Tempeh "marmalade" knockoff

I know!!! I've been a very bad blogger... not blogging in what seems like FOREVER. I only did one post in March, how sad. :( And I apologize, because I'm not entirely sure just how much blogging I'll do this year, with my wedding only 6 months away now. The wedding plans are coming along fine, it's the other daunting tasks (like going through all my crap to get rid of stuff so I can move from my LARGE house into my fiance's SMALL house) that are making my head spin. O_o Thankfully, it's warming up in my neck of the woods and the spring weather has cheered me up a bit.

Anyhoo, you don't come here to read me vent, so I'll get on with the food that I'm actually really excited to post, discuss and recommend! As you may have noticed, this week VeganYumYum posted this mouth-watering recipe for "Marmalade Tofu with Kale and Lemon Pearl Couscous." It sounded divine and looked gorgeous! I forwarded the link to my fiance, with a note saying "This looks awesome, we'll have to try it soon." Today, I found myself needing to cook some tempeh before it expired. I love tempeh, but I'm still learning how to cook with it in recipes. Too lazy to hop on the Net and spend time searching for a tempeh recipe to try, my brain called up the marmalade dish, wondering what it would taste like with tempeh instead of tofu. I went to VeganYumYum and ogled the ingredients again... I didn't have marmalade, pearl couscous or almonds, but I had peach preserves, plain whole wheat couscous and extra mushrooms I needed to use. So I whipped up the marinade as listed on VeganYumYum sans the chili flakes, using peach preserves instead of marmalade... and I just stir-fried some kale with a little oil and green onion until it softened, then added in some mushrooms and garlic to the stir-fry. I took some short cuts and made changes, but they worked in a pinch and my dinner tonight was delicious! Definitely a thumbs up! The marmalade glaze was awesome.

I still want to make the correct "Marmalade Tofu with Kale and Lemon Pearl Couscous" recipe soon, but it's nice to know that the basics of his recipe are versatile enough to accommodate substitutions according to what you may have in your cupboard. So, thanks VeganYumYum! :)

Tempeh Tuesday #4 - Vegetarian Tempeh Cups

It's now Thursday, but here's my delayed tempeh dish for the week! This is an omni recipe I modified in a pinch for Tempeh Tuesday. The original recipe called for ground sausage, cheese and ranch dressing. I used Isa's wonderful tempeh sausage crumbles, vegan cheese slices and Annie's Naturals Papaya Poppy Seed Dressing (cuz it's my all-time fav dressing!). Also added some chopped tomatoes... because I love tomatoes!

My biggest boo-boo is that I didn't read the ingredient label for the Nasoya won ton wrappers; they're not vegan since they contain eggs. I've been trying to eat more vegan lately, so I was disappointed that I didn't read the label closely in the store. Can won ton wrappers be vegan? Can anyone share a vegan brand or recipe for the wrappers?

Overall, I thought this was a neat idea for vegetarian finger food. Really, almost anything could be stuffed in the won ton wrappers... lots of possibilities for fillings! If I ever made these again, I'd skip the vegan cheese; it didn't melt and the whole recipe would've tasted more "fresh" without it.

Vegetarian Tempeh Cups - Makes 12 "cups"

Isa's Tempeh Sausage Crumbles
1 pkg. won ton wrappers
2 slices vegan cheese, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 c. salad dressing (I used Annie's Naturals Papaya Poppy Seed)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the tempeh recipe while oven is preheating. Insert the won ton wrappers into the individual cavities of a muffin tin. Bake the won ton wrappers in the preheated oven for 5 minutes. Allow wrappers to cool when done. In the meantime, continue cooking the tempeh crumbles. When the tempeh is done, combine tempeh, cheese, tomato and dressing. Spoon into cooled won ton wrappers and bake for 10-15 minutes.

I personally didn't use all of the tempeh crumbles for the dozen cups... but it would depend on how much you fill up the cups. I didn't want to overload them and have stuff falling out all over when I took a bite. ;)

Tempeh Tuesday #3 - Smoky Breakfast Tempeh

Ok, so I didn't have this for breakfast.

The fact is, when I saw it over at Pamela Cooks, I had to have it right at that moment. All the ingredients were in my cupboard already, so it was a no-brainer what I was having for dinner.

This was delicious. I added in a touch of peanut butter and pomegranate molasses, just because. The only thing I would do different next time is make more sauce. Mine seemed to cook off fast and it would've been nice to have some extra.

As I was chowing down, I realized that I'm really becoming a tempeh fan! I find myself craving the taste of it. I may have to add in a Tempeh Thursday, so I have an excuse for devouring tempeh twice a week. LOL

Tempeh Tuesday #2 - Blackened Tempeh

I couldn't disappoint y'all by skipping Tempeh Tuesday for a second week in a row... so last night I made this blackened tempeh inspired by this post on Eat Air - A Vegan Food Log.

I began by simmering a package of tempeh--cut into six squares--in water on med-high heat, flipping the tempeh occasionally. While the tempeh was simmering, I mixed the marinade (minus the hijiki) mentioned in the Eat Air post. I was short on time, so once the water had almost disappeared from the pan, I added the soy sauce marinade, turned the heat to low and let it cook, again occasionally flipping the tempeh to make sure it was all coated and cooking well. While the tempeh was cooking in the marinade, I mixed together the spices (omitting the salt and cayenne). Once I felt the tempeh had cooked sufficiently, I moved the tempeh pieces onto a plate, where I sprinkled them with the spices and transfered them to a new pan of peanut oil (spice side down) to begin frying. In the other pan, which still had some soy sauce marinade left in it, I placed some frozen veggies and added a little bit of water to cook the veggies. Before flipping the tempeh, I sprinkled spice on the other side to coat. I continued to sprinkle the tempeh with the spices prior to flipping the tempeh each time. I added the remaining spice to the veggie pan. Voila! This was a very easy way to prepare tempeh. AND, very tasty too. I really enjoyed it. Will be cooking this again! Two thumbs up!

For dessert, I couldn't resist trying the Veganlicious Hot Chocolate of Doom! that I spied over at Vegan. Chicks. Rock. This hot chocolate recipe was awesome! :) Just a word of note: vanilla extract is flammable so use caution if pouring it into your pot while on an open flame. Ask me how I know!!! O_o

Tempeh Tuesday #1

I'm back from vacation. As promised, I'll post about my trip but I'll need an extra day or two to ready the photos and write it up.

In the meantime, I'm going to post my lazy cooking habits since coming back home. LOL. Sometimes it's difficult enough coming back from a trip and getting back into the groove of the reality we call everyday life, without having to worry about cooking elaborate meals. So, my theme this week is EASY. I'm trying to use ingredients I already have in the cupboard and just keep things simple.

I had three packages of tempeh in my fridge because I'm trying to motivate myself to cook this soy-based food more often. I decided to make the tempeh sausage crumbles from Vegan with a Vengeance. I love this recipe soooooo much. The crumbles are so good. Much much tastier than any similar product that can be purchased pre-made in a store, and they're really not that difficult to make. So, I prepared the tempeh as directed in Isa's book. I also made pasta: Meijer Organics whole-wheat cappenilli, which I coated with a bit of olive oil when it was done. I opened a can of diced tomatoes that was pre-mixed with olive oil and garlic and, with a slotted spoon, scooped out some tomatoes (leaving most of the juice) as a topping to the tempeh and cappenilli. Simple yet tasty. :)

I did save the remaining tomatoes and all the leftover juice... I have plans for those later this week. ;)

I titled this post "Tempeh Tuesday" because I'd like to make Tuesday dinners my tempeh night, in an effort to try more tempeh recipes and learn to cook it better. (Did I ever mention I once tried to steam tempeh in the microwave and it came out as a hard, black block of yuck?) If you have a really great tempeh recipe, I'm all ears. I'd love some ideas from my blog visitors if you have any recipes to share. Please send them to: veggiecookster [at] gmail [dot] com. If I cook up your recipe, I'll give you credit and link back to your blog, so be sure to include the URL in your e-mail. :)

BBQ Tempeh... Fried Tofu and Fries

I'm playing catch-up here with this post. Although I haven't been blogging much the past week, I have been taking pics of things to share with everyone when I do have the chance to sit down and write... like tonight. ;)

These meals are from a couple of weekends ago. My parents had my fiance and I over for dinner to celebrate our engagement. Everyone else had steaks... I had BBQ tempeh! I made the delicious BBQ sauce found in Vegan with a Vengeance because it is truly divine in my opinion. I thought the tempeh was too dry as pictured, so I poured some of the extra BBQ sauce over the tempeh after the photo was taken.

Because there was so much BBQ sauce left over--and I couldn't possibly waste sauce that good--the following day for lunch, my honey and I had fried tofu chunks with homemade fries... with the BBQ sauce for dipping! I used this recipe from vegweb.com to bread the tofu before frying it up. Nothing fancy but quite tasty. It hit the spot as a quick lunch that day. :)

Vegan Biscuits and Gravy

This... I've been waiting for this dish ever since I went vegetarian about 7 years ago. Biscuits and gravy was one of the few meat dishes I truly missed consuming. Don't ask me why. For the first 20-some odd years of my life, biscuits and gravy never even came close to touching my lips. Then, a steady boyfriend of mine--who had a country flair--introduced me to Cracker Barrel and biscuits and gravy. It became a treat, something I only had when we went out to breakfast. It's definitely in the comfort food category. Maybe that's why I missed it so much.

I mentioned briefly a while back that my sis gave me Vegan with a Vengeance for my birthday in February. I can't believe it took me so long to try one of the recipes. Oh, I eyed them all many times over the last few months as I flipped through the pages. They all looked so scrumptious. But I had heard this book contained a vegan biscuits and 'sausage' gravy recipe--aptly titled "Baking Powder Biscuits and White Bean Tempeh Sausage Gravy"--and that's what I had been longing for.

Oh. My. Gawd. This recipe truly is to die for.

The biscuits were divine. The tempeh 'sausage' crumbles were awesome. Put them together... perfection. I'm not exaggerating. Even though I believe I made a boo-boo in the recipe, this dish still completely made my weekend after cookin' it up Saturday morning (especially since I had enough leftovers to repeat this heavenly breakfast on Sunday morning, LOL).

The only thing I'm going to do different next time I make this, is I'm going to add only some of the crumbles to the gravy. The recipe doesn't really say how much crumbles to use. In my haste, I mixed the pureed bean mixture in the entire pan of crumbles, which quickly ate it up. Thankfully, I had another can of white beans and I made another batch of the bean mixture, but it was still very thick, even after trying to dilute it with veggie stock. Therefore, I think most people only put in some of the crumbles, not all of 'em. Which makes sense because then you can have some crumbles leftover to mix in with your favorite spaghetti sauce or something.

I should also mention that this was my first time eating tempeh. I had been wanting to try it for so long but never knew what kind of recipe to make. This turned out to be the perfect recipe for losing my tempeh virginity!!!! ;-p

If you're a biscuits and gravy fan... buy this book and try this recipe. Heck, even if you're not a biscuits and gravy fan, try it... this recipe is the sh*t!

Preview: I made another VwaV recipe tonight for dinner... but I'm going to wait to rave about that one until tomorrow's post. ;)