Some Days the Dragon Wins

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks filled with opportunity. My sweetie's company did a sizable layoff and unfortunately he was part of that - it kind of puts a kink in the family machine. When a door closes a window opens. Dan has spent a large part of his career as an Independent Consultant so waking up on that side of the fence is not new - it’s familiar and even though he’s not where he thought he would be - he’s ok; we’re ok. Yes there are some annoying things like rearranging health insurance, signing new contracts and paying estimated quarterly taxes but none of those things are tragic. 

We’ve been doing a fair amount of curry lately and while I love it I was up for a change. Looking in the fridge and finding some tempeh reminded me that there was a recipe I wanted to try that had a maple glazed tempeh. I started with a list of impressive ingredients and then narrowed it down to what I had in the fridge, which you see below. 

Ingredients

8 ounces tempeh

1 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp olive oil or virgin coconut oil

2 tsp soy sauce

4 cups shredded carrots

1 small onion, diced

1 Tbsp curry powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder (for added turmeric power, optional)

1/8 tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp hummus

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 handful of raisins

1/2 cup parsley - finely chopped 

A few shakes of cayenne - because Dan said it wasn’t spicy enough 

Salt and pepper to taste

Cube the tempeh and steam it for 10 minutes to eliminate the bitter taste. Then heat a skillet over high heat and add the olive oil.When oil is hot, add the tempeh, soy sauce and maple syrup. Flip the tempeh around a bit to allow it to absorb the liquid. Cook for about 5 minutes. When tempeh is browned and edges blackened a bit, and all liquid absorbed, turn off heat. Sprinkle some chopped walnut pieces and some black pepper over top the tempeh and set pan aside to keep warm in skillet.

In a large mixing bowl, add the carrots, hummus, lemon juice, spices, parsley, maple syrup, raisins and onion. Toss very well for a few minutes to marinate the carrots with the dressing. For a creamier salad, add another spoonful of hummus. To thin things out and make the salad zestier, add another splash of lemon juice or a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. Finally, add salt and pepper to the carrot salad to taste.

Pour the carrot salad in a large serving bowl and top with the tempeh. Serve right away or place in the fridge to serve in a few hours or up to a day later. The carrots will soften the longer they set in the fridge.

We paired it with a fresh fruit salad and some steamed broccoli and cauliflower - it was indeed good.