I was hungry for a southern style dinner. I knew who I could count on for an idea, so I made my way to the FatFreeVegan and found her recipe for Cajun Tempeh Bacon. I have never made anything with tempeh before, so I decided to give it a try.
We had a wonderful dinner. French-style green beans with minced onion slow-cooked in vegetable broth, red-skinned mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy and cajun tempeh bacon and unsweetened iced tea to drink.
The mushroom gravy I made up myself. I took 5 baby bellas and chopped them into small pieces, and then took 5 leaves of fresh sage, rolled and chopped them fine. I placed mushrooms and sage into a hot cast iron skillet with 3 Tablespoons vegetable broth and sauteéd for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, I put in a pinch of salt to cause the mushrooms to release their juices. I continued to sauté until soft, then added 1 Tablespoon flour and stirred. This made a roux. The roux cooked for about 2-3 minutes then I added 1/4 cup vegetable broth. I let the gravy continue to cook and then cut it with unsweetened soymilk until it was the desired thickness. This was very good if I must say so myself. It was kind of green because of the sage, but Ken said, “who cares if it’s brown or green?” I think it would also have been good without sage.
The cajun tempeh bacon was unbelievable. I can totally see it on a TLT (Tempeh Lettuce Tomato sandwich), again, from FatFreeVegan. I laughed and told Ken that tempeh is just like everything else, it tastes like fried chicken! LOL Susan recommends using a nonstick frying pan for the tempeh, but I do not own anything that has a nonstick surface. I mostly use cast iron, but sometimes I also use stainless, so I used my old standby, the cast iron skillet and it did just fine. I just had to use a small amount of olive oil spray on the skillet. I let it get a little too dark on one side, but for the first time cooking with tempeh, we were happy.
Susan V. I have you to thank once again. Your recipes are wonderful and you make a novice, like me, believe we can do this.
Thank you.
Happy, Healthy Eating
Jackie V.
Hi Jackie! I’m so glad that you liked the tempeh bacon. More and more often I’m using my cast iron skillet, so I think you made the right choice of it over the stainless one. Also, your gravy sounds a lot like how I make it, always a little bit different every time so I never write it down.
Great looking meal!
Very tasty supper and very filling. The tempeh was a first for me but very good. The plates were so big that it didn’t look the best. I am looking forward to working with tempeh I’m thinking that Jackie will be coming up with so many flavors.