Tangy Tempeh with Green Beans and Peanut Sauce

Well tomorrow morning (7.30am) I go into hospital to have all 4 wisdom teeth out. Tonight I am having a bunch of friends around to our unit for a sort of "last supper" of sorts. I am going to be doing a bit of an indian feast so I am a little excited.

Anyway - what I really wanted to blog about is an awesome tempeh recipe. Tempeh is quite expensive around here and so I very rarely buy it - and when I do buy it I usually make the same recipe - because I know that it is nice and I don't want to waste good tempeh on a bad recipe.

Anyway I had some tempeh, but none of the other ingredients in my other good tempeh recipe. So I went on a bit of a hunt. I was almost going to make tempeh bacon from VWaV - but I wanted to make a dinner that wasn't too shabby (the amount of potatoes we have consumed in the last week in the form of fries, mashed potatoes and potato salad is quite disgusting).

I found this recipe on the net. I changed it slightly so I will put in my changes - but I am sure that the original recipe would be just as nice. This served 2 very hungry people and it will be something that I will be making again because it was so quick and easy!

Tangy Tempeh and Beans

1 block of tempeh (mine was 250g) - cubed
2 tsp olive oil
4tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp apple juice concentrate
1/4 cup water
1 clove garlic - minced
1 1/2 cups green beans - sliced into 3cm lengths (or any other green vegetable you fancy - broccoli would be particularly good).

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used one that is solely made from ground peanuts)
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp fresh ginger - minced
1 cloves garlic - minced
1/4 - 1/2 cup hot water (depending how runny you want your sauce - I used closer to 1/2 cup)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix the oil, soy sauce, vinegar, concentrate, water and garlic together and pour over tempeh cubes that are in a medium sized saucepan and marinate for at least an hour - flip tempeh occasionally.

Put saucepan on the stove and bring the marinade to the boil. Simmer, covered, over low heat, stirring occasionally. After 10 minutes add the green beans and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes. Uncover and simmer until the tempeh is almost dry.

Place remaining ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy, adjust the amount of water and salt and pepper to taste.

Place tempeh and beans over a bed of rice and then pour peanut sauce over the tempeh. Enjoy!

Easy Pea-zy fried rice

First of all, I want to apologise for the crappy photo - I had a hungry husband and both of us had had a long day and frankly this smelt SO good that it didn't hang around for long on the table getting photographed. I have never made fried rice before, but after having Nat's mum and brother and sister in law over for dinner a few nights ago, Nat and I found ourselves with a lot of leftover rice (I over estimated how hungry people would be!!)

Anyway - I had to go to a staff meeting and end of year party yesterday and Nat was working all day so by the time both of us were home it was late and I didn't have anything prepared. I looked in the fridge and the rice was staring back at me and so I decided to make fried rice.

Fried Rice is SO easy if you have left over rice - and while I don't usually cook with so much oil - it was nice for a treat. Although the ingredient list looks long, this meal was whipped up in under 30 minutes, and I was going slowly - I could have had it on the table in much less time if I had really been bothered. I used a recipe that I was given in grade 7 cooking class - but I modified the amount of oil and the spices and ingredients other than the rice. You can modify the ingredients with what you have on hand. Other veggies could include - cauliflower, corn, broccoli, finely diced cabbage, capsicum, asparagus - just make sure that everything is chopped quite small.

I used little pieces of Kittee's Seitan (which I think is marvelous!!) chopped up - but you could also easily use chickpeas, cashews or re hydrated TVP.

There should have been leftovers for this dish but we were both so hungry (and it was so Delicious) that it only fed the two of us (Nat went back for seconds). So I would say that this dish serves 2 hungry very hungry people, or 2 moderately hungry people with some left-overs for the next day.

Easy Pea-zy Fried Rice

3 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion - diced
3-4 garlic cloves - minced
1 stalk celery - diced
2-3 medium carrots - chopped
2 spring onions - chopped
2 medium sized mushrooms - chopped (I used the normal white button mushies - any mushroom would do though)
1/2 cup seitan/re hydrated TVP*/chickpeas
4 tbsp soy sauce
2-3 cups of cooked rice (I used medium grain brown - use whatever cooked rice you have on hand)
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup water

Pour about 2 tbsp of oil into a large (non-stick) frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough (a piece of onion will cause bubbles in the oil when dropped in), put in the onion, garlic, carrots and celery. Stir for 2-3 minutes
Add 2 tbsp of soy sauce and then the spring onions and mushrooms. Continue to stir until the onions are almost done (they will become opaque).
Scrape all the vegetables to one side of the frying pan and then add the cooked rice to the cleared side. Press down on the rice using the back of your wooden spoon (or stirring implement) and then pour 1 tbsp of oil and 2 tbsp of soy sauce onto the rice. After a minute stir the rice and then pat down again.
Add the spices and mix rice again.
When rice is heated through - mix it in with the vegetables. Add the peas and then cook until peas are heated through. Serve.