Tempt Me, Smoky Tempeh

Liquid smoke is the best-kept dirty little secret of vegetarian cooking.

No, vege-heads don't eat meat. And no, most of us don't even miss meat.

But if you flash that smoky, meat-hungry seasoning in front of my nostrils, my olfactory glands go wild. I start salivating. My eyes might even bug out. Let's just say that you'd better not be standing between me and that tiny bottle of liquid smoke.

Tonight, we indulged in the best-kept dirty little secret of vegetarian sammies: Smoked Tempeh Sandwiches with Sauerkraut and veggies. It's no secret that I'm a freak for vege-head sandwiches. Better yet, I'm darn close to passionate about tempeh (who would have thought a girl could be passionate about fermented soybeans?)

But when my daring husband added liquid smoke into the mix, it was obvious that I would enter a food coma within 8 minutes of taking my last bite.

Adam seeped our sliced tempeh in a smoky marinade all day. Then, we topped homemade bread with the tempeh, sauteed onions and peppers, sour kraut, and some chopped bread n' butter pickles. While tonight's dish was vegan-licious for sure, you could certainly add some Gorgonzola or Blue Cheese crumbles if your dairy-loving heart desires.

Let me tempt you with tempeh tonight...

Smoked Tempeh & Sauerkraut Sammies

(Marinade recipe from Veganomicon)

For best results, be sure to let you tempeh marinade for at least 90 minutes. As mentioned above, you can keep it vegan-licious, or add some cheese if you're craving the dairy :)

Marinade Ingredients:

• 8 oz. tempeh, sliced
• 3/4 cup veggie broth
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
• 2 TBSP liquid smoke
• 2 tsp. maple syrup
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced

Sandwich ingredients:

• Homemade bread or sandwich buns
• 1 bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 can of sauerkraut, drained
• optional: sweet pickles, finely chopped

Directions:

1) To prepare the marinade: Mix together marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Place tempeh slices in a shallow dish and pour marinade over the top. Allow tempeh to soak in the marinade for 1 - 2 hours, turning tempeh occasionally to make sure both sides get soaked.

2) Heat a dash of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place tempeh in the skillet in a single layer and pour half the marinade over top; saute until the bottom of the tempeh is lightly browned. Flip the tempeh and pour the remaining marinade over top. Cook until the liquid has evaporated and tempeh appears done (about 6 minutes per side). Remove tempeh from the skillet and set aside.

3) Using the same skillet (with the tempeh removed!), heat a dash of olive oil over medium heat. Add bell pepper, onions, and garlic and cook until nicely browned, about 7 - 8 minutes.

4) To assemble sandwiches: Pile your bread or bun high with tempeh, sauteed onions and peppers, sauerkraut, and pickles. Revel in the smoky goodness.

Warm Up

I could not warm up at work today.

Does anyone else ever suffer from the "I work in the Arctic" syndrome?

I sat on my hands. I held them under my armpits. I wrapped my jacket around my shoulders. Yes, my shoulders. I've officially convinced myself that I'm a senior citizen trapped in a 26 year old body.

One of the student workers in my office asked why my lips were blue.

Needless to say I day-dreamed all afternoon about the warm-fest I would create for myself when I arrived home. I'm currently wearing five shirts.

In addition to wearing five shirts, the other cure for the Arctic Syndrome is a warm bowl of soup. Ah, yes. Just what I needed to warm my bones and eliminate that case of the shivers.

Adam created an interesting Peanut Tempeh Soup this evening from Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen cookbook. While the recipe was delicious and super-filling, it tasted strikingly similar to the Moosewood's West African-Peanut Stew. This isn't a bad thing of course (we love the Peanut Stew), but I suppose tonight's soup just lacked the innovative and "exciting" piece we always seek in a recipe.

Nonetheless, if you love tempeh and you love peanut butter, you will certainly love this stew. (Bonus: it's chock full o' fiber and protein--the true love-bugs of a vegetarian diet, yes?). We served ours with homemade garlic bread.

Tomorrow, I'll take a stylish sweater to cover myself, and hopefully avoid the whole senior-citizen-in-my-20s situation. It's getting embarrassing.

Tempeh Peanut Stew

(recipe adapted from one in Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen)

I absolutely love a warm, hearty, peanut stew. Something about the salty, nutty flavor combined with fresh veggies and spices just makes my tastebuds smile.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. tempeh, sliced
• dash of olive oil
• 2 cups unsalted roasted peanuts
• 4 cups veggie stock, divided
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 large carrots, sliced
• 1/2 cup natural crunchy peanut butter (salted)
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 2 cups diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 - 3 cups sliced cabbage (we took the easy way and used pre-sliced cole slaw mix cabbage)
• dash of lemon juice
• freshly sliced green onions, chopped peanuts, and parsley (garnish)

Directions:

1) Heat 1 to 2 TBSP olive oil in a large skillet. Add tempeh slices and cook on one side until golden brown on the bottom. Flip each slice and cook until lightly browned on the other side (about 3 - 4 minutes each side). Remove from pan and chop tempeh into cubes. Set aside.

2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a blender, combine the peanuts, 3 cups stock, and a dash of salt and pepper to taste. Pour into a bowl and add 1 cup water; stir. Pour half of sauce into a baking dish that will hold tempeh cubes in a tight single layer. Place tempeh in the baking dish and pour remaining sauce on top. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes.

3) While the tempeh is cooking, warm a little oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and a dash of salt, reduce heat and cook until onions are lightly browned (about 5- 7 minutes). Add carrots and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add peanut butter, tomato paste, and 1 cup of veggie stock. Add tomatoes and cook until heated through.

4) When tempeh is done cooking, add to the sauce, raise the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until stew has thickened to the desired consistency. Stir in cabbage, season with salt and pepper, and garnish each bowl with parsley, green onions, and chopped peanuts.

Open-Faced Awesome-ness

For as long as I can remember, my mom has prepared Pork Chops and Sour Kraut on New Year's Day, as tradition claims that this meal brings one good luck for the upcoming year.

Regardless of how marvelous my mom's p-chops are, I have to ask: Where does this meat-centric tradition leave vegetarians? In a perpetual cycle of bad luck...year after year?

Of course not, friends. We're simply left to create our own good-fortune meal.

Enter Open Face Barbeque Tempeh Sandwiches with Carrot-Cayenne Slaw. Yes, it's truly as awesome as it sounds...times ten.

We received a rockin' new cookbook under the Christmas tree this year: Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry. This 5-star cookbook features healthy, high-quality vegan versions of all your Southern favorites. Tonight's recipe was highlighted in Terry's "Favorites" chapter, whereby he shares his top 6 favorite recipes (and who doesn't want to try a chef's personal favorite?).

You know I love fork n' knife vegetarian sandwiches, and this little number was no exception. I piled my bread mile-high with barbeque tempeh, slaw, and caramelized onions, and I'm already looking forward to the leftovers.

Do you have any New Year's food traditions?

Open-Faced BBQ Tempeh Sandwich with Carrot-Cayenne Slaw

(adapted from Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen)

This flavorful vegan sandwich will fill you up for sure--and it will definitely bring you good luck for the new year!

Sandwich Ingredients:

• 3 TBSP apple cider vinegar
• 3 TBSP lime juice
• 3/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup canned tomato sauce (plus more for later, if you like it saucy)
• 3 TBSP olive oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 TBSP cumin
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne
• 2 TBSP water
• 1/2 pound tempeh, sliced
• Homemade bread, sliced
• 1 large onion, caramelized or sauteed until browned

Carrot Slaw Ingredients:

• 2 - 3 cups chopped cabbage (we used pre-chopped bagged cabbage)
• 2 large carrots, grated
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• Finely chopped dill pickle (as much as you'd like! I probably added about 1/3 cup)
• 2 TBSP toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

2) To prepare the tempeh: In a food processor, combine the apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, tomato sauce, olive oil, honey, cumin, cayenne, and water. Divide sauce in half. Set one half of sauce aside, and add the tempeh to the remaining sauce. Stir to coat, and pour onto the prepared baking sheet. Cover with foil and bake for approximately 40 minutes.

3) When you remove the tempeh from the oven, dice it (so it's chunky!). If you like your barbeque tempeh saucy (like I do), you can mix your serving of tempeh with some of the reserved barbeque sauce, or extra plain tomato sauce.

4) To prepare slaw: Combine mustard, honey, white wine vinegar, salt, cayenne, and olive oil in a food processor and blend until smooth. Combine cabbage and carrots in a large bowl, and pour vinegar sauce over top. Stir to coat; stir in sesame seeds and chopped pickle.

5) To assemble: place a piece of toasted bread on your plate. Pile with tempeh, slaw, and caramelized onions. Rock out your New Year :) It's 2011: Bring it on!

Happy 100th

Tonight and tomorrow will be devoted to baking and cooking for the T-Day feast at my parent's house on Thursday. I can't bear to photograph the superb Chocolate-Pecan Pie by my pathetic night-time kitchen lighting (it just doesn't do it justice), so your pie recipe will have to wait 'til morning.

Instead, today's post (written in between rolling pie crust and chopping sweet potatoes), will highlight my favorite Hungry Spoon recipes. Why, you ask, am I copping out on the biggest food week of the year? Because, friends, today marks my 100th post.

How do I feel about hitting the hot 100? This about sums it up:

If you need five more recipes to make before 2010 ends, please add these to your list.

1) Bulgur-Apple-Almond Salad: Super simple, lots of crunch, awesomely healthy (pictured above). Undoubtedly this is my favorite bulgur recipe--it was also my first post :)

2) Peanut Butter Blondies with Milk Chocolate Frosting: Anything that comes from Joy the Baker is a winner. Joy literally made me a winner when I entered these puppies in our county fair. (The county fair? I know, totally dorky. But don't expect me to be sewing a quilt anytime soon.).

3) Garlic & Pine Nut Bean Dip with Homemade Flat Bread: Oh goodness. I initially made the flatbread for a burrito recipe. When we discovered how magnificent it was all on its lonesome, the burrito recipe was scrapped and Garlic & Pine Nut Bean dip was born. Make it. Eat it. Love it.

4) Barbeque Tempeh Sloppy Joe Sandwiches: It's no secret that hearty, sloppy fork n' knife vege-head sandwiches top my list of favorite entrees. Within the category of favorite entree sandwiches, the Tempeh Sloppy Joe wins first place, hands down.

5) Pumpkin Cookies: As noted in the post, my family was on the brink of a collective food coma after eating these. What can I say? I have a shameless, unbridled enthusiasm for pumpkin cookies.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, dear readers! I love sharing recipes with you, and I'm truly grateful for each visit you make to the Hungry Spoon kitchen.

Terrific Tempeh

Earlier this week I had a conversation with my dad about Reuben sandwiches (I kid you not). At some point, my dad asked me if there could really be a solid substitute for meat in a hearty sandwich--especially a sandwich such as the Reuben, which boasts the ultimate in salty lunch meats: corned beef.

My answer? Tempeh...the quintessential vegetarian meat substitute.

Tempeh is an Indonesian creation that, in it's purest form, is just fermented soybeans. Wait! Don't stop reading! I know it doesn't exactly sound palatable, but I promise you: Tempeh is truly the vegetarian equivalent to a meat-eater's pound of bacon. Or Filet Mignon. Or whatever it is that gets your taste buds going.

I frequently slice tempeh thin, marinade it, and brown it in a skillet coated lightly with olive oil. It adds an unbeatable "meaty" quality to sandwiches--it's packed with flavor, has a little crunch when browned, and rocks a ridiculous amount of protein (20 grams per serving!).

Vegetarian or meat-eater, give tempeh a try this week.

Our Saturday night dinner was a Tempeh "Cheese Steak" sandwich of sorts. Sauteed green peppers, onion, and garlic, sliced tempeh, swiss cheese, and veggie baked beans on the side. It was messy. It was huge. And it made me smile.

If nothing else, you can impress all your friends when you tell them you ate the vege-head equivalent to a pound of bacon.

Vegetarian Cheese "Steak" Sandwiches

You can definitely marinade the tempeh before browning it (we simply didn't have time when we made them yesterday!). Just use whatever favorite marinade you use for meat, let it soak for a few hours, and proceed as directed.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of tempeh, thinly sliced
• a little olive oil
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• Swiss cheese
• Hoagie buns (or, we just used our usual bread)
• Optional: Bread n' Butter pickles, and any other additional condiments you love on your sandwiches :)

Directions:

1) Heat a little olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Place tempeh slices in the skillet; heat until lightly browned on one side, then flip each slice and heat until lightly browned on the other side (approximately 3 minutes per side). Remove tempeh slices and set aside.

2) Using the same skillet, heat a little olive oil and add bell pepper and onion slices. Saute until softened and lightly browned (about 6 -8 minutes). Add garlic and cook 1 -2 more minutes.

3) Meanwhile, place swiss cheese slices on your bread or bun of choice. Toast in a toaster oven until cheese is melted and a little bubbly.

4) To assemble sandwich, place tempeh slices on bread. Mound bell pepper and onion mixture on top. (optional: add pickles or any other condiments you love to have on your big sandwich). Not optional: must eat with barbeque baked beans (I'll bring you a fun recipe for this one tomorrow).

Sloppy Sandwich Night

As a child, I recall Sloppy Joe lunches as one of the dreaded days in the school cafeteria: The orange and brown sandwich filling scooped onto a bun was always a bit too mysterious. Add a side of canned corn and fruit cocktail, and you've got yourself a "well-balanced meal?"

I shudder at the memories.

I never could have dreamed that one day Sloppy Joes would rank near the top of my "Favorite Sandwich List" as an adult. Well, "Barbeque Tempeh Sloppy Joes" to be exact. (And yes, I do have a Favorite Sandwich List. Hey--we all have our priorities in life.).

This sandwich makes me weak in the knees it's so good.

I mean it, friends. You may never go back to eating meat again after you try this baby. The from-scratch sweet n' tangy barbeque sauce is bursting with flavor (yes, bursting!). Add sauteed onions and green pepper, and a sprinkling of blue cheese and voila! A hearty bite of heaven on earth. (If you're a true cheese-head like my husband, you could also add a slice of Colby-Jack or Swiss cheese to your sandwich.).

If you've never tried tempeh, this is a great dish to give it a first try. It's loaded with protein and makes an awesome vege-head sandwich filler when your veggies and beans just aren't enough.

So, may my Saturday night dinner inspire your dinner tonight. Everyone needs a Sloppy Sandwich Night in their life.

What's your favorite "ultimate" sandwich?

Barbeque Tempeh Sloppy Joes

(Adapted from a recipe found in Robin Robertson's The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook)

This sandwich fulfills my craving for a hearty fork and knife sandwich. If you're interested in cooking vegetarian cuisine for a heavy meat-eater, Robertson's cookbook is a fantastic starting point--all of her recipes are stick-to-your-ribs good.

Ingredients:

Barbeque Tempeh:

• 8 oz. of tempeh, cut into 1/4 inch wide strips
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 - 1/2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
• 2 cans of drained crushed tomatoes ( 14.5 oz. each)
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 TBSP dijon mustard
• 3 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP rice vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. ground red pepper

Onion n' Pepper

• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 bell pepper, sliced
• a little olive oil

Sandwich Fixins'

• Bread or bun of choice (we just used our standard bread)
• Blue cheese crumbles
• Optional: sweet pickle slices (bread n' butter pickles)

Directions:

1) Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add tempeh slices, allowing to brown on one side (approximately 3 minutes). Flip, and brown tempeh on the other side. Remove tempeh from the skillet and chop into smaller pieces. Set aside.

2) In a pot, heat a little olive oil over medium heat. Add diced onion and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger, and saute for another 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients for the barbeque tempeh (through ground red pepper). Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, allowing to thicken. Stir occasionally. Add tempeh and allow sauce to cook another 5 minutes, until heated through. Your filling is done!

3) Heat a little olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, and add sliced onion and bell pepper. Saute until lightly browned, about