Dining With Friends: Something to be Thankful For

By Dustin Garrett Rhodes

Each Friday through the holidays, Friends of Animals will share an all-vegan recipe or two to help make your holiday season taste better. Or, maybe we’ll help inspire some new ideas. In any case, all the recipes appear in Priscilla Feral’s and Lee Hall’s cookbook, Dining With Friends: The Art of North American Vegan Cuisine.

The cookbook is available for purchase at the Friends of Animals website (www.friendsofanimals.org) and from www.amazon.com. Best of all, proceeds go towards helping Friends of Animals end animal exploitation. Priscilla Feral’s new cookbook, The Best of Vegan Cooking, will be available soon for pre-order, and available for purchase in January 2009.

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I am always guilty of over-thinking a holiday meal -- and preparing too much food.

I always worry about the main course, and whether or not what I make will be universally loved. I want a main course to be hearty, innovative and manageable. (That’s not too much to ask, is it?)

Tempeh is easily one of the most under-made and poorly prepared soy products. What a shame, because tempeh is healthy, satisfying and utterly delicious—when well prepared. It’s all about what you add to it and how it’s cooked.

This easy and scrumptious dish goes well with Thanksgiving foods like mashed potatoes, green beans, fresh cranberry salad and salad greens. It’s a perfect centerpiece to any holiday meal.

Tip: a chef once told me to always steam tempeh for 20-25 minutes (and allowing it to cool) before proceeding with any recipe. This is not an essential step, but it does take away the slight bitterness that some people find displeasing. This steaming process also allows for a slightly softer finished product.

Enjoy!

Tempeh London Broil

Serves 8
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup tamari
2 cups white wine
Sea salt
Ground pepper
4 8-ounce packages of Organic Garden Veggie Tempeh (Lightlife brand), but into 1 inch cubes
1 large Vidalia onion
2 medium zucchini (courgettes), sliced

Preparation:

In a bowl, prepare a marinade by combining the olive oil, lemon juice, tamari, wine and salt and pepper to taste. Add tempeh.

Cover and place in a refrigerator to marinate over-night.; the tempeh will puff up as it absorbs the marinade.

Drain tempeh, reserving marinade.

Heat frying pan over medium to low heat. Add tempeh and small amount of the marinade to pan and cook for about 10 minutes, until it begins to brown. Add onion and zucchini.

Gradually stir in the rest of the marinade. Continue cooking until tempeh is golden brown.