Steak and Slaw

Colorful red cabbage slaw with well marinated tempeh steaks. Just some pretty photos today because I've covered slaw and steak before: Here and here, respectively.

A different angle:

Sliced almonds, chopped pecans, red cabbage, kale, carrot, onion, red wine vinaigrette.

Pesto Pasta with Tempeh Bacon

I was pretty tired having just spent the weekend with some of my favorite people at a wedding in the bay area (!!!) and when I finally got home I just wanted a fast meal. I was pleasantly surprised with this meal and how quick it was to create with so little ingredients!

Tempeh Cabbage Wraps

 Crumbled tempeh is a very desireable food for me these days. I made some Tempeh Tuna Salad the other day and liked it so much that I marched right back to the store for some more tempeh to crumble. Cabbage wraps sounded easy but also fancy. Two of my favorite concepts.

omg, Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

So simple. Sweet and salty with a kick from raw ginger.

~3 tbsp Soy Sauce*
~1 tbps White wine vinegar*
1 tsp sugar
a splash of red wine
freshly grated ginger and garlic to taste
*very approximate; as with most of my cooking, I didn't pay attention to how much of anything I added. If it doesn't taste awesome, just play around with it!

Poured over thinly sliced tempeh and marinated for a couple minutes. Then cooked up in a pan until crispy.

Kale. Onion. Cucumber (briefly marinated in white wine vinegar). Teriyaki tempeh. (The focaccia was a regrettable addition and I didn't finish it.)

Seitan: the wheat meat

(You might want to sit down for this post, it's a long one)

Seitan is one of a handful of mock-meats that can be interchanged easily for meat in a recipe. I find it desirable because of its density and texture, which sets it apart from tofu which can be softer and more fragile. Seitan is just wheat gluten that is seasoned and cooked. It's made by washing away the starch of wheat flour with water until just the insoluble, elastic gluten is left. It is often hidden as a thickener in your food and you don't even think of it (I'm looking at you ice cream!).

In my world, Seitan takes a back seat to more accessible, less expensive, and more healthful meat substitutes like tempeh and tofu. Even the biggest grocery chains carry tofu readily. And I hesitate using the word "substitutes" because I am not looking for seitan to replace the void of a piece of meat. I appreciate seitan, for what it is, how it tastes and how it can be used in different recipes; not because of how closely it comes to beef.

Tempeh Steak and Potatoes

So last night was a great meal: Tempeh steak, Smashed Potatoes and Asparagus.

Marinade for tempeh:
-1/4 C Tamari Soy Sauce
-1/4 C Rice Vinegar
-1/8 C Water
-1 Tbsp Honey (heaping)
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1/2 inch piece of ginger, minced
-some olive oil
~1/8 tsp of each: ground pepper, chili flakes, cinnamon, ground clove


I cut an 8oz piece of tempeh into thin wedges (about 8-10 pieces) and lightly scored them with a knife. And let them marinade for 2-3 hours, flipping a couple of times. Then cooked them in a non-stick pan until crispy.

For the potatoes I loosely copied the "Crash Hot Potato" recipe from the VeganYumYum blog. I boiled some medium round yellow potatoes until soft. As an experiment in flavor, I used a veggie bouillon cube in the boiling water (it didn't end up making much of a difference). Once soft I put them on an olive-oiled baking sheet and did the "smashing" with the lid of a glass jar. Having a larger surface area to smash with helped keep the potatoes intact instead of crumbly. Spices aplenty (I bet any spice you love on potatoes will do great!) on the top of these some as some more olive oil and then into the oven at 350 for ~20 minutes or until the spuds get a cooked crispy look. When the potatoes were done I added some Earth Balance because it is delicious.


I roasted the Asparagus with olive oil, lemon, and course grain sea salt in the oven at the same time as the potatoes. 10 minutes was all they really needed and I think mine were a little overdone. Still tasty, though.

Most surprising to me was how well the potato complimented the tempeh! I will definitely make this again.

Tempeh Tacos

I found a new kind of tempeh that I have never seen before: Spicy Vegetable! It inspired me to make some, kinda spicey, but no less awesome Tempeh Tacos for dinner tonight.



Sauteed green bell pepper, onion and strips of tempeh. At the very end I threw in some kale so it could get softer. Uncooked kale can be a little hard to handle for me sometimes.

There were also black beans seasoned with garlic, ground pepper and red chili flakes.

All wrapped up in a corn tortilla and topped with jelepeños, Tapatío hot sauce, and fresh lime!

I'm actually still sniffling and wiping my runny nose. They were good and next time I'll not add the chili flakes... or so much hot sauce...

Oh, Tempeh Bacon, you're good

A friend recently mentioned having Tempeh Bacon for breakfast and it sounded so delicious that, obviously, I had to run out an make it. After review of a couple marinade recipes here is what I did:

4 Tbsp Tamari Soy Sauce (GF)
1 Tbsp Tapatío hot sauce
1.5 Tbsp Liquid hickory smoke
Garlic powder
Ground pepper

1 package Five Grain Tempeh sliced thinly (like bacon!)

I mixed the ingredients then marinated the sliced tempeh until most of the liquid was absorbed (let's say 20 minutes), then cooked them in a little olive oil on medium heat until they were brown and slightly crisp on both sides (let's say 3 minutes per side). If I felt like some of the slices weren't bacon-y enough, I poured a little extra marinade on them while they cooked.

Yesterday was a great day of food with both Vegan BLTs for lunch and a mixed veggie and bacon salad with homemade vinaigrette for dinner. Check out that BLT: avocado, lettuce, tomato, onion, and tempeh bacon on toasted bread.