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 Day 17 - Tempeh Tuesdays - Thai larb salad

Making a Thai larb salad has been on my wish list ever since I sampled an unforgettable version at the Thai Vegan stall in the Fremantle markets during my travels earlier this year. It hasn't been the type of weather for salads since then, so when we had a short burst of warm weather a couple of weeks ago it was good enough reason to give this meal a try. Tofu had been my initial choice of protein when I first thought about making this meal but after all the success I've been having with tempeh recently I figured it could also work well with the strong flavours in this salad.

I looked at many recipes online as I wasn't impressed that the recipe in my copy of Thai Food by David Thompson omitted lemongrass. I distinctly recalled this flavour from the salad at Thai Vegan as well as in other larb salads I had eaten in Thailand years ago. Every recipe I looked up seemed to have one thing or another missing and in the end I wrote out the ingredients I believed should be components and followed my gut instinct.

This was a sensational meal bursting with flavours from the garlic, shallots, chillies, lemongrass, lime juice, Thai thin soy sauce, mint and coriander. It wasn't as perfect as I hoped due to both my local Asian supermarket and green grocer selling out of Thai basil that day which is my favourite herb that is used in Thai food. I longed for some of it's aniseed flavour and also regretted being a little heavy handed with the lime juice. With my notes on hand I'm sure it will be spot on next time at which point I will post the recipe. Another wonderful thing about this meal was that it was another tempeh win so it's been 3 out of 3 so far with only one more Tempeh Tuesday to go!

Vegan MoFo Day 10 - Tempeh Tuesdays - Tempe Panggang Bumbu Rujak

During last Vegan MoFo my around the world cooking theme introduced me to an incredibly tasty fried tempeh dish from Indonesia which has totally slipped my mind since. For my next Tuesday tempeh challenge I thought it was time to try out another dish from Indonesia as it is the home of tempeh after all. Earlier this year I had been flicking through a friends cookbook called The Best of Indonesian Cooking and took the opportunity to jot down a few of the tempeh recipes to try at a later time.

The dish I settled on making called Tempe Panggang Bumbu Rujak sounded interesting as the tempeh slices were initially cooked in an aromatic paste, and then finished off on a grill. The remainder of the cooking paste was to be served over the grilled tempeh. The paste was made up of candlenuts, red chillies, purple shallots, garlic, galangal and tamarind and coconut milk with a bruised stem of lemongrass and a couple of kaffir lime leaves add to the simmering mixture.

Although it wasn't stated in the recipe I opted to steam the tempeh slices prior to cooking them in the broth to remove any bitterness. I'm not sure whether this was entirely necessary given the robust flavours in the paste but I wanted to play it safe. The only part of the recipe I was unsure of was the stated quantity of tamarind. Tamarind is available in many forms and I'm not sure that the half teaspoon of puree I used was what the recipe intended as this flavour seemed to be non-existent.

On the other hand the coconut was a bit too dominant for my liking and I will probably play with this recipe a little when I give it another shot. The meal was another great way to enjoy tempeh and the man thoroughly enjoyed this dish so I'll post a version down the track when I tweak it to my liking. I'm pretty happy that the tempeh recipes I've cooked in the past two weeks have been really tasty dishes I would be happy to make again, hopefully the next two will work out just as good!

Vegan MoFo Day 3 - Tempeh Tuesdays - Tempeh Matar

Out of all the daily themes I've selected, Tempeh Tuesdays is the one that has filled me with the most concern. I've cooked way more mediocre tempeh meals that successful ones - as a result this has made me rather unadventurous with it. The prospect of cooking and eating four unappetising tempeh based meals in the space of a month has been weighing heavily on my mind but thanks to the success of this first effort for Vegan MoFo, I'm feeling more optimistic.

To kick off this theme I tried to play it as safely as I possibly could, combining the tempeh preparation method in my favourite lasagne recipe with a recipe we used to love back in our omnivorous days - kheema matar. Kheema matar is a dry Indian curry traditionally made with minced lamb meat and peas. I posted about it during my first vegan MoFo using a faux mince meat recipe courtesy of Diet, Dessert and Dogs made from cauliflower and nuts. This is a fantastic recipe but the downside is that it needs to be prepared in advance so I was hoping that tempeh would also work well in this recipe.

For the initial preparation of the tempeh I used the same technique that is used in this tempeh lasagne - frying the minced tempeh in oil until browned and then pouring soy sauce over the tempeh in order for it to absorb the salty flavours. The rest of the recipe was made in a fairly similar fashion to the meaty version in my favourite non-vegan cookbook The Food of India, although some of the cooking durations in the later stages were shortened a little as the minced tempeh began to clump together a little.

The man doesn't have the same issues with tempeh that I do, in fact he is quite the fan, so it wasn't surprising that he loved this version of kheema matar. The tempeh matar was served with cauliflower tikka masala - a recent addition to our rotation of curry dishes which was also veganised from The Food of India. This tempeh dish won't take the top spot away from my favourite lasagne but I'm happy to say that it is something I'll be repeating again!

Tempeh Matar (Adapted from The Food of India)

1 onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2cm piece ginger, roughly chopped

1 large green chilli, roughly chopped

1 medium tomato

2 tablespoons olive oil (divided)

300g tempeh, minced

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon soy yoghurt
½ cup water

1 cup frozen peas

Pinch of garam masala

2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves

Place the onion, garlic, ginger, green chilli and tomato in a blender or food processor and blend until it becomes a smooth paste. 

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a deep sided frying pan over medium-high and cook the minced tempeh for 15 minutes until browned, stirring every couple of minutes. Pour the soy sauce over the tempeh, stir well to combine and cook until the liquid has been absorbed. Transfer the tempeh to a bowl.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in the same pan and pour in the contents of the blender. Allow to cook for 5 minutes over medium meat, stirring occasionally. Add the coriander, cumin, turmeric and salt and stir through for a minute. Add the tempeh back to the pan along with the yoghurt and water and stir to combine thoroughly. Cover and allow to simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally - if it looks too dry and is sticking to the pan, add some additional water.

Add the peas and garam masala and cook for a further 5 minutes. Stir through the coriander leaves and serve.

2012 - The unblogged edition

The 18th January marks the anniversary of my blog which has been going for two years now. During 2012 I only managed to publish 101 posts, which was a bit lower than 138 posts in 2011. Challenges on and off throughout the year prevented me from writing as much as I would have have liked and ever since Ollie's arrival in July a lot of my usual free time has been devoted to training and exercising him (which is very rewarding, good exercise and lots of fun). Although it wasn't the most productive year in the blogging sense, there were many recipes from other blogs I tried along the way so here's a round up of a few I can recall (with photos of ones I've been able to locate).  

Post Punk Kitchen - Chesapeake tempeh cakes. Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe posted about this recipe at a time when I was struggling to like tempeh much at all. I found the tempeh in these tasty little "crab" cakes to be very enjoyable although I wasn't particularly fond of the remoulade drizzled on top. I must make these again soon!

Seitan is my motor - Pasta with walnut, mushroom and tempeh sauce. This recipe was given high praise from vegan about town and where's the beef so I was keen to give it a try. Unfortunately it wasn't a winner for us, we didn't enjoy the tempeh in this meal and the flavour of the walnuts in the sauce were too strong for our tastes, so I'll stick to using cashews in creamy pasta sauces.

Holy Cow - Aloo posto. The man and I have a similar distaste for potatoes in curries so I generally steer clear of these types of recipes. I was intrigued by Vaishali's potato based curry as I had never seen a poppy seed paste in a curry previously so I made the recipe with cabbage instead. Even though my blender struggled to break down the poppy seeds completely it was still a very enjoyable dish which my extended family enjoyed too.

Fat Free Vegan - Okara crab cakes. This is an older recipe from Susan V's archives I stumbled upon when searching for okara recipe ideas after making home made tofu. I added the upper end of the stated amount of Old Bay Seasoning (purchased from USA Foods) which resulted in a strong peppery flavour that none of us were particularly fond of.

Inspired eats- Pan fried shiitake mushroom bacon. I was curious to see if a recipe that listed so few ingredients (mushrooms, oil, salt) would actually taste like bacon. The flavour was quite impressive given there was no liquid smoke or smoked paprika involved and they tasted great on baked potatoes with a spicy noochy sauce. It hasn't replaced my favourite tofu bacon but it was fun to try out another facon recipe.

Diet, dessert and dogs - Greek inspired chickpea scramble and Quinoa pizza balls. Both of these recipes tasted fantastic, the chickpea scramble made with besan was full of delicious Mediterranean flavours and is a great alternative to a regular tofu scramble. The quinoa and bean based pizza balls flavoured with tomato paste and herbs turned out a little softer than I expected but they were still lovely to snack on.

Sweet Roots - Coconut milk cheddar - There is something about coconut products that just doesn't work with my palate and I really need to stop experimenting. Heavily spiced coconut based curries are about the only savoury meals where I enjoy coconut and anything else just doesn't appeal. The coconut flavour in this cheese was way too strong for my liking and put me off vegan cheese making for a while.

Wheres the beef - Kentucky Fried Tofu. Cindy's not so secret blend of herbs and spices in this recipe that was written up in the Planet VeGMeL zine last year was really delicious and rather simple to prepare for a slightly indulgent nostalgic meal.

Tales of a Vegan Food Fetishist / Wrapped in Pastry - I'm a huge fan of Leigh Drew's recipes and was rapt to get my guys on board with split peas in her garlic lemon dal recipe as they usually associate split peas with soup. The man and young man were also highly impressed with the Subway style "meatball" subs I made early last year. Pate en croute and pissaldiere (bottom right in the photo above) from Leigh's latest cookbook Wrapped in Pastry were popular at family Christmas gatherings last year. I loved both of these recipes but the man wasn't crazy about the pate en croute.

Vegan Dad - Corned Beef. The man used to have a penchant for corned beef back in the day so I gave this version a try. I wasn't able to track down all of the ingredients and made a couple of substitutions which may have contributed to it's failure. The accompanying white sauce with capers I whipped up wasn't fantastic either. I was sad to read recently that Vegan Dad has farewelled the blogging world as I've enjoyed several recipes from his blog over the years.

Vegan about town - Dan dan mian. I was really disappointed that the man didn't share my enthusiasm for this delicious bowl of noodles and tempeh in a super spicy broth as I was so happy to find another tempeh dish that I enjoyed. We usually have similar tolerances to chilli but on this occasion it was too spicy for him and perfect for me. Perhaps if it's toned down a fraction I may have better success next time?

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I would like to finish this post with a huge thank you to all readers of this blog, everyone who has tried a recipe or two, readers that have left me a comment during these years and the many people I have connected with through regular comments on my blog as well as their own. It really means a lot and all of the feedback I receive is much appreciated. I hope you are looking forward to another year of posts with plenty more stopovers from around the world to come!

Vegan MoFo - Stopover 9 - Brunei

Brunei has been the most troublesome country so far when it came to choosing something to cook, looking back now I'm not sure if I made the wisest choice. It wasn't easy to find a dish unique to Brunei as the cuisine is so heavily influenced by it's neighbouring countries of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. One dish that really jumped out at me was Roti Murtabak - spiced minced meat and onions wrapped in roti bread and fried which is usually served with pickled onions. Murtabak is also a common food in India, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and some Middle Eastern countries although the ingredients vary between each country.

The recipe I referred to came with pretty vague instructions for making the roti bread. As I was making this on a weeknight and had roti that needed using up I chose to skip this step. For some strange reason I decided that I was going to use tempeh as my mince meat replacement so I prepared the tempeh by boiling small chunks with soy sauce, olive oil and water as this works so well in Isa's Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes. When the tempeh had cooled down, I cut it into tiny mince sized pieces and hoped that frying it with onions and spices would be enough to eliminate the fermented taste I find gross. The tempeh wasn't a complete success as it still had a bit of an unpleasant taste to it yet there was an even more overwhelming presence. Coriander and aniseed were some of the other spices included and I was disappointed that they were undetectable due to the cardamon which was pretty much all you could taste.

In an attempt to make the meal enjoyable, I looked up a curry dipping sauce for a Malaysian dish called Roti Canai, this condiment that was very easy to prepare pretty much saved the day. The dipping sauce was spicy enough to drown out some of the cardamon and add some additional spices. I wouldn't repeat these rotis without a lot of playing around so I haven't bothered posting my version. A lentil and mushroom filling may work better than tempeh and the cardamon definitely needs to be cut back by at least half if not a quarter.

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Did you know?

Kampong Ayer which translates to Water Village was named after Venice in Italy and it is in fact the world's largest water village. It is a region in the capital of Bandar Seri Begawan which was built almost completely on wooden stilts and is connected by many bridges. Approximately 10% of Brunei's population reside there and their main mode of transportation is by water taxi.

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

Vegan MoFo - Stopover 4 - Indonesia

Indonesia was another easy one for me, the meal was planned as soon as the country was drawn! Long time readers of this blog may recall that I struggled to enjoy tempeh for a while before finding some burgers and lasagne that I loved and even after all this time I'm still a bit wary about trying out new tempeh recipes. As tempeh originates from Indonesia I simply had to be brave and delve into a tempeh dish. A recipe called Oseng Oseng Tempe (Fried spiced tempeh) had been on my list to try for ages which is from World Vegetarian Classics by Celia Brooks Brown.

This has been one of my favourite cookbooks for years and definitely the most utilised non-vegan cookbook on my shelf these days. Celia's recipes have rarely left me disappointed, the photography is gorgeous and it covers food from so many countries. Up until now I had only made one of the Indonesian recipes which was a fantastic rendang curry using jackfruit during MoFo last year which still remains as my favourite way to eat jackfruit.

Oseng Oseng Tempeh is a simple dish of thinly sliced tempeh strips shallow fried in oil with shallots and is served with a delicious spicy mixture of cayenne pepper, soy sauce, lime juice, sugar and tomato paste. After the slices were fried there was none of that weird taste I'm not fond of and the young man who is an even bigger tempeh sceptic than me also gave it the thumbs up! I served this with Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice) which was also from World Vegetarian Classics as it's such a typical Indonesian dish and it seemed like a perfect partner for the tempeh. I'm pretty fussy when it comes to this sort of thing and this recipe needed a bit more spice for my liking so I'll probably tweak it a little next time. An interesting note in the cookbook states how it is best to use long grain rice that has been cooked 2-3 hours in advance for Nasi Goreng, fresh rice is no good neither are leftovers that have been sitting in the fridge overnight.

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Did you know?

Most people are aware that there are several volcanoes spread across the islands of Indonesia but how many of you have heard of Mount Kelimutu? It is a unique volcano which contains 3 summit crater lakes that are coloured blue, green and red.

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

Perfect pizza

On weeknights I tend to cook relatively healthy meals most of the time which means I don't mind having a splurge on something a little less healthy on the weekends. Pizza and calzones are examples of the more indulgent meals that we enjoy on these occasions. Last weekend I had a vague plan to make pizza and wanted to use up some beetroots so I made another batch of beetroot pepperoni on Friday night.
 

The following day I noticed our freezer was half full of mock meat from a shopping expedition to Vincent Vegetarian Food over six months ago and realised that I had never tried any of these mock meat products on pizza before. A further scrummage in the fridge revealed some other interesting leftovers I'd forgotten that had potential pizza toppings written all over them - tofu bacon and tempeh burgers. The original plan of a beetroot pepperoni pizza was transforming into a vegan meat lovers pizza before I knew it which sounded even more interesting!

After layering the pizza base with tomato paste, chopped onions and garlic, on went the mushrooms, beetroot pepperoni and tofu bacon. Next up was the "chicken" mock meat, chopped up tempeh burgers, a drizzle of BBQ sauce, followed by a layer of cheezly. This was the tastiest and most delicious vegan pizza that I've made and we all enjoyed it so much. Even though it didn't have the healthiest toppings, it's not a combination I can see happening around here again unless of course I'm graced with the same leftover ingredients at the same time.

A different week in the kitchen

It certainly has been a different week in my kitchen - not a chilli in sight! I wanted to write about this recent period as my cooking has felt entirely different to what is usually on the menu. The man had minor surgery last week (nothing serious) and has needed to eat blander food than usual during his recovery. I usually sway towards spicy meals and probably cook them about 50% of the time so I took this as a perfect opportunity to broaden my horizons a little.

Last weekend I made pierogis which was fun to do but very time consuming. I prepared the dough, a potato-fried onion-dill filling, a sauerkraut-mushroom filling and fried onions for topping ahead of time which was rather simple to do. When it came to putting these little dumplings together, it felt like it took forever and even that was with the aid of a pasta machine to roll out the dough.

I had a few issues with getting the thickness right and initially made the dough too thin which meant that it wasn't robust enough to contain the filling. Another issue I ran into was overstuffing the dumplings which is something I have been guilty of doing in the past with Asian dumplings and really should know better by now. Once those issues were ironed out it was still a lengthy process to manually seal the dumplings and in hindsight I should have used my handy little dumpling press for this task.

The good news was that the pierogis tasted fantastic, the bad news is that I can't share the recipe as it is from Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook that will be released in October. We all preferred the potato and dill filling out of the two and I was especially pleased to find a recipe that made me appreciate this herb as it hasn't been one of my favourites in the past.

With a surplus of dill leftover I investigated other ways to make use of it. Beef stroganoff was something we used to enjoy years ago when we ate meat and then a mushroom version when we were vegetarian. I've been meaning to try a vegan recipe for a while using slices of tempeh and a sour cream replacement so I gave it a shot. I looked up a few different recipes from my cookbooks to get some inspiration but nothing was exactly what I was looking for so I ended up creating my own version inspired from about 3 recipes. I was very happy with the flavour of this meal and the man adored this so I'll have to make it again. I'm going to hold off posting a recipe for now as the consistency of the sauce was too thick and the way I prepared the tempeh needs a little tweaking so stay tuned for this one.

Tonight was the man's birthday and I made him a vegan spanakopita which incorporated baked almond feta which was posted by Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe recently. Johanna mentioned in her post that the cheeze needed more oomph and even with a bit of extra salt, it still wasn't tasty enough. The texture was great as it was creamy and a bit crumbly so I'll be revisiting the feta in the future. The spanakopita was pretty good although a little lacking in salt so once again I'll be tweaking this recipe further before posting my version. 

I'm so used to writing up a post with the objective of sharing a recipe so it feels strange to leave you without one this time around. In recent times I've been cooking up way more than I have had time to write about so at least it feels good to share some of my photos and experiences of the previous week. And even though I'm beginning to crave a spicy meal, it has been anything but a bland week of eating.

Tempeh Lasagne

Tempeh, you either love it or hate it! For me, it's the latter the majority of the time but I'm starting to learn ways that I can appreciate it. The first few times I tried tempeh at home, it was in chunks that had been marinated and then baked or fried. Even after following tips and steaming the tempeh prior to marinating, I still found that these chunks had an unpleasant taste that the marinade didn't disguise.

Cindy from Where's the Beef tentatively pointed me in the direction of her tempeh lasagne recipe recently as I haven't been totally satisfied with any of my previous vegan lasagne attempts to date. I was delighted to find that the tempeh in this recipe was cut into tiny mince-sized pieces and I was particularly interested in trying the cashew cream sauce.    

A few adjustments were made to bulk up the tempeh sauce portion as Cindy mentioned that the lasagne could have used more of this. Some eggplant was added to the tempeh sauce as there was some around that needed using up. I also made my own lasagne sheets using a mixture of semolina and wholemeal flour.

The lasagne turned out to be really delicious and full of flavour. My son is not that keen on tempeh either but he really liked this meal. The man adored it and everyone was keen to have a share in the leftovers. I found that a few bites here and there still had a hint of the tempeh taste I'm not fond of. This was totally my fault as I increased the amount of tempeh in the recipe but didn't change the amount of soy sauce and liquid smoke that the tempeh needs to soak up. That is the only thing I would change next time around and there will be a next time because this lasagne is now our favourite!

I would love to hear about more tasty tempeh recipes. Let me know if you have any favourite recipes that use little bits of tempeh.  


Tempeh Lasagne (Adapted from Where's the Beef)

Pasta dough (or skip this step and use pre-made sheets)

3/4 cup plain wholemeal flour
3/4 cup semolina flour
pinch of sea salt
1/3 - 1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons olive oil

Place the flours into a bowl with a pinch of salt, mix together thoroughly and make a well in the centre. Pour the water and olive oil into the well and work the flour into the water slowly until a slightly wet dough has formed. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and rest for 30 minutes.

Tempeh Sauce

3 tablespoons olive oil
300g tempeh, chopped into tiny pieces
2 tablespoons soy sauce (will add an extra tablespoon next time)
1 teaspoon liquid smoke (will add an extra 1/2 teaspoon next time)
250g eggplant, chopped into 2cm cubes
2 onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 x 400g tin diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
pepper, to taste

Heat a tablespoon of the olive oil in a large saucepan and cook the tempeh, stirring often, for about 10 minutes or until the pieces are browned. Add the soy sauce and liquid smoke and fry until the sauces have totally been absorbed by the tempeh. Remove from the saucepan and set aside.

Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the saucepan and cook the eggplant for about 10 minutes, stirring often, until the eggplant is soft and golden. Remove from the saucepan and set aside.

Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and cook the onion and garlic for 10 minutes, until the onions are very soft. Add the tinned tomatoes, eggplant, dried basil, chilli flakes, salt and pepper and simmer while you are making the cashew cream sauce. Stir the tempeh through the sauce just prior to assembling the lasagne.

Cashew Cream Sauce

1 cup cashews
1 litre oat milk
3 tablespoons dairy-free margarine
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper

Place the cashews in a blender with 1/2 cup of oat milk and process until it becomes a smooth paste.

Melt the dairy free margarine in a saucepan then stir the flour through. Cook, stirring for a few minutes until the mixture browns a little. Add the rest of the oat milk, slowly at first, whisking through the mixture to ensure that no lumps remain.

Bring the mix to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes thick. Add in the cashew cream/oat milk paste and nutritional yeast flakes then stir until combined. Simmer for another 5 minutes, turn off the heat and add the lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Lasagne Assembly

Use a pasta machine or rolling pin to roll out thin sheets of pasta. Cut the pasta to measure the width of your baking tray.

Spread enough cashew cream sauce to cover the bottom of your baking dish. Add a layer of lasagne sheets, then spread a 1/3 of the tempeh sauce followed by enough cashew cream to cover the sauce. Repeat the layering another 2 times, finishing with a layer of cashew cream. Bake in the oven at 200C for 30 minutes until the top layer has browned.

I'll be burgered if these taste like tempeh!

Tempeh has been troubling me for many months. Several experiments with tempeh have left me totally underwhelmed and extremely frustrated. Despite my efforts at pre-steaming, marinating, baking, stewing and pan-frying, tempeh has always left a funny taste in my mouth, literally speaking.

My first experiment was a tempeh bacon recipe to which the man, son and I had an unanimous agreement. It wasn't that bad but we all preferred tofu bacon. My next foray with tempeh was using a Viva Vegan recipe, tempeh asado. The tempeh was pre-steamed to remove the bitter taste, marinated in lime juice and spices and then pan-fried. The only thing that made me happy that night was the delicious gallo pinto (Costa Rican refried rice and beans) that was served with the unappetising tempeh. Tempeh asado was the first recipe from Viva Vegan to get a big thumbs down from me.

A smoky tempeh, white beans and greens stew from Appetite for Reduction was a slight improvement on my last tempeh trial although I did ensure that the amount of beans and greens on my plate was significantly greater than the tempeh pieces. Baked marinated tempeh was my next attempt which was another miserable fail. At this stage, the man was the only one interested in tempeh but I felt like I needed to persevere. Surely, there must be a way that I could enjoy it!

The tempeh experiments were given a rest for a couple of months until I recently discovered a packet of marinated tempeh hiding in the back of the fridge which was almost due to expire. I thought about how to use the tempeh and decided on burgers as they are usually a winner and were something that I hadn't tried yet. A quick search let me to Vegan Dad who had a tempeh burger recipe that sounded promising as it was full of an abundance of herbs and spices plus none of his recipes had let me down so far.

My son made a face when I told him we were having tempeh burgers for dinner. Like me, he hadn't been a fan up to that point. I tried to keep his interest up by stressing that I had high hope for these burgers and that we needed to keep an open mind. One bite was all that it took to win us both over! The burgers were delicious, so many wonderful herbs and spices could be detected (they were probably over flavoured due to using pre-marinated tempeh but it worked for us!) and there was no disgusting taste at all this time around.  

Although I have finally had success with a tempeh recipe, I'm still no convert and would choose tofu over tempeh any day of the week. I would like to keep trying tempeh recipes in the hope that it will grow on me eventually. So I wanted to ask bloggers and readers their thoughts about tempeh.

What's your favorite tempeh recipe? Was it love at first bite or did it take some time for you to embrace tempeh?


Tempeh burgers (Adapted from Vegan Dad)

300g packet marinated tempeh, grated
1/2 generous cup breadcrumbs
1/3 generous cup gluten flour
2 teaspoons ground fennel seed
1 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon BBQ sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
1/2 teaspoon massell gravy powder
2-4 tablespoons water (I used about 2.5)

Place the grated tempeh, breadcrumbs, gluten flour, ground fennel seed, sage, thyme, oregano, parsley, garlic and onion powder in a large bowl and mix well. Add the tamari, BBQ sauce, ketchup and enough water to make a pliable dough. Knead in the bowl for a few minutes until the ingredients are well combined.

Divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball then flatten into a thin burger. Spray a frying pan with olive oil spray and cook for about 5 minutes on each side until lightly browned.

Portobello Feijoada (Brazilian black bean stew)

OK, this may not be the most attractive meal (plus the photo is really crappy and doesn't do it justice) but what it lacks in appearance is definitely made up in flavour. 

It seems that a month doesn't pass by without me posting something from Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero. My love for chorizo sausages has been declared several times, Cindy and Michael gave me inspiration to try the delicious tofu chicharrones as well as gallo pinto (a rice and beans dish from Costa Rica) and cilantro-lime rice has become my staple rice side to serve with these wonderful Latin American meals. Prior to my possession of this wonderful tome I had almost no idea about food south of the Mexican border. Viva Vegan has given me the opportunity to experiment with different food from countries like Costa Rica, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina and Brazil as well as expanding on my Mexican repertoire.

Portobello Feijoada aka. Brazilian black bean stew with portobellos had been on my list to try for some time. It's one of the few recipes in the book that uses TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein), and as I am trying to use up a bag that is nearing expiry it was the perfect time to give it a try. Like quite a few other recipes in Viva Vegan it requires a bit of forward planning. Dried black beans need to be soaked for at least 8 hours and then cooked for 1.5 to 2 hours depending on the age of your beans. After this prep is out of the way, the rest of the meal comes together pretty easily. 

The feijoada turned out to be another success! It's a big hearty filling meal that is chock full of protein but despite this everyone managed to thoroughly clean their plates. I love black beans and find that cooking them yourself gives them a superior taste to the tinned variety and for recipes like this, the bean cooking liquid is used for a even greater depth of flavour. Terry suggested serving this with Brazilian Braised Kale and Savoury Orange Rice. I have made both of these before however none of us really liked the orange rice and I didn't have any kale on hand this time around. So I fried up some shredded brussel sprouts with some garlic and smoked paprika for our greens and cooked my favourite cilantro-lime rice. 

My only regret was that I halved the recipe. When I recently made Drunken Beans with Chorizo there was so much left over and I was the only one who could handle the spiciness. I can't recall exactly how many times I had these left-overs for lunch but it was enough that I was glad to see the end of it. So I erred on the side of caution this time, just in case we didn't like it! Unfortunately, it wasn't the case this time and I regretfully handed over the few remnants to the man for his lunch the next day. His feedback was that it tasted even better than the night before which I didn't really want to hear. At least I know for next time! 

Portobello Feijoada (Adapted from Viva Vegan)

1 cup dried black beans
1 bay leaf

1/2 cup TVP granules (recipe uses TVP chunks which I didn't have)

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small onions, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons red wine (beer or vegetable stock can also be used)
4 large portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 red chilli, finely diced
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 cup vegetable stock
salt and pepper 

Place the black beans in a large bowl, cover with water and allow to soak for at least 8 hours. Drain the beans, then rinse well and place in a medium saucepan with 2 1/2 cups of water and a bay leaf. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 1 1/2 - 2 hours until the beans have softened.

Place the TVP in a small bowl and add boiling water. After 15 minutes, drain off the excess water.

When the beans are almost ready, heat the olive oil in a large pot and cook the garlic for about 30 seconds until it sizzles. Add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes until softened and translucent.  Add the wine, beer or vegetable stock, increase the heat to a simmer and stir to deglaze the pot. Mix in the mushrooms, chilli, smoked paprika, cumin, thyme and cook for 5-10 minutes until the mushrooms have softened. 

If you own an immersion blender (which I don't), remove a cup of black beans and bean broth from the bean cooking pot and puree. Alternatively, use a potato masher to break up as many of the beans in the pot as you prefer (I kept them quite chunky). Add all of the beans, bean cooking liquid, vegetable stock and TVP to the mushroom pot, bring to a rapid simmer and partially cover, stirring occasionally. Cook for 30 minutes and then season with salt and pepper.

Remove from the heat and allow to sit for 15 minutes for the flavours to develop.