Corn-meal crusted tempeh

THIS is probably one of my favorite recipes to date. I have never myself been to the Candle Cafe in New York, but I recently got "The Candle Cafe Cookbook" and the recipes in it are many of the ones served at their renowned vegan restaurants. I've been slowly exploring the book and only have tried a few recipes so far, but EVERYTHING in this book looks amazing! This recipe is so good and will definitely knock the socks off of whoever you're serving it to. We have a local tempeh shop here in town and it's great supporting a local business getting locally sourced tempeh, and enjoying the earthy flavors of the protein-dense plant-based food. Try out this recipe and let me know what you think!



Ingredients:

16 oz of tempeh
1/2 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3 slices fresh ginger
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the tempeh into 6 square sections, and then cut in half into triangles as shown in picture above. Place in a baking dish.

In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, water, maple syrup, garlic and ginger and pour over tempeh. Cover and bake for 1 hour. If you need to speed up the process you can increase temperature to 400 and bake for less time.

In a large shallow bowl, mix together cornmeal, red pepper flakes, thyme, oregano, cumin and salt. Dip and coat each tempeh piece in the mixture.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat until hot. Cook the coated tempeh until golden brown, for about one minute on each side. Remove from heat and serve with some veggies.