Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Sauteed Shredded Veggies and Tempeh with Perfect Peanut Sauce

This yummy sauce recipe comes from Jae Steele's "Get it Ripe".  She suggested it be served with tempeh, and since I have never tried tempeh and peanut sauce together I decided to give it a whirl.


I use LightLife Whole Grain Tempeh.  It is made with cultured organic soybeans, organic long grain rice and organic brown rice. 
The trick to preparing great tasting tempeh is that you MUST always steam and marinate it.  It needs to be softened and it needs time to soak up flavors. This will not happen if you just toss it into your prepared sauce last minute.  It will taste very bland, and you probably know that from experience! 

First steam your tofu for about 15-20 minutes by placing in a steamer basket over boiling water.

While it's steaming you can prepare the marinade. In a small glass dish I put the sliced tempeh, 1/4 cup Organic Low Sodium Tamari, 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar, 2 tbsp filtered water.  Toss the pieces and let them soak in the marinade for at least 30 minutes, preferably 2 hours.  If you are marinating for longer than 30 minutes, you should keep it in the refrigerator.



So, remember on my Salad Extravaganza post I talked about short cuts...well here is another great short cut!  It costs a little extra ($2.15/package and I used 1 1/2 packages) but it made my meal come together in minimal time and no mess from using the food processor.  Whole Foods sells this package of shredded veggies but you can probably find them at other stores.


Here's the finished dish in the pan...

And I know you want the recipe now!

Perfect Peanut Sauce (original by Jae Steele, modified by me)
1 medium onion pureed (about 1 1/2 cups)
2-3 large cloves of garlic, crushed (to taste...if you love garlic add more!)
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger root
1/2 tsp curry powder
3/4 cup raw peanut butter
1/4 cup raw tahini butter
2 tbsp low sodium Organic Tamari
1/4 tsp cayenne (optional)
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 tbsp coconut milk (optional)

Toss it all in the blender and blend until smooth.  I use a Vitamix, so it blends pretty quickly.  Other blenders may take longer.

Enjoy, and let me know how it works out in your kitchen :)

2 comments:

sara said...

mmm, i love a good peanut sauce. this one looks delicious.

Gretchen said...

It's delicious, I hope you try it!