balsamic basil glazed tempeh

last night's dinner was inspired by the need to make a dent in all those things in our cabinets. as i mentioned before, we're moving! to atlanta! in 7 weeks (not that i'm keeping track or anything)! and while i always try to be mindful of ingredients we already have and using them rather than buying bottles of new things it has now come to the point where it's more than that...it's no longer a little thought i keep in the back of my head, it's a challenge! and though i think it might be physically impossible to use up all of the oils and vinegars and beans and grains and god knows what else in the time we have left i'm going to do the best i can!

this moving business also means that we've been keeping very busy lately. gotta take advantage of our last weeks living out west which means lots of going out and weekend trips. and then there's the work that comes with moving plus regular work and certain nights require an easy, no fuss dinner. often on those nights i turn to my most favorite tempeh recipe, orange glazed tempeh from 101cookbooks. but this night i went a different route, with a different orange glazed tempeh in order to get that bottle of balsamic 1/4 cup closer to empty. and do something with the dried thai basil that has been neglected for so long. i found a recipe online a tweaked it a bit and decided to have an orange glazed tempeh showdown of sorts! so who won? the perfection that is 101cookbooks, duh. but that was to be expected, i mean, there's nothing to do to that recipe that would make it any better.

i would even say that the recipe i made is a different thing altogether. the balsamic and basil overpowered the orange so much that i wouldn't exactly call it orange glazed. it's balsamic basil tempeh, y'all!* and if it were to compete in that category i think it could be a contender. so, here i give you not-orange-glazed tempeh.

balsamic basil glazed tempeh
ingredients:
juice from 2 oranges (about 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
2 cloves fresh garlic, crushed
1/2 tablespoon dried thai basil

1 pack tempeh, sliced

place all ingredients (except tempeh) in a pan and heat. when it starts to boil add the tempeh slices and cook until the liquid has turned into a nice glaze, flipping the tempeh periodically.

*see, there are many ways in which to prepare my return to my southern roots.

-d

TCT soba bowl

this, like so many of my dishes, was created as a cleaning out the fridge dinner. my main ingredients to work with were tempeh, cabbage and tiny tomatoes which made me think it's almost at TLT....but since there's cabbage instead of L i'll call it a TCT soba bowl (yeah, i put it all on top of soba).

so, that's one T for marinated tempeh, C for cabbage slaw and the last T for teeny tiny tomatoes...maybe it should be called TC(TT)T. oh and also toasted pecans because...why not? yum! i really really loved this (for dinner and again for lunch today). the slaw was very simple with a hearty dose of lime juice giving the whole dish a nice tart kick. the tempeh and noodles got a bit of heat from hot sauce, and tomatoes, well, they're amazing right now and can do no wrong. plus some crunchy toasted pecan bits? delicious! i feel like i so rarely recreate these fridge cleaning dinners that i make but this is one that i would really love to make again.

here's how it went down (i apologize for the lack of measurements but you're a smart bunch, you can make it to your taste):
TCT soba bowl
ingredients:
for the marinade:
soy sauce
hot sauce
olive oil
cumin
coriander
crushed garlic cloves

mix together all the ingredients in a shallow dish. cut the tempeh into strips and marinate for as long as you've got (mine were probably in there for about 20 minutes).

while the tempeh is doing its thing make a super simple cabbage slaw:
i thinly sliced about half of a small head of cabbage and tossed with the juice of 2 limes, olive oil, (big) salt and pepper.

halve or quarter (depending on their size) a handful of tiny tomatoes and set aside.

back to the tempeh. cook with a little olive oil and an little marinade added to the pan until browned on both sides. remove from pan and cut into bite sized pieces.

cook the soba according to package instructions. mine cooked for six minutes (and i found that starting soba and the tempeh cooking at the same time worked out well).

when the noodles are done cooking drain and toss with some of the remaining marinade.

assemble bowls with soba on the bottom topped with cabbage slaw and tempeh and tomatoes.

add some chopped toasted pecans on top. enjoy!

-d

orzo with lima beans and tempeh

we had our first rainy day of the season. it was a downpour...all.day.long. one of the beauties of unemployment is that, in the occasion of a monsoon, it is (usually) not absolutely necessary to leave the house. my goal was to make dinner with things we had in so that i could stay nice and dry and enjoy the storm from the safety and dryness of the apartment. we were running low on fresh vegetables (does half an onion count?) but luckily there was half a bag of frozen lima beans in the freezer. we also just did a shopping at rainbow and stocked up on tempeh so that was in. here's what i decided on for the main meal components:

first things first i roasted the garlic.

then i made a marinade for the tempeh with the beer, a squeeze of lime, soy sauce, peanut oil, cumin, coriander and chili powder. let the tempeh sit in it for a bit then pan fry to get it nice and crunchy on the outside pouring in the marinade as it cooks to get a little glaze on the outside.

to put it all together i caramelized the onions then sauteed the limas with olive oil and salt and pepper. i chopped up the roasted garlic cloves and added them to the pan.

when the orzo was done cooking i tossed it all together and lo and behold it was quite yummy. and i stayed perfectly dry and got to stay in my loungy cashmere-like pants all day long.

-d

crispy tempeh tacos

i have a thing for tacos. i love them. and i'm always in the mood for them. kris likes them but, for some reason, does not want to eat them EVERY day. weird. so yesterday as i was on the fence about whether to meet him for drinks after work or go straight home and cook something for dinner he convinced me to go out simply by telling me he would buy me a taco for dinner if i went. that's all it took.

in the end i decided that i still wanted to cook dinner thus leaving leftovers to bring for lunch. kris, being the brilliant and taco accommodating guy that he is, suggested we make quick tacos at home. these were indeed super quick to prepare and even tastier than i predicted they would be. i didn't start off planning to write about this spur of the moment meal but after my first taco i decided they were really yummy and need to be shared. hence the quick half-eaten dinner photo above.

since it was a little late when we got home and we were trying to make this as quickly as possible, there was not one bit of measuring that went into this (but eyeballing it should work just fine). we ate these with an equally quick and simple red cabbage slaw.

crispy tempeh tacos
ingredients:
1 package tempeh
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
soy sauce
liquid smoke
hot sauce
cumin
olive oil
green leaf lettuce, thinly chopped
1/2 tomato, diced
1 avocado
crispy corn taco shells

turn oven to warm and put the taco shells in to heat while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

heat a splash of olive oil in a pan and add the garlic. cook a few minutes until fragrant. add the onion and tempeh. add a splash of soy sauce, a few drops of liquid smoke, a drizzle of hot sauce and a sprinkle of cumin. cook until the onions are soft and the tempeh is heated through.
serve in taco shells with lettuce, tomato and avocado.
-d

coconut crusted tempeh...

...with black beans and garlicky ginger spinach. that's what dinner was tonight. i knew we had a lot of little things in the fridge that need to be used but the ones that kept popping into my head were about half a can of coconut milk and shedded coconut - both leftover after making dulce sin leche cupcakes (from "vegan cupcakes take over the world" which are delicious by the way). this was my first time coconut crusting and i do think it was a success! i always get jealous of those coconut crusted shrimp options on menus. i added some chili powder to the coconut for a little extra flavor in there. i cooked the components in the following order and - amazingly! - everything seemed to finish around the same time.

for the beans
15 oz. can black beans
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
salt, pepper and cumin (a generous sprinkling of each)
3 bay leaves
lime zest*
olive oil

heat olive oil in a pan and cook garlic and onion until onion softens. add bell pepper and cook a minute more. add the salt, pepper and cumin and stir to mix them in. add the tomato and beans (juices and all!) and bay leaves. cook over medium heat until bean juices thicken and cook off a bit. meanwhile.....

for the spinach
1 bag baby spinach (or fresh spinach...i was feeling lazy and didn't feel like getting all the grit off fresh spinach)
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 inch fresh ginger finely chopped
peanut oil

heat a bit of peanut oil in a pan and add garlic and ginger. cook for a few minutes before adding spinach (in batches if necessary). cook until wilted. tempeh time!

for the tempeh**
8 oz. tempeh
coconut milk (half a can should do it)
unsweetened shredded coconut (3/4 - ish cup)
chili powder
peanut oil

cut the tempeh into 4 slices and steam for 10 minutes. ok...so really you should do this first while you're getting your bean things ready.

after steaming, cut each tempeh piece in half so you have 8 good sized slices. put coconut milk in a shallow bowl. in another shallow bowl mix together the coconut and chili powder. dip the tempeh first in the coconut milk and then in the coconut mixture.

cook in a pan with a thin coating of heated peanut oil until golden (a few minutes on each side)

*i added the lime zest to the beans near the end of their cooking time. i'd never done this before but thought it might be tasty. and it was. but i'm wondering if maybe it would have been better finely zested and added to the coconut-chili powder mixture. hmmmm.....
**you could definitely replace the tempeh with tofu, but i like the nuttiness of tempeh and think it was a nice combination with the coconut.

-d