Clean Food

For those of you who don't like tempeh, this recipe will make a convert of you. I've made a lot of recips from Clean Food by Terry Walters, but I think this is one of my favourites.

Spicy Thai Tempeh with Cashews

(recipe from Clean Food cookbook)

8-ounce package tempeh

1 talespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 red onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 cup toasted cashews, chopped

1 tablespoon red chili paste

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 teaspoons tamari

1/3 cup water

4 scallions, finely chopped

Cut tempeh into large chunks and steam 8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside until cool enough to handle.

In large cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat, saute onion in olive oil 10 minutes or until caramelized. Crumble chunks of tempeh directly into skillet. Add red pepper and cashews and saute 5 minutes.

In small bowl, whisk together chili paste, syrup, tamari, and water. Pour over tempeh, and saute another minute to combine flavours. Remove from heat, top with chopped scallions and serve.

My Notes: The recipe calls for a roasted red bell pepper, which I typically do in the oven - however, as my oven is off-limits this summer I chose to slightly steam the red pepper and then chop and add to the skillet. The red chili paste I use is Sambal Oelek.

I served this dish over brown rice and steamed some yellow/wax beans to serve on the side. I dressed the steamed beans with a drizzle of toasted sesame oil and a splash of tamari.

Tempting Tempeh

It’s been a terrifically hot day and once the sun dips down as well as the temperature, we just want to unwind on the couch and watch a DVD with dinner. This leaves me with the question, what to make?

Michael likes tempeh and I like sour. Put the two together and we have Cilantro Tempeh with a Sweet & Sour Stir Fry.

(image from Flickr)

Cilantro Tempeh
(recipe adapted from Enlightened Eating cookbook)

1 package tempeh (225g)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 cups sweet onion, sliced
½ teaspoon coriander
½ teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup water
3 tablespoons ume plum vinegar
½ cup cilantro, chopped
1/3 cup red pepper chopped

1 cup chopped tomatoes

Steam tempeh in the top of a double boiler for 10 minutes. Remove and cool, cut into small dice-sized cubes and set aside. (I LOVE this method for working with tempeh. Steaming it first seems to loosen it up and prepare it to drink in the sauce).

Heal sesame oil in a skilled, add onions, and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Add coriander, cumin, garlic, cayenne and cook another couple of minutes.

Add tempeh and water and cook over low-medium heat for 15 more minutes. Add ume plum vinegar, cilantro, red pepper and tomato. Heat through and serve.

(image from flickr)

A well-stocked pantry and fridge with a variety of oils and vinegars will definitely come in handy for this recipe.

Sweet and Sour Stir Fry
(recipe adapted from Clean Food cookbook)
½ pound udon noodles (I like to use kamut udon)
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
3 carrots, sliced thinly on a diagonal
1 large zucchini, ¼ inch thick sliced on a diagonal
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons Bragg Liquid Aminos (or feel free to use tamari instead)
1 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
¼ cup toasted sesame seeds

Cook noodles according to directions on package. Drain in a colander and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Place colander on a plate and refrigerate until ready to use.

Heat wok over medium-high heat. Add grapeseed oil, garlic and ginger and cook 1 minute. (If anything starts to stick add 1 tablespoon of water). Add carrots and zucchini, stir and cook 3-4 minutes or until crisp tender. Add 1 tablespoon each of rice vinegar, mirin, and liquid aminos and cook 1 minute longer. Remove vegetables from wok and set aside.

Pour remaining tablespoon of rice vinegar, mirin, and liquid aminos into empty wok. Fold in the chilled noodles until evenly coated and heated through. Drizzle with sesame oil. Transfer noodles to serving plates, top with vegetables, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and place Cilantro Tempeh at the side.

Quick Quesadillas

Having a little white dog means he gets dirty easy and requires bathing. So tonight's dinner needed to be a no-fuss option so Mac could have a bath early enough to be bone dry (no pun intended) before bedtime. This meant taking care of Mac straight from work before rolling up my sleeves in the kitchen. So easy peasey tonight meant making Tempeh Quesadillas.

I simply steamed the tempeh in the top of a double boiler for 5 minutes or so then let it get cool enough to handle so I could then crumble it. I made a quick salsa by chopping up half of a white onion (and rinsing it through cold water - this takes the pungency away) and combining it with a 14-oz. can of fire-roasted chopped tomatoes, a 4-oz. can of mild chopped green chilies, a handful of cilantro (chopped) the juice of 1 lime and about 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt. Combine and you've got a nice tasting salsa to spread on the wrap (I use the Food for Life brand, which is a sprouted whole grain wrap) then add the crumbled tempeh, a little shredded cheese and chopped lettuce and you're good to top with the second wrap and grill until warm and the cheese is melted. To pretty-up the plate I sliced some yellow pepper into strips and cut an avocado into cubes and mixed this with a little olive oil and salt and served it alongside the quesadillas.

Tasty,satisfying, and quick.

The English Patient

My husband had to have a mole removed from the bottom of his foot this morning so I thought the best way to help him feel better was to make his favourite childhood dessert: rice pudding. Just what the doctor ordered! I love the creaminess of this pudding. There's a lot of ingredient variations you could use in rice pudding, but I sometimes feel that simple is best. I only say this because I remember when we were dating and Michael told me he liked rice pudding. Of course I couldn't just make a basic version so made one with coconut milk and lime zest. Michael looked at it rather suspiciously as it wasn't recognizable to him. I think at that moment I filed away a little note to self to not mess with rice pudding.

The version I made for tonight included plumping up some thompson raisins (3/4 cup) in a splash of dark rum (1 tbsp), then cooking some basmati rice (3/8 c.) in salted (1/4 tsp) water (3/4 c) for about 8 minutes (bring to a boil, then cover and simmer. Next add whole milk (2 c) and a little sugar (1/4 c). Boil then simmer until the rice is really soft (about 25 minutes - and don't forget to stir often to prevent sticking and scorching). Next add a lightly beaten egg for the final minute of cooking; then remove from the heat and stir in a splash of vanilla extract, some more milk to thin it out a bit, and the rum-soaked raisins. Stir it up well, pour it into a bowl, then cover the surface of the pudding with some cling film (to prevent a skin forming). You can serve it warm, at room temperature, or keep it in the fridge and serve it cold -- whatever is your liking.

For the record, we didn't just eat dessert for dinner. Our main course was a tempeh noodle bowl.

I recently purchased the cookbook "Refresh" and they have lots of rice bowl ideas, which you can easily swap out the rice for noodles (my personal favourite). And seeing as how we were already going to be consuming copious amounts of yummy rice for dessert, noodles it is! Soba noodles to be exact. The noodle bowl also includes bean sprouts, cilantro, cucumber, carrots, and marinated tempeh -- all topped off with a generous ladle of Thai Peanut Sauce. (Tempeh is fermented soybeans for those who are uninitiated. It's more nutritious than tofu and much easier to digest. A great source of non-animal protein for those trying to incorporate a few more vegetarian meals into their diet. You can purchase it plain or marinated and it's usually found in the refrigeration area of the supermarket next to the tofu. However, some markets - like Nirvana Organics at the bottom of No. 2 Road sells it frozen. The only other place that seems to have it now is Whole Foods, Capers, et al in Vancouver. The Save-On Foods in Richmond used to sell it, but stopped a number of months ago -- clearly I wasn't buying enough of it!). Please give it a try. I always buy the plain type and marinate it myself. I start by steaming the tempeh in the top of a double boiler for about 10 minutes. This just seems to "relax" the tempeh and set it up to absorb all the great marinade. Feel free to use your favour marinade. The one I made tonight includes tamari, balsamic vinegar, sesame oil, olive oil, ground anise, garlic powder, and black pepper. Just put the tempeh in a dish and pour over your marinade. The idea is to cover the tempeh with the marinade after it's finished its Swedish steam bath. Let it sit for at least an hour or so before you bake it (325 degrees for 15 minutes) BUT seeing as how this is a raw or BBQ only summer for me, I'll be opting to pop it onto the barbie just long enough to let it pick up some grill marks. Then I'll cut it into cubes and add it to the noodle bowl. Is there anything more fun than slurping noodles?