Nope, it wasn’t Meatless Monday.
In fact, it was Friday night, and my date made me a meatless meal.
John and I decided to take a break from both meat and alcohol for a couple of weeks. (Gasp!) Month-long hiatuses from both things make up items on my Life List, but let’s just start with 14 days and see where we land, shall we?
As much as I love a few slices of bacon wrapped around, well, anything, it’s the wine that I miss. A good glass of wine is such a pleasure, and accents just about every meal. Our home is full of incredible bottles, too. Sigh… Before I start writing break-up song lyrics here, let’s talk about dinner.
Coming up with interesting vegetarian meals is challenging for a carnivore like me. It’s not the same just to remove the meat from my normal recipes. John’s familiar with other protein sources like tempeh and tofu, so until I gather some great veggie recipes, I figured that these were good substitutes to try.
I didn’t even know what tempeh was. I DID know that I like to tease John about it in a kind, pseudo-hippie voice, man. But he came home with some last night. This was an opportunity to learn something new. And hey, I might like it.
From what I gather, tofu is made from soy milk, while tempeh is made with the soybean. Both are super high in protein and the nutritional benefits are huge. John’s made me his scrumptious soba noodle dish many times, often with tofu, and thought tempeh would also work well. I asked him to school me on his methods- another Life List goal (#6)!
As the first thunderstorms of the season gathered outside, I checked out my new soybean friend, tempeh. It was firm and textured- not at all like tofu. You could see the beans as John cut it into slices that would be seasoned and pan-fried.
As the tempeh cooked, the kitchen smelled pleasantly like popcorn. Indeed, a sneak taste revealed a tasty, nutty flavor. I could tell that tempeh is one of those “blank slate” foods that can be dressed up in various flavors or seasonings.
I crunched away as John started in on the tofu.
Tofu has more moisture to it, so it pops and sizzles in the hot oil a lot more. It cooks longer than you think it should. It takes awhile to get a crispy crust (my preference) and still the texture remains slightly chewy. Another blank slate, a lot of the flavor comes from how it’s seasoned.
As usual, John’s veggies for this dish were a rainbow on the counter. Asian oils and sauces, stir-fried veggies, and our soy proteins combined to make a spicy bowl of color.
Isn’t it lovely? And it was scrumptious. I didn’t miss the meat at all.
I did, however, miss the wine. Good thing I love milk.
Got a yummy recipe with tofu or tempeh? How about new vegetarian meals for me? Share away!
the usual bliss 
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That looks delicious!
It really was!
Yummmm why would I read this at 10:30 at night when I’m starving!! It looks deliciousss. I love tempeh!
If you have any yummy recipes with it, let me know… 🙂
I make a shepherds pie that I got from Veganomicon, that’s realllly good, but I can’t seem to find the recipe online anywhere….basically you can just crumble the tempeh up and use it as you would the meat. I also make tasty crumbled sausage and mix it in with a tofu scramble. For some reason those are the only two things I can think of right now!
yum! do you season the tempeh at all?
You crumble the tempeh in some water and soy sauce or tamari, and boil for 10 minutes and then drain, and add with some onions, garlic, and mushrooms (I don’t because I don’t like mushrooms) then add corn, peas and carrots (I usually use the frozen bag of mixed veggies since it comes with all that anyway) and thyme and coriander and salt and pepper, then mix some veggie broth and flour together and add to make it thick and creamy, then add parsley and you make your mashed potatoes and pile them on and bake it for like 20 minutes at 375…. It’s reallyyyy good! I kind of want it now after writing this, even if it IS almost 90 degrees out! Lol
It actually looks really really good. I just got a book from Diaryofamadcrafter for my birthday called vegan cooking for carnivores by roberto martin (Ellen’s chef) it has a log of great recipes in it!
Oh, send me any good ones you try!
I will 🙂 I can take a pic of some recipes for ya and email if you want.
I used tofu instead of lasagna noodles slicing very thin and then doing just mozzarella and fresh mushrooms with sauce… my daughters never knew they were eating tofu…
I love sneaky healthy meals!
due to mono she was on a low fat, low sodium, low cholesterol, no red meat, no sea food diet…and with my no corn products thrown in that really narrows the market on food lol she had the mono for two years..secondary to having tonsils and adenoids removed…mono disappeared …
The veggie, tofu, tempeh dish looks yummylicious (yes, I made up that word!). We had baked tofu last night as well. We usually slice it up, place it in a glass bake dish, pour some soy sauce (tofu with soy sauce, very imaginative, I know), olive oil, pepper flakes and bake until it turns brownish….YUM!
I hadn’t thought of baking it. Great idea!
It is the way Koreans do it. We both love Korean food and after various trips to Korea Town, we started making a number of our favorite dishes at home. This was one of them and we make it at least once a week with sprouted tofu.
I’m still learning about the different textures of tofu that are available, too. So much to learn! 🙂