Tempeh for a Big Salad

June and early July mean harvesting lots of lettuce and spicy greens from the garden. I do make a lot of simple green salads with meals. However, I really enjoy having garden fresh greens to use in one of my favorite meal concepts “the Big Salad.” I put together mixes of tofu or tempeh, cheese, cooked veggies, raw veggies, beans, grains and herbs with the greens and suitable dressing for a complete and delicious meal. The trick is not to use too many things, or else the greens get lost. You also want to choose things that will harmonize. For example, vegetables cooked in with Asian style seasonings (soy sauce, ginger and sesame oil) might not go so well with balsamic vinaigrette and sun dried tomatoes. Within these basic guidelines, anything goes!

Spicy Greens

I first discovered the Big Salad concept about 15 years ago in the cookbook that really got me going on creative vegetarian cooking “The American Vegetarian” by Marylin Diamond. I’ve been playing around with it ever since. In the winter, when salad greens are mediocre, it helps enhance that dose of fresh greens that we need. In the spring and early summer when the greens are great, it makes for a delicious meal. I look forward to the “salad days” all year.

Lately, I’ve been inspired anew by the eating at the Candle Cafe and by their cookbook. Their fabulous salads and their recipes reminded me of a technique I had sort of forgotten about: marinating tofu and tempeh. Tempeh and tofu treated this way make a great component to a big salad.

Here is one flavorful way that I like to prepare tempeh to use in these salads.

Tempeh for a Big Salad

This is more than you need for a big salad for two, but it is so good as leftovers it is worth it to make extra.

2 8 oz packages of tempeh

1/2 cup of soy sauce, tamari or bragg’s liquid aminos

2/3 cup of apple juice

1/4 cup of agave syrup, or honey or other sweetner

4 tbs of chopped garlic

3 tbs of grated ginger

1 tsp dried chile flakes

fresh ground pepper to taste

Grated Ginger

Combine all of the ingredients except the tempeh in a shallow baking dish or other container. This is your marinade. Cut each package of tempeh into 4 equal pieces and place into the marinade.

You can now do a couple of different things with this. Both methods make for flavorful tempeh.

A. If you made this in a baking dish, you can immediately put the whole thing into a 350 degree oven and bake for one hour, cool slightly and slice for salad.

B. Leave the tempeh in it’s marinade for a couple of hours or overnight. You can then bake the whole thing as above. You can also take the tempeh out of it’s marinade, slice it and saute until slightly browned.

Marinating Tempeh

The big salad pictorial continues here.

Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

I was looking for a break from the Tempeh Chili and a way to use up the rest of the cream from Thanksgiving before it spoiled. I had been meaning to try the Creamy Tomato Recipe from the May/June 2008 issue of Cook’s Illustrated (subscription necessary) and never got around to it. This was the perfect opportunity.

You might be thinking that this is just marinara with cream stirred in. It’s more deliberate than that. The base is typical, sauted finely diced onion, bay leaf, red pepper flakes and garlic. It calls for butter rather than olive oil as the fat, which is a sensible pairing with the cream, but I think olive oil would work, too. The recipe also calls for a little prosciutto in the mix, but I of course left that out. Tomato paste is added at the end of the saute and allowed to darken. This and chopped sundried tomato help to add tomato dimensions beyond what the canned tomato would have offered. Dry white wine for acidity to balance the sweetness of the tomatoes seems essential. I was considering using lemon juice instead, but the brightness of it would probably be lost in the time needed to cook the sauce until thick. The cream is stirred in at the very end, with a dash more wine, cooking water from your pasta as needed and of course salt and pepper. It came together quickly, in under an hour. The step of simmering the sauce until thick provides enough time to boil pasta and pull together a salad.

Pasta w/ Creamy Tomato Sauce

For the salad I just went with straight romaine dressed with Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette from The Grit Cookbook (which is another stupendous veggie cookbook title you should totally get). I like garlic in my vinaigrette anyway, but the roasted version is a wonderful mellow change of pace. When you make it in a blender or food processor it emulsifies into a beautiful creamy dressing that still has the acidity of your typical vinaigrette. I like the contrast of a rich dish like this pasta sauce with the sharpness of the vinegar.

By the way, The Grit is like the Moosewood of Athens, GA. I’ve never been there, but If I’m ever within even a day’s drive I will totally go out of my way to dine there. I mean just look at that menu. A lot of those goodies are in the cookbook.