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Woman in glasses holding a bagel and smiling
My brilliant friend, Emily Jillette, with a vegan-friendly lox you’ll love
Emily Jillette

Lox of Love! Emily Jillette Shares a Bagel Recipe She and Penn Adore

She and her husband Penn love it — and so will you!

December 22, 2023 10:11 am

I’ve got a fantastic a twist on bagels and lox from my dear friends, Emily and Penn Jillette. You know Penn as one of the best magicians to ever do it. He’s the Emmy-winning powerhouse of presto, who, along with his partner of nearly 50 years, Teller, is one of the longest-running headliners in Vegas history (30 years and counting!). And Emily’s been my bestie for many a Wondercadeventure, like when she hosted David and me for a brilliant, epic gambling-free trip to Las Vegas (seriously, click that link and copy our itinerary!) or when she and I went to The Locksmith’s Dream in Wales, one of the coolest immersive experiences ever. Now, go eat your heart out! -NPH


Emily Jillette: Penn and I live in Las Vegas but are East Coasters in our hearts. So, of course we want a loaded bagel with cream cheese, lox and fixins for brunch. And boy, did we indulge in that for many years. But then Penn had to go vegan. Dammit.

I came across this recipe in a Whole Foods cookbook — but the recipe didn’t quite have the proportions I wanted, so I wiggled things around, and this is what I make now. And it’s a doorbuster. They’re lining up for it.

I use Kite Hill non-dairy cream cheese and with all the yummy flavor aboard, you can’t even tell the difference from regular cream cheese. It’s pictured here on a poppyseed bagel, but I have to say my bagel of choice is a pumpernickel. I once ordered a dozen sliced pumpernickel bagels from a deli. The guy said, “Pumpernickel doesn’t slice.” And I couldn’t understand why he was telling me that. I insisted that I had sliced pumpernickel bagels from this place before, but he kept laughing and saying, “Pumpernickel doesn’t slice.” And then he gave me a dozen sliced pumpernickel bagels. So confusing! Until I told Penn about it and he looked at me and said, “He was repeating the order: pumpernickel, dozen, sliced.” And so now, we have T-shirts that say “Pumpernickel doesn’t slice.”

Right now Penn is off in Romania doing the USO tour so I’m eating this alone today. But I assure you, if he were here with this carrot lox, we would need the whole dozen bagels. Sliced.

Bagel with vegan cream cheese and vegetables on top
Add vegan cream cheese, if you’d like, and voila: a bagel for brunch anyone can enjoy
Emily Jillette

Jillette Family "Lox of Love" Bagels

Servings: 4-6 servings

Copy Ingredients

Ingredients
  • 8 big carrots
  • 6 tbsp. rice vinegar
  • 2 tsp. smoked paprika
  • Coarse salt
  • 1 tsp. caraway seeds
  • 1 tsp. coriander seeds
  • Juice of 2 oranges
  • 2 tbsp. apricot jam (any fruit will work)
  • Cracked black pepper to taste
  • Cream cheese, chives, capers, onions, etc. for garnish
  • Bagels of your choice
Directions

Copy Directions

    1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

    2. Scrub the carrots, but do not peel them.

    3. Line a baking sheet with parchment and layer it with the salt.

    4. Roll the carrots in the salt. Try to really cake it on. (You won’t eat all this salt, it’s only for baking.)

    5. Bake for 30 minutes and check the carrots’ tenderness. You want to be able to slice through easily, but not too soft.

    6. Let the cooked carrots cool. Then, you can either slice them longways on a mandoline, or use a peeler and slice equally thick/thin long slices.

      Dish full of thinly sliced cooked carrots
      PHOTO: Emily Jillette
    7. For best results, you want to lay the slices in a single layer for the marinade, but I just throw it all in a big Tupperware and shake it around.

    8. Toast the caraway and coriander seeds in a pan for a couple minutes. Let them cool, and then grind them up to a powder.

    9. In a bowl, whisk together the ground seeds, jam, orange juice, paprika, cracked black pepper and rice vinegar.

    10. Pour this over the carrot slices and get everything covered. Then cover the Tupperware and put it in the refrigerator for about an hour.

    11. Serve on a bagel of your choice with any fixins.

Man in glasses eating a bagel looking excited
Penn loves ‘em — and so will you!
Emily Jillette


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