Good Morning! Spring is finally showing it's first signs here at 4100 ft. We've got all kinds of wild flowers popping up in the yard. Including these beautiful trilliums. I couldn't resist sharing.
In other news, it's the start of salad season! As previously mentioned in my recent pasta post, Jacob's parents brought us some garden grown greens when they visited Boone recently. These greens included two types of lettuce, kale, swiss chard, and mustard greens. The lettuce will be the featured green in this post, if you didn't already guess.
But first, tempeh.
And marinade for said tempeh. I love sesame oil and soy sauce combinations on so many different things - this tempeh was no exception. The marinade consisted of soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds, red pepper flakes, garlic, and honey.
Mix the marinade with the tempeh cubes, and toss. I let the tempeh marinate for about an hour before I roasted it, but it would have just as much flavor with 15-20 minutes of marinating.
 |
Line a small baking dish with parchment and put the tempeh and any remaining marinade with it. Pictured next to the tempeh are some cabbage and mushrooms prepped and ready to be roasted along side the tempeh.
I have a confession to make: I really like dole mandarin oranges. Especially on asian salads.
Next up - prep the dressing. The dressing used a lot of the same ingredients as the marinade - in fact, if you wanted to you could probably double the marinade as dressing, but I did make a few changes to this batch of dressing. The dresses also has canola oil in it to balance out the sesame oil and soy sauce. I also added some ginger and orange juice for some sweetness and kick.
Next up - assembly! My salad started out with fresh washed, trimmed, and chopped lettuce. Then, I layered tempeh, carrots, mandarin oranges, sprouts, roasted cabbage/mushrooms, and some rice noodles that I had leftover from another meal. Topped it all off with asian fusion dressing and crunchy chow mein noodles.
The perfect spring meal. Easy, cheap, and quick. The best part - only a few small dishes to wash after dinner!
Sesame Tempeh Marinade and Roasting Directions:
- 1 package tempeh (we like the three grain variety, but any kind will do. Found in the produce section of the grocery store)
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp minced garlic (1 large clove)
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp honey
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Directions:
- Cut the tempeh into cubes around 3/4 inch.
- Mix together remaining ingredients.
- Pour marinade over tempeh.
- Let rest for as little as 15 min or up to 1 hour.
- Line a baking dish with parchment paper.
- Heat oven to 400 degrees.
- Pour tempeh and marinade into baking dish.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until golden and crispy.
- Serve on top of your asian salad!
Asian Fusion Dressing Recipe:
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 orange, juiced
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 1 tsp (or 1 large clove) minced garlic
Directions:
- Mix all ingredients except the canola oil in a bowl.
- Whisk the canola into the other wet ingredients, stirring vigorously to incorporate.
- Serve over top salads.
Other asian fusion salad topping suggestions:
- Mandarin oranges
- Chow mein noodles
- Roasted veggies (cabbage is great!)
- Cooked rice noodles
- Carrots
- Cucumber
- Sprouts
No comments:
Post a Comment