Cooking with Crago: Savory Balsamic Tempeh

I love tempeh and my love for this meat substitute has grown even more so as I find more ways to prepare it.

I was thinking back to the last time I had steak and realized it's been well over 7 years. I gave up eating red meat first and foremost around the time I was a freshman in college and then went the vegetarian route eventually going back to chicken and fish and now fully vegetarian/vegan. I was never really a huge fan of steak and just remember not being a fan of the texture. Of course a good steak is full of juicy flavor and sizzle.

So why am I all of the sudden talking steak?

Well, I came up with a way to prepare tempeh with the same flavor inspiration found in a big juicy steak. This came out delicious and I will definitely be serving this up again soon!

Ingredients for tempeh:

1 package of tempeh; cut into three squares and then split down the middle (slicing like sandwich slices) and the.n cut into smaller diagonals

1/2 c. Balsamic Vinegar

Pink salt and pepper

1/2 tsp. Garlic powder

1/2 tsp. crushed rosemary

Ingredients for Sauce:

1/2 c. Balsamic Vinegar

1 14 oz. can of tomato sauce

3 tbsp. (or more) tomato paste

1/4 c. Vegetable broth

2 tbsp. crushed rosemary

1/4 c. Brown sugar (or less if too sweet)

Directions:

First marinate tempeh pieces in Balsamic (garlic powder and rosemary). Marinate for up to one hour if possible. Honestly I procrastinated. (me? Never! Haha yeah if you know me you know this is me to a "T"). I probably marinated for about 20-30 minutes. You'll get more flavor the longer you marinate.

While tempeh is marinating whisk together all ingredients (balsamic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, veggie broth, brown sugar, rosemary, s&p) for sauce in a small saucepan over medium high heat until to a boil then reduce.

Simmer while stirring sauce for about 5 minutes until everything is combined and mixed well.

Pour a little sauce in a greased rectangular glass pan and then lay tempeh pieces down covering them with more sauce. I was pretty generous with the sauce.

Cover with foil and bake in oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10-15 minutes until tops are browned.

For serving this dish I sautéed some sweet vidalia onions in a small pan with some vegan butter. I also cooked red skinned potatoes (boiled until soft) and stirred my potatoes around with a little olive oil, pink salt, pepper, and fresh chopped parsley.

For my veggie side (duh!) I stepped away from the greens and roasted parsnips (one of my fav. root vegetables!). To do this I just sliced my parsnips down the middle and layed them on a foil sided pan with a drizzle of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pink salt, pepper, and extra rosemary. Roasted these in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until they were wilted and soft.