Partial transcript from episode: Tremendous Tempeh!
I'm telling you there were a few things that I've actually really missed turning vegan. One was cheese because I was an absolute cheeseaholic before transitioning, and I haven't touched cheese in the last six months, and I have tried vegan cheeses, and they just don't do it for me. So I'm really not a big fan, but there's been a couple other things too such as when I make a pasta salad.
I used to make this shredded chicken pasta salad that had vegetables in it, and I used a lot of oils unfortunately, which I don't do now, but I really kind of missed having something like a meatier type of ingredient to add to these things or to add to my stir -fries. Like I would make chicken stir-fry for instance. Well, I kept reading about Tempeh, and I kept seeing recipes about Tempeh, and I saw it in the store, and I thought, okay, I'm going to try this stuff. It didn't look very appetizing in the wrapper, frankly, and I do like tofu. So I thought, all right, if I'm eating tofu, I can definitely try Tempeh.
Well, to my surprise, when I took it out of the package and was cutting it, it literally was like cutting little chunks of chicken to put into my stir -fry. I could not believe the texture of this wonderful little brick that I was dealing with. And then when I cooked it, I cooked it with all of the seasonings, and of course, I used vegetable broth to sauté. I no longer use any oils, and so I put the seasonings in. I put some garlic in. I put some onion in, and the Tempeh picked up that flavor so beautifully. And then I used a ginger stir-fry, ginger-based stir-fry sauce with some garlic added to that too, and a little bit of sweetness in it, and threw in all of my vegetables, and then eventually my noodles on top of it, and it was such an amazing stir-fry.
So now I am absolutely hooked on Tempeh. I'm going to be using it for all kinds of different ideas, not just stir -fry, but I've been reading about making Tempeh bacon. It doesn't seem like it's very hard to do. You just cut it in thin slices, and you marinate it in like a homemade mixture of liquid smoke, and if you like liquid smoke, I'm not a big fan of that, but soy sauce, maple syrup, and different spices, and then you can pan-fry it, or you can even bake it until the slices turn like a crispy golden color.
And then I'm also thinking, like, I really love BLT sandwiches, and my husband grows the most amazing garden every summer, and we have these gorgeous heirloom tomatoes, and they're so wonderful. And I thought, okay, well this year, since I'm vegan now, I'm just going to have lettuce and tomato sandwiches. But now I'm thinking, hey, I can substitute the Tempeh for the bacon. I mean, how cool is that?
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