Trying out Tempeh

I tend to get nervous about adventurous ingredients, mostly because I hate disappointing myself and AAM. Because we eat dinner together nightly, I have to consider his likes (most of my cooking) and dislikes (tofu, mushrooms, and dried fruits). I enjoy my time with him, and love our meals together. In fact, we are so similar that our friend groups basically merged into one happy family. This means that we spend lots of quality time together, and his time on paternity leave round two is no different. Someone close to me once said that she really enjoyed the quiet nights that her family and her husband were out, and I just couldn't understand it. One of the reasons I married AAM is that he is literally the only person I know who doesn't drive me crazy, I actually enjoy when we are 'stuck' together-- we laugh longer and harder. However, because of Serafina, we take shifts to go out with our friends. Tonight, he went out, so I realized it was an opportune moment to cook with tempeh. He saw me preparing dinner and said "Smells great, I am out!"

I first had tempeh in a sandwich at Busboys and Poets, my favorite place in the DC area to grab a sandwich and write a paper. I go so often I know the staff in the Arlington restaurant. They have a superb tempeh sandwich with veganaise, sprouts, roasted red peppers, and onions. I swap the sprouts for spinach, and it is the perfect sandwich.  For those who might be unfamiliar with it, tempeh is fermented soy and whole grains, which is served in a flat cake form. Originally from Indonesia, it is a wonderful food that is packed with protein and nutrients. It can also be sliced, fried or sauteed and can mimic a bacon texture. I hate saying meat substitute, so I would call it a meal substitute. It doesn't try to mimic meat, but replaces a meal you used to eat with meat. I can't make tempeh as delicious as Busboys, but I can try. Tonight I marinated it in BBQ sauce* for a salad, and I will slice it and saute it tomorrow for a Pita sandwich served with lettuce, mayonaise, cucumbers, and sauted onions and peppers.


*People sometimes give us wonderful foodstuffs like specialized BBQ sauce, sometimes I am not sure what to do with meat marinades, but tempeh and firm tofu are the perfect foods to try these sauces.

BBQ Tempeh Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1/2 package of whole grain tempeh
• 1 cup of BBQ sauce
• 1/2 cup of corn
• 1/2 cup of sliced carrots
• 1/2 cup of pinto beans
• 1/4 cup of chopped or shredded cheddar
• 2 tb pumpkin seeds
• 2 cups of mixed greens
• 1 tb honey
• 1 tb dijon mustard
• 1 lemon juiced
• Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Marinade the tempeh for an hour in your favorite BBQ sauce
2. Set the oven to 375, and bake the tempeh for 20 minutes
3. Meanwhile, mix the corn, carrots, pinto beans, cheddar and pumpkin seeds
4. Pour the corn bean mixture over your salad greens
5. Slice the tempeh and place on top
6. In a small bowl, whisk honey, mustard, lemon juice and salt/pepper. Pour over salad. 

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Lunch

tunafish (put in a cuisinart and blended with mayo, salt and pepper), mixed greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, pumpkin seeds, olive oil, salt and pepper......yummy.

Another Salad, and a yummy one!

This salad is super easy to assemble, and because of the flavors and ingredients, does not need dressing. In fact, by storing diverse ingredients to toss in salads, you can make this very fast. Usually, I use leftover sauted mushrooms from dinner in this salad, but if you want uncooked mushrooms are great, too.

Mo's Nicoise

• 1 cup of assorted Lettuce, the more variety in color the better!
• 1/3 cup of packaged Tuna (I prefer the kind in the packets not cans; less water)
• 1/4 cup of purple cabbage
• 1/3 cup of sauted mushrooms (Baby Portabellas are amazing this way)
• 5-6 Sugar Snap Peas
• 5 green olives (sliced is nice, but you can do this when you sit down to eat)
• 1 tb of chopped red onion
• 1 slice of goat cheese crumbled (I use the type in a roll; it is a superior texture and taste)
• Sprinkle pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds on top.

Toss ingredients together and Bon appetit!

Please, no chicken, bacon, cream dressing, or ham.

Going to restaurants, I often need to rearrange the salads. "I would like the BBQ Chicken Salad, please. But, can you remove the chicken, add more tomatoes, and put the dressing on the side?" Ugh, I sound like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. However, salads in restaurants do not contain enough vegetable ingredients, so when the meat is removed you usually only have lettuce and carrots. I knew it was bad last summer when the waitress at Cap City knew me just by my odd order. Last night, in an effort to recover from the gluttony of a vacation in Mexico, I made the following salad. Restaurants should follow suite.

The Right Restaurant Salad.

• 1 cup of edamame
• 2 slices of a purple cabbage chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup of arugula
• 1 cup of carrots shaved
• 1 cup of bean sprouts
• 1 cup of green onions chopped
• 1 red bell pepper sliced
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1 orange segmented
• 1 cup of rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup of lemon juice
• 1 tb sesame oil
• 2 tb soy sauce
• 2 tb of chopped fresh ginger
• 2 tp of honey

1. Mix edamame, cabbage, arugula, carrots, bean sprouts, green onions, red pepper and almonds. Plate the salad mixture, add orange pieces on top.
2. In a small bowl, whisk rice wine vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey and ginger.
3. Pour vinaigrette over salad.

This serves two, but if you chop up more ingredients, and put them in storage containers, you can have this for lunch the next day like I will . Creating a good salad is actually easy, if you make sure you chop the ingredients ahead of time. Assemble the dry ingredients in a Tupperware, and the wet ingredients, including dressing, in a Ziploc bag-- voila a healthy lunch. As someone who allows herself only 20 minutes to get ready at 6 in the morning for work, I can say there is no excuse for not packing yourself a healthy lunch.