Tempeh Thoughts

Here's a quick and easy recipe for tempeh! If you're not familiar with tempeh, it is a patty-like fermented pressed soy cake/block; there is a multi grain version as well (I like that one best). The texture is sort of similar to a really firm but crumble-able veggie burger, and the flavor is very plain when cooked by itself.

My favorite way to prepare it takes maybe 15 minutes tops, and is quite easy and delicious! Goes well with rice, salad, in a pita, in a wrap, or it's great eaten as is! The overall flavor of this recipe is red wine vinegary and salty. My parents and I love tempeh made this way, but my husband cannot stand the taste of tempeh cooked in any manner.

As with all my recipes, I rarely measure, so these are approximates. And of course you can leave things out and subsitute, etc.! I never make it exactly the same way twice. You could even do something really fun and add stewed tomatoes to this! Or crumble it up and add to spaghetti!

Cube the tempeh into 1/2" squares (I use half a package of the 3-grain tempeh).

For marinade - whisk together:

1/4 C red wine vinegar

a dash of shoyu sauce (or soy sauce if you don't have shoyu, but the latter is REALLY worth having around - it's much richer and flavorful, and not as sugary-tasting)

a tsp or two of sesame oil

a tsp or two of olive oil (or leave out for low fat version)

a few slices of fresh garlic

some pieces of chiles de arbol, or dried chipotle pepper powder - these have a nice rich flavor

dash (few drops) of ume plum vinegar (this has a lovely salty fruity flavor!)

**If you don't have all these ingredients, just the red wine vinegar, an oil and some garlic would be just fine!**

Marinate for 10 minutes in the pan you're going to cook in. Turn up the heat and cook until the marinade has evaporated! YUM! Let me know what you think :)