Tempeh?

The earth and all its cultures therein supply an endless bounty of fruits, vegetables, flavors, and food creations.  The more time I live my life as a vegan, the more and more I find this to be true.  Going to a "special" American grocery (Trader Joe's) gave me the opportunity to try out "tempeh."  I had no idea what is was, except the notion that it might be a distant relative to tofu.

Once it's out of the package, you can more or less see that it's a rather compact conglomeration of some grains.  According to the packaging, this version is made of no more than 6 ingredients (nice!): cultured organic soybeans, water, organic brown rice, organic barley, organic millet, and lactic acid (from plant sources).

Whoever thought of mashing together all those grains?  Some American hippies.  Nope, Indonesians, actually.  That's right.  Tempeh is not some random non-meat-eater idea, or some "fake meat."  It's a staple source of protein in Indonesia.  One serving (about half of this 8 oz. package) provides 20g of protein (wow!), 9g of fiber (wow again!  that's 36% of RDV), 15% RDV of iron, 8% of calcium, 0% sodium, and 17% fat).  It gets its high quantity of protein, fiber and vitamins because the fermentation process it undergoes helps to retain them.  Also, it's made with the whole soybean, which also helps.  Although this pack is made with a couple different grains and beans, it can be made entirely of soybeans, or other beans, wheat and whole grains.  It gets all packed together pretty tight, so this is a fairly solid piece of food.

You can see from this image I took from Wikipedia that it's traditionally wrapped in banana leaves, nice and compacted.
Since I had never eaten (or even seen) tempeh before, I got a little help from a recipe online.  I don't usually follow recipes very strictly, but here's the link to the recipe that I was "inspired" by.  :)  First, I made a marinade sauce of orange juice, sesame oil, soy sauce and freshly grated ginger and let the tempeh sit in that for about 15 minutes.

I realized afterwards that I could have cut up the tempeh before putting it in the marinade...  But it seemed to absorb the flavor really well nonetheless.  I took the tempeh out of the marinade, cubed it, and fried it with a tablespoon of sesame oil (keeping the marinade for later).  It took awhile to cook all the tempeh, as I tried to let a few sides of each piece have time to get a little crispy and dark (maybe 15 minutes total).  But it's definitely worth it that way.

I used some veggies I had on hand that I thought would go well with the marinade (and that offered a variety of colors!): green beans, carrots, yellow zucchini/squash.  I dumped them in a frying pan and added some water, basically steaming them until they were just soft enough to eat, but definitely not mushy.  Then I added all the leftover marinade sauce and gave them another minute or two.

Bringing them together...

... and finally mixed up with some angel hair pasta and ready to eat!

This dish was totally a hit at the dinner table.  LOTS of elements all coming together in one bowl: the hardy, nutty tempeh, the variety of fresh crisp veggies, and the light pasta.  I had a little bowl of extra sauce (2 Tbsp orange juice and 2 Tbsp soy sauce mixed together), which when poured on top of our individual servings, drawing it all together just right.

So, I'd have to say that my first experience with tempeh went quite well!  I would love to make this dish again, but I also want to try out some other tempeh varieties, as well as other preparation methods.  For $2 a pack, I think I can afford to do that soon!