 This dish was inspired by a recipe in the incomparable “Plenty” by Yotam Ottolenghi. His version is just tofu and included copious amounts of butter and deep-frying. I decided to make it less labor intensive and a bit healthier by baking instead of frying and using a food processor to reduce the time mincing.
0 Comments
 Tempeh doesn’t get a whole lot of love outside of Indonesia. This is such a shame because it is such a versatile, protein packed ingredient. A block of tempeh consists of soybeans that have been fermented with a fungus called rhizopus oligosporus. As the fungus grows its mycelium knits the beans together into a cake. This results in a higher protein and fiber content as well as an earthy flavor.
The most important part of this recipe is sourcing the tempeh. Use a low quality block and your dish will suffer. The most readily available brand I like is Tofurky’s Indonesian Style Tempeh. It has converted many a tempeh hater to reason.  I used to think that bean salads were a joke. I hail from the Midwest and was accustomed to three bean salads with vinegar, vegetable oil and chopped celery. Maybe some black pepper for zest. The beans were canned, of course. I think this dish is the reason I don’t care for kidney beans or celery to this day.
I wrote bean salads off and that was wrong. Done properly a good bean salad can be an affordable and deeply satiating and nourishing dish. I like using garbanzo beans for salads because they hold their shape and can stand up to additional ingredients.  Who knew that humble beans could taste so good? When I first stumbled across a variation of the recipe below I was intrigued but still skeptical. I love beans but surely you need to add in some vegetables, right? What about a curry paste? As it turns out you don’t need much beyond pantry basics to make beans really sing.
This dish was inspired by a recipe in the incomparable Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. His version is just tofu and included copious amounts of butter and deep-frying. I decided to make it less labor intensive and a bit healthier by baking instead of frying and using a food processor to reduce the time mincing.
|
RSS Feed