It seems as though tempeh has been on the menu a lot lately. Out of the many vegetarian alternatives to meat, tempeh is by far my favorite! While tofu makes a great breakfast scramble and there is occasionally a time and a place for convenience items such as Gardein Chick’n strips that I recently used for my Southwestern Salad with Avocado Cilantro Dressing, tempeh gets it done when I want a hearty delicious meal.
For example, whenever I’m trying to create a vegan version of a dish that might otherwise include ground beef, tempeh is my go-to ingredient. The texture lends itself to making delicious taco filling and is a great addition for chili. My most recent obsession is this tempeh no-meat loaf which is essentially meat loaf without the meat! The mushrooms add an extra meat texture and flavor and the final product is just as satisfying as the version I remember eating as a kid.
Anybody else love tempeh as much as me? Let me know your favorite tempeh recipes in the comments!
- 2 8oz packages of tempeh*
- 1 cup mushrooms
- 1 white onion
- 1/4 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
- 1/2 cup ketchup, reserving 1/2 cup for coating the loaf**
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 large clove of garlic, finely grated
- 2 teaspoons thyme
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vegetarian worcestershire sauce or tamari
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Steam the tempeh for 10 minutes. I like to use a vegetable steamer basket to keep the tempeh out of the water.
- Dice the onion and mushrooms. Add them to a skillet with the garlic and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes with a little veggie broth.
- Add the thyme, salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce and the veggie broth to the onion mixture and simmer on low for 1-2 minutes.
- Process the oatmeal in a food processor until the oats are broken down into really small pieces that resemble bread crumbs.
- Add the tempeh, first 1/2 cup of ketchup to the food processor along with the veggie broth spice mixture.
- Pulse a few times until everything is pretty well combined. Do not process until completely smooth because you want to leave a little texture in the loaf.
- Add more veggie broth as needed to moisten the mixture.
- Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with a little nonstick spray or brush with olive oil.
- Form the tempeh mixture into a loaf on the pan and coat with the remaining ketchup.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- *Tempeh is made with soy, which is on the list of the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables so I would recommend purchasing organic versions of these items.
- **I use an organic ketchup with no corn syrup. You could also substitute with tomato paste