The Tempeh Attempt - Angel-hair Pasta with Tempeh sauce

So, tempeh.  Yeah!  Well I had been reading a lot online, which may be good or bad I guess, about tempeh. What it is, how to prepare it, make your own tempeh, and different ways to cook it.

So, what is it? - Tempeh is one of those "strange" foods that may cause you to scratch your head wondering not only what it is (!) but how in the world you are supposed to prepare it. For most this highly nutritious food with a flavor that seems to be a mix of mushrooms and nuts can be an acquired taste.

Tempeh is a fermented soy product that comes in patty form. And if you're going to eat soy, fermented is the way to go. Why? Because the fermentation actually helps you to digest it and makes the nutrients far more readily available for your body to use. Also, unlike tofu which is very processed, tempeh is made with the whole soybean with very little processing. It's also very high in protein, which makes it an excellent vegetarian protein source.

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It can be purchased at most natural whole food stores and mostly can be found in the freezers with gluten-free breads etc.  It does come in a frozen state and would need to be thawed in the fridge prior to preparing for a meal.

So, I was planning on putting this tempeh in a stir-fry to try but didn't have enough time to prepare it, so I saved it for a different dish.  So, the first thing I did to prepare the tempeh is removed it from it's packaging and cut it into 3 pieces to prepare it for steaming.  

Now I didn't own an actual 'steamer' so I had to improvise!  So I used a regular cooking pot and filled it with about 1/4 of warm water and used one of my collapsible strainers and placed it on top.  The strained is actually made out of a material that is resistant to heat, so there was no worry of it melting. 

Next step was to actually steam the tempeh for about 15-20 minutes. Now depending on the type of tempeh you are purchasing (pre-cooked or a package that has NOT been pre-cooked) then you may need to pre-pare it a little differently. I made sure to purchase a pre-cooked package (It was the only type sold at the corn crib).  Steaming the tempeh before you cook it allows for it to swell a bit and accept more of the flavours of your dish.

  

Once steamed, I then put each piece of the tempeh into a blender in order to 'crumble' the tempeh.  It actually looked a lot like ground turkey after this step was done.

I then placed the crumbled tempeh in a skillet, and bake the tempeh in the olive oil until slightly crisp while stirring continuously. Then I added garlic, and onion, and saute this for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Then I added a little bit of soy sauce, oregano, and thyme, and let this saute for another 10 minutes. 

The sauce: Now I'm not a good 'sauce' person yet. So for now I'm settling for a bottled sauce, which is organic, has no sugar in it and real 'chunks' of tomatoes.  I will be trying to make my own homemade sauce in the next few weeks, but for now it's the jar.  Now the sauce needs a little bit of spice for my taste buds, so I've added chili flakes to it.  We put the sauce in a slow cooker to simmer on low. If you are serving immediately, you can put the sauce on the stove to heat it quicker. After adding the sauce to the slow cooker, add the tempeh creation you just finished in the saute pan and put the cover on and wait. We let ours sit for about 2.5 hours until supper time. We then prepared some angel hair wholewheat pasta, but you can really use any kind you like.

 Put the boiled and hot spaghetti on individual plates and cover with the spaghetti sauce. Serve the spaghetti immediately. Sprinkle with some grated vegan soy cheese. Enjoy!

I do have to say, tempeh has a very different texture, taste and smell. I did eat my entire meal but needed A LOT of water to get it down!  It is definitely something to be acquired!