Vegan MoFo Day 24 - Tempeh Tuesdays - Tempeh bacon for risotto

As I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the latest recipes I cooked for MoFo Mondays another day of posting was skipped and now it's time for my last Tempeh Tuesdays post. Tempeh bacon was one of the first tempeh recipes I made years ago, I'm not sure which recipe I used but don't recall the tempeh being pre-steamed and have a clear memory of almost destroying a good frying pan in the process! My first impression of tempeh bacon wasn't a good one and as tofu bacon was already a household favourite I've stuck with it for many years. This felt like the perfect time to revisit tempeh bacon as my other three experiments for Tempeh Tuesdays were successes so I wasn't going to be upset if the last one ended badly.

The same marinade that I use for tofu bacon (which was adapted from a recipe on veggieboards) was whisked up to use in the tempeh bacon although I didn't bother adding water as I wanted the flavours in this marinade to be stronger. I fried the slices in my non-stick grill pan that I use for cooking tofu bacon to give the tempeh slices some nice grill marks.

I've been buying so much asparagus recently as I get terribly excited when it comes into season. When I was trying to think of something more interesting than a BLT (or TLT) sandwich as a partner for tempeh bacon I remembered an asparagus risotto that was a favourite a few years ago and thought that it would be lovely with additional smoky facon flavours. I'm so glad I gave tempeh bacon another try as I really enjoyed it this time and it complimented the risotto perfectly.

Although I still haven't progressed to cooking big chunks of tempeh, this series of posts has definitely achieved it's goal. I've grown a lot more comfortable with cooking tempeh, discovered some new recipes I'll definitely make again and won't be intimidated by tempeh recipes any more!

Tempeh Bacon (Marinade adapted from a recipe on veggieboards)

300g tempeh, thinly sliced
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
oil, for frying

Slice tempeh into thin strips then steam the tempeh slices for 15 minutes. Whisk the soy sauce, maple syrup, ketchup and liquid smoke together in a dish. Place the steamed tempeh slices in the marinade ensuring they are coated evenly and allow to rest for a minimum of 2 hours.

Heat a frying pan or grill pan over medium heat, add some oil and fry the tempeh slices for a couple of minutes on each side, until slightly crispy and lightly browned.

Asparagus risotto

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, fined diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups (325 grams) arborio rice
6 cups vegan chicken stock
2 bunches of asparagus (400 grams), woody ends removed and cut into 2-3cm lengths
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup MimicCreme, cashew cream or tofutti cream cheese (optional)
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
tempeh bacon slices

Heat the olive oil in a deep sided pan over medium-high heat and fry the onions for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and cook for another minute then stir through the rice ensuring that the grains are coated evenly with the oil, onions and garlic. Add a few ladles of stock and stir until the stock has been absorbed. Continue adding a few ladles of stock every time the stock has been absorbed, stirring often, until the rice is almost tender. This should take 15-20 minutes on medium-high heat.

When the rice is almost tender, stir through the asparagus along with some more stock. Continue stirring until the stock has been absorbed then add the nutritional yeast, optional cream and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, to taste and serve topped with tempeh bacon slices.

Vegan MoFo - Stopover 3 - Croatia

There were so many options when it came to choosing something to cook for Croatia. Like many other European countries there are several regional based dishes which differ greatly between the coastal areas and inland. A dish from the coastal region of Istria called fritaja with wild asparagus grabbed my attention as asparagus has just come into season in Australia and I love finding new ways to enjoy it. Fritaja is essentially a frittata although during my research I also saw photos of some versions that were served like scrambled eggs.

I haven't made a vegan frittata previously as it's not the type of dish my fellows are usually into and even though I had a few ideas about how to make one, I turned to a bookmarked recipe from the Fat Free Vegan blog for a zucchini frittata. Susan's recipe appealed to me as she used firm and silken tofu in the mixture to create varying textures - genius! I adapted her recipe slightly to cater for my asparagus, slight differences in tofu packages and used fresh chives rather than oregano.

Everything was going according to plan until we had a power outage that lasted 6 hours! I was pretty much beside myself because the frittata wasn't going to happen without an electric oven, my post for Sri Lanka wasn't going to get finished that night and I couldn't keep up to date with the frenetic pace of reading mofo posts. Oh, and then my phone ran out of power too! My frittata plans eventually went out the window, leftovers were heated on the gas stove and as all of the ingredients were prepared, I decided to get out of bed earlier the next day to finish baking it. When the power finally came back on at 9:30pm, I hastily finished my post and called it a night.

The upside of this debacle was that we were able to enjoy delicious freshly made food for lunch today and it's probably more suited for this purpose as it's quite a light dish. Another positive was that it got the tick of approval from the man after he told me this morning yet again that it wasn't going to be his type of thing. I won't pretend that this is an authentic version of a Croatian fritaja given it doesn't contain eggs or wild asparagus but it does taste pretty damn good.

Vegan Asparagus Fritaja (Adapted from Fat Free Vegan's frittata recipe)

16 stalks asparagus
300g silken tofu, drained
¼ cup soy milk
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 heaped tablespoon cornflour
¼ teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
200g firm tofu, drained and pressed
¼ teaspoon black salt (kala namak)
¼ cup chopped chives

Line a 24cm pie dish with baking paper and lightly grease. Preheat oven to 200C.

Cut about 6-7cm off the top of 12 of the asparagus spears. Lightly steam the tips, then pat dry with paper towels. Finely chop the rest of the uncooked asparagus.

Place the silken tofu, soy milk, nutritional yeast, cornflour, turmeric, salt and pepper in a blender and process until it becomes smooth.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the shallots until they soften. Stir through the garlic, followed by the tofu sprinkled with black salt. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. When the tofu begins to brown, add the chopped asparagus and fry for a couple of minutes until the asparagus is tender.

Remove the pan from the heat and pour the contents of the blender into the pan followed by the chives. Stir to combine the ingredients then pour the mixture into the prepared pie dish. Smooth out the top and arrange the tips of the steamed asparagus on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set.

Run a butter knife around the edges of the pie dish then invert the fritaja onto a chopping board. Carefully peel off the baking paper, then place a serving plate on the bottom and invert once again. Serve the fritaja cut into wedges.

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Did you know?

The Dalmatian dog breed originated from the Dalmatian coastal region in Croatia. It was only a matter of time before some animal related trivia made it's way here!

Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.

Asparagus and kale with leeks and basil

It took such a long time for me to jump onto the kale bandwagon and lately I've been loving it! I purchased a bunch of organic kale from the Vic Market a few years ago for what I thought was an exorbitant price for such a limp, miserable looking bunch of greens. The meal I used it in was underwhelming so I grumpily put kale in the too-hard basket for a while as it also wasn't available around my local area at the time. Kale seems to have been growing in popularity over the years and as I've recently seen it appear at my local green grocer, farmers markets and even some supermarkets, it was well and truly time to cast my former doubts aside and give it another try.

When I purchased some baby leeks and kale recently and the first asparagus of the season, a long lost recipe sprang to mind to try with these vegetables. The recipe originated from a fairly uninteresting mini cookbook I impulsively bought from a supermarket that ultimately ended up being sent to charity during a spring clean along with many other unloved cookbooks. Although it's been years since I've made this side dish, the ingredients were still clear in my mind - leek, garlic, asparagus, spinach, basil and cream. The cream was never a big selling point for me, the combination of leeks, garlic and basil is the highlight which works beautifully with the greens.

After serving this up I was amazed that my fellows actually remembered the dish and happy that we all enjoyed it just as much as the original. I've since made this with silverbeet/chard leaves in place of kale and added both these greens at the same time because silverbeet leaves don't take as long to cook as kale. As long as you are familiar with the cooking times for your chosen greens, I'm sure this could be adapted with a variety of different green vegetables. Just don't leave out the leeks, garlic or basil and don't think about substituting onion for leek either!

Asparagus and kale with leeks and basil

1 tablespoon dairy-free margarine
4 baby leeks (or use 1-2 regular leeks), thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
8-10 asparagus spears
1/2 bunch tuscan kale
10-12 basil leaves, roughly chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and cut each spear in half. Remove the tough centre stalks from each piece of kale then roll the leaves up and roughly chop.

Heat the dairy-free margarine in a large frying pan over medium heat. Fry the leeks and garlic for 3 minutes or until softened, then add the kale and a splash of water. Cover and cook for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the asparagus. Cover again and cook for a further 3 minutes or until the asparagus is tender then stir through the basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.