For those of you who are unfamiliar with Tempeh, let me give you the basics. Tempeh is a traditional Indonesian soy product. It's basically like soybeans caked together to form a patty. It reminds me of a veggie patty. (Except veggie patties usually have egg holding the veggies together, but that's a complaint of mine for another time.) Once it reaches your palate, the beans sort of separate leaving the rest to melt in your mouth. For vegans it's a tasty source of protein when we want a change from tofu. I would like to see places like Subway carry Tempeh as a vegan option. For further information, you can Google it. The package I got at Fred Meyer looked like this:
I was surprised by how much this recipe really reminded me of Hamburger Helper. Yes, I hate to admit it, but I used to consume HH. It was when we were first married.... and poor.... and unaware of the degree to which we were harming animals... and.... Anyway... You couldn't trick a non-vegan into believing it was Hamburger Helper, but it definitely triggered a memory in my mind. I remembered how much I missed that quick, easy, packaged meal. Then I got to thinking, Tempeh Helper took about the same amount of time, if not less (about 30 minutes). There was no thawing out hamburger or waiting for it to brown all the way. (Tempeh fries up very quickly - 5 minutes tops.) And what a healthier/more humane alternative it is!
The cheese sauce proved to be even quicker. It made enough that I could have a little on top of some veggies as a side-dish, which was a lower-calorie alternative to having another serving of the Helper.
In the end, one serving of Helper with one serving of the cheese sauce looked like this:
As a side note, Steven didn't put a condiment on this dinner. Maybe the cheese took away that desire?
No comments:
Post a Comment