetarian and think, “nope, never going to stop” as I piled it over a bagel smothered in cream cheese and topped with red onion and capers. I loved seeing pieces of if drenched in cream-based sauces over pasta, and dug into boxes of it during the holidays. Whenever I went to a deli, I always ordered a salmon lox bagel. The smoke, the salt, the texture—everything about it just worked.

But when I went vegan, that yum turned into an ew and I was content with simply slathering vegan cream cheese onto a bagel and topping with red onion and capers instead. Because how can something so specifically textured and flavored like salmon lox be made vegan?

Enter carrots.

Following the same slow, salt-roasting technique I recently did with golden beets, a vegan version of lox was easy to recreate, although it took a few tries. The one thing I discovered through making several test batches is that the secret to getting that lox-y quality is to marinate them for two or three days after slow-roasting them. They develop an impossibly soft and velvety texture during this time, and the smoke flavor mellows to a perfect level.