Tempeh Life Lessons

It's interesting; I've been eating tempeh for over a year and have never noticed that it has a bitter taste (as told to me by my husband). When he finally fessed up I was surprised and then being the dutiful cooking tech nerd that I am I did a Google search to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out he's right and if you spend 10 – 15 minutes steaming it the nutty flavor is enhanced and the bitter flavor disappears – who knew? 

Armed with my new found knowledge, I was eager to tame the tempeh dragon and decided we needed to give this a try - if only because I was hoping if I could get rid of the bitterness Dan would be more enthusiastic about cooking with it. I have to say I think he's a convert and we'll be finding it on our table more often - which makes me very happy. 

To celebrate this we raided the fridge and made a tempeh, pepper, onion and mushroom stir fry with a soy sauce, garlic and ginger sauce and served it over brown rice - I could have licked the bowl clean. I mean who doesn't love garlic and ginger in a stir fry. If you want to keep this gluten free, use tamari instead of the soy sauce.

I started with  an 8 ounce package of tempeh , placed it in a steamer, covered it and steamed it for about 10 minutes. Removed it from the heat and set it aside to cool. 

While the tempeh was cooling I chopped a large onion into approximately 1/2 inch dice and sauteed it in 1 1/2 T of olive oil until translucent.   

Then  I sliced 3 small peppers (1 red, 1 yellow and 1 orange) into thin strips. See how pretty they are!  And they're low in calories and sodium have no cholesterol, and are high in vitamin A and vitamin C. 

 

Then I sliced 6 ounces of mushrooms

Chopped the cooled tempeh into cubes - and yes we tested a few to make sure they were not bitter, I actually heard myself make the yum sound.  And then peeled and crushed many cloves of garlic. 

When all of the chopping was complete it was time to start stir frying. 

To the onions add the garlic (looks like we have about 7 cloves there), some grated ginger and soy sauce (or tamari) and saute until the garlic is slightly browned and fragrant. Add the peppers, mushrooms and chopped tempeh and stif fry until the peppers are crisp tender. Server over brown rice with a side of fresh fruit and a slice of whole grain bread (or not if your gluten free). 

This recipe is so flexible you can add whatever veggies you have on hand. If you have any favorite tempeh recipes send them my way - I love trying new things.