Rugged
Tempeh Pasta Salad
by
Jan
How did I live
so long in a world without tempeh? I mean, I’m no stranger
to soy foods. I practically grew up in a food Co-Op, spending my
Saturdays cleaning out the bulk tofu buckets. Almost like tending
a fish tank, my care and feeding of the tofu cakes led me to develop
an affinity for this much-maligned protein source.
Many years,
decades even, would pass before I first encountered tempeh, soy’s
darker, more complicated offspring. I was dining at Rochester’s
fabulous Savory Thyme Café, and decided to give their cold
Asian Sesame Noodle salad a try. Munching away on my first mouthful,
I bit into a meaty little nugget. "What is this tempeh stuff?"
I wondered. My server informed me that I was enjoying a forkful
of fermented soybeans. Wow! Tempeh’s
taste and texture is so decidedly un-tofu-like, it’s hard to
imagine that the two products are related.
But they are.
While tofu is made by curdling fresh hot soymilk with a coagulant,
tempeh is made of soybeans fermented with a grain such as rice.
As you might imagine, tofu has a softer, mushier texture, while
tempeh is firmer, nuttier, and (dare I say?) more meat-like.
Well, one bite
and I was hooked on this ancient Indonesian food. I was delighted
to find that my neighborhood grocery store carried a variety of
tempeh products; handy little cakes of the stuff in organic, wild
rice, and garden vegetable versions. They even stock a tempeh-based
faux bacon that has made its way into my spinach salads. I began
adding tempeh to just about everything -- from stir-fry to fajitas.
I even used it in chili, much to the confusion of friends, who were
convinced they had been eating ground turkey. While poor, misunderstood
tofu is something many folks instantly turn up their noses at, I’ve
been surprised by the number of self-declared picky eaters (like
fellow craftygal staffer, Taryn) who will munch down a plate of
tempeh stir-fry without a second thought.
After a while,
I thought I’d explored all the various facets of tempeh. Then
I discovered Slice of Life Café. This Rochester-based vegetarian
café has done things with tempeh that make my knees weak.
A little background
first: growing up in Upstate New York, Buffalo-style chicken wings
are a staple snack food. Before going vegetarian, my husband and
I had staked out a couple of favorite wing joints where we’d
occasionally indulge in this ridiculously messy, spicy, and fattening
delight. But once we’d "vegged out" the days of sinus-clearing,
finger-licking, saucy goodness were long gone.
Or so I thought
before I found Slice of Life. Their Buffalo Tempeh -- thick fingers
of fried tempeh smothered in an eye-watering wing sauce, and served
with dill dip as a sandwich or an appetizer -- is now my favorite
guilty pleasure. And their Tempeh Ruby -- a feminist vegetarian
interpretation of the classic Rueben -- is another inspiring treat.
So I’ve
been getting a pretty regular dose of tempeh, in one dish or another.
It was just icing on the (tempeh) cake to find that the soy protein
in tempeh has been shown to lower blood cholesterol levels. Plus,
it’s a good source of dietary fiber and rich in those nifty,
cancer-fighting isoflavones.
All this tempeh
talk is making me hungry! It’s time to whip up a batch of my
own Tempeh Pasta Salad. The sesame oil in this dish enhances the
tempeh’s nutty texture, and the balsamic vinaigrette adds a
nice tang. If the weather’s too cold for pasta salad, you can
skip rinsing the pasta and serve it up warm.
Jan’s
Tempeh Pasta Salad
(Serves 5-6
as a main dish, 8-10 as a side dish)
Balsamic vinaigrette
ingredients:
1/3 cup olive
oil
1/3 cup balsamic
vinegar
2 cloves garlic,
crushed
2 tsp. Dijon
mustard
1 tbsp. tamari
soy sauce
Salad ingredients:
1 lb. pasta
(penne, shells, or spirals work well)
2 tbsp. olive
oil, separated
2 portabella
mushrooms caps (about 1/2 lb.), cut into thin 1-inch pieces
1 tsp. sesame
oil
1 clove crushed
garlic
8 oz. tempeh,
cut into _ inch cubes
4 ripe plum
tomatoes, diced
1 6 oz. can
black olives, sliced
Put some water
on to boil for the pasta.
Meanwhile, combine
balsamic vinaigrette dressing ingredients in a jar with a lid and
shake it up. Put aside.
When the water
boils, toss in the pasta and cook according to package directions.
Heat 1 tbsp
of the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and add the mushrooms.
Cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from skillet and set
aside.
Heat remaining
tbsp of oil and tsp of sesame oil in skillet over medium heat. Add
garlic and tempeh and cook until tempeh is lightly browned, about
4-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Turn off the
heat and add mushrooms back into skillet. Add tomatoes and black
olives and half of the balsamic vinaigrette as well.
When pasta has
finished cooking, drain and rinse with cold water until pasta is
cool to the touch. Place drained pasta in a serving bowl and drizzle
remaining dressing over the top. Add remaining salad ingredients
from the pan and toss.
Serve it up!
Note: If you’re
feeding folks with picky palettes, both the mushrooms and the olives
can be omitted, and you’ll still have a tasty dish.
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