Suburban Vegan Stories of Survival in the Land of Meat & Dairy

Tonight I did a gingery, garlicky tempeh and served it with brown rice udon noodles. I picked up a bag of eggplants from the Chinese market last Sunday, so I also made an authentic Chinese eggplant dish.

Tempeh

• 2 packages of tempeh, cubed
• 1/3 cup of soy sauce
• 1-2 inch knob of ginger, grated
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 -2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Steam tempeh for 10 minutes. This makes it a little less bitter and allows the marinade to soak in. While the tempeh is steaming, whisk together all the other ingredients. Marinate the tempeh for several hours (I make the marinade in the morning and let it sit all day).

Preheat oven to 400 and pour marinated tempeh onto cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, until it is slightly browned. Reserve any extra marinade.

Udon Noodles

Serves 4

• one package brown rice udon noodles
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 leaves of swiss chard, chopped
• 2 cups of water
• 2 heaping teaspoons of vegetarian “beef” broth

Cook udon according to package.

Saute onion in a little olive oil for a minute or two. Add garlic and cook until onion is a little brown. Add swiss chard and stir constantly to make sure it doesn’t burn. Add water and “beef” broth and simmer for a few minutes.

When noodles are done, drain and return to pot. Add broth mixture and combine. Mix in tempeh cubes. Stir in the extra marinade.

Steamed Eggplant

This is a delicious, authentic Chinese eggplant recipe (and I use that term loosely as it is more like a guideline). I asked H if I could share the “secret” family recipe on the blog and he said sure, because it’s so vague. Lucky you!

• 4 Chinese eggplants (I used 5 because there were 5 in the bag)
• garlic, chopped
• oil
• red pepper flakes
• green onions, sliced
• sugar
• soy sauce

I cut the eggplant in thirds or halves (depending on how long, you’re going for pieces about 1.5-2 inches long), then quartered those pieces. Steam for about 10 minutes.

Saute garlic in oil until a little brown. Add sugar, red pepper flakes, soy sauce and green onion and stir fry until green onion is cooked. Coat steamed eggplant in soy sauce mixture and serve. H said I got the proportions right (probably just lucky). He said it deserves an H’s favorite tag.

For dessert, we had chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from Vegan Scoop. Better than the black raspberry, in my opinion.