Marinated Tempeh Recipe: 3rd Time Really Was The Charm
Written by vegoftheweek on April 18th, 2008 in Marinades, tempeh.
Inside The Oven: Tempeh Recipe, Plus Sexy Lettuce Ladies Stop Traffic, Spiderman No Longer Vegetarian, Vegetarian Biscuits and Gravy Recipe in Week Links.
My early experiences with tempeh were less than rewarding. I had been frying tofu sprinkled with spices in a tablespoon of oil in a skillet for some time and wanted to add another source of protein in my diet. I thought this could be accomplished with tempeh as well. Plain tempeh, that is, with no spices, grains, or flavors. After tasting the results, I vowed never to eat tempeh again.
A couple of years later, I found a recipe that required breaking up the tempeh patty into pieces, mashing it, mixing it with vegetables and spices, then forming a patty again and baking it. Deconstruct, reconstruct. Tear down. Build Up. The directions themselves should have served as a warning. Unless you’re an engineer, there should be nothing about that recipe that entices you. But I tried. And failed.
Finally, a friend and I were going through a phase where we were eating out almost every week and in the process of trying to find a restaurant I considered suitable, (she’s not vegetarian) I would read the menus online before even calling to check about particular ingredients. Although we never made it to this restaurant, I found a marinated tempeh dish whose combination of spices and oil in the marinade sounded good and I decided to experiment at home to give the good old soy cakes another try. More on tempeh, my experience and the marinated tempeh recipe after the break…Tempeh is made by putting whole soybeans through a fermentation process that will eventually bind them together in a cake-like or patty form. When you’ve found the right way to prepare it, tempeh has a hearty, nutty texture and can take on flavors much like tofu, but has higher protein content. It can be found packaged plain or mixed with other grains such as barley and millet, as is the case with White Wave’s 5 Grain Tempeh. Besides the original soy flavor, Lightlife brand of tempeh also comes in 3 grain, wild rice, garden veggie, and flax flavors. After slicing the tempeh and tossing it in the marinade, I tasted a square and almost didn’t bother letting it marinade, I found it so delicious. I stuffed these into a pita sandwich with other vegetables.
Marinated Tempeh
Ingredients:
- 1 8 oz. package tempeh, such as Lightlife or White Wave
- 4 teaspoons soy sauce
- 4 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic granules
- 1/4 teaspoon yellow mustard powder or 1 teaspoon Dijon, brown, or yellow mustard
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon onion granules
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions:
- Take an 8 oz. package of tempeh and cut into cubes of 1 inch
- Combine marinade ingredients in a covered bowl large enough to toss tempeh
- Place tempeh in bowl, cover, toss and distribute the marinade throughout the cubes
- Refrigerate for several hours or overnight if you choose
- At this point you can either: 1. Enjoy tempeh cubes cold or
- 2. Lightly fry in skillet with 1 tablespoon of oil
-
If frying in skillet, fry over medium heat until tempeh is brown and crisp, on average 8-10 minutes
Serving suggestions: Stuff in pita with fresh vegetables, make tempeh “kabobs.”
Week Links:
-
Spiderman Battling Villains With Steak Again…Dafoe No Longer A Vegetarian Thanks To Wife (contactmusic)
-
Vegetarian Biscuits and Gravy Recipe (Huntsville Times)
August 4th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
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