Tempeh is a wonderful thing! 

 Vegan sandwiches don't get any better than this. Hearty tempeh, which has been cooked down in a salty and gingery dashi. The sharpness of the sour sauerkraut, and the crunchiness of the fresh lettuce! 

Today for made my self a sandwich. a sandwich with toasted whole wheat bread, homemade horseradish mustard (I just found out that mustard is the easiest thing to make your self), some of the tempeh I had fried and cooked down in a shoyu, shitaki, ginger dashi earlier, some sauerkraut (tempeh and sauerkraut are an amazing combo!)

topped with some fresh lettuce and tomato and bam! delicious sandwich! 

For someone like me who has a difficult time coming up with good sandwich combinations, I am pretty happy with this one. 

Learn how to make Tempeh from scratch watching my "How to make Tempeh" video here

Just remember to soak the beans overnight after you boil them 

Favorite meal paring to have with pan fried Tempeh!
That would have to be a bit of everything. Well cooked Whole Grain, Blanched Vegetables, And one of my favorite pairings with Tempeh is Sea-vegetabls!
I don't feel like I am eating enough Sea-vegtables lately so this was a pretty satisfying meal.

For Lunch
Brown Rice
(watch and learn how to cook Brown Rice here)
with Umeboshi Plum
-
Tempeh panfried baked in a shoyu sauce
(watch and learn how to make Tempeh here)
-
Hijiki with caramelized Onions and Corn
-
Blanched Kale

New favorite on the go food! Have you ever heard of onigirazu, also known as a sushi sandwich? As the name suggests, it’s a love child of a western sandwich and a Japanese sushi roll.  It travels well, and it is delicious! 

For Lunch 

Onigirazu made with 

Brown Rice 

(watch and learn how to make Brown Rice here)

Lettuce, Cucumber, Kimchi, 

Sesame Seeds

(watch and learn how to toast Sesame Seeds Here)

and Tempeh 

(watch and learn how to make Tempeh here)

-

Baked Squash, Potatoes, and Cauliflower 

-

Blanched Daikon Greens and Cauliflower Salad with a Carrot Ginger Dressing

 Soft creamy sweet delicious puree squash soup is just what I have been loving lately!

Squash is just coming into season and now everywhere. Which is perfect, sweet vegetables is just the thing to soften and relax, balance out the weather getting cold and having a contracting effect on our bodies. 

You can make a puree squash soup many different ways with lots of different fancy garnishes. But today we are going to keep it simple with just a few ingredients:

Butternut Squash (you can use Kobocha squash as well)

Onion

Salt 

Scallion for garnish

1:Chop vegetables 

Start by chopping up your squash, it doesn't really matter what shape. 

You can choose to keep the skin of the squash on or off. With butternut squash skin being similar in color as the rest of the squash I like to keep it on if it is a organic squash.

Other squashes of more green color skin might effect the color of the soup at the end. 

-

Chop onion to the same size as your squash

2: Cooking

I like to sauté or sweat the onions with a pinch of salt to bring our the sweetness

-

Once the onions are softened I add the squash, and just cover the vegetables with water. Bring to boil.Turn heat down and cook for about 20 to 30 minutes. Until squash is soft 

3: Blending and seasoning

Once the vegetables are cooked it is time blend. You might have to do this in a couple of batches depending on the size of your blender. 

-

After everything is pureed and smooth heat back up on the stove and add seasoning to taste. I just added a pinch more salt and thats it! Garnish with scallions or caramelized leeks is another favorite.  

Thats one of the ways I like to make puree squash soup and I hope you liked it. If you give it a try let me know and tag Macrofoodeveryday on Instagram I would love to see how it came out! 

For Lunch

Puree Squash Soup

garnished with scallions 

-

Brown Rice with toasted Sesame Seeds

(watch and learn how to cook Brown Rice here) 

-

Blanched Kale

-

Tempeh cooked with Kimchi 

(watch and learn how to make Tempeh here)

I have been enjoying making a full fresh meal for lunch and kind of winging it with the rest of the poeple in the house  with leftovers for dinnr. does anybody else do this? Sometimes not haveing the pressure of cooking a whole meal from scratch you can focus on making new thing. My brother made dinner yesterday using leftover lunch and adding to it these amaizing little Pinto Bean Balls with marinara sauce!  

For Lunch

Brown Rice

(watch and learn how to make Brown Rice here)

-

Pan fried Tempeh

(watch and learn how to make Tempeh here)

-

top with Coleslaw made of

 Cabbage, Apple, Parsley, Carrot and Salt, Olive oil, and Lemon

-

Sautéed Broccoli and Radishes 

some leftover blanched Carrots

-

Sweet Potato Fries

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

For Dinner

Leftover Rice and Veggies from Lunch

-

Added some arugula and a fresh Vegenase, Mustard dressing to the salad. 

-

Pinto Bean Balls with Marinara Sauce

Being a vegan and vegetarian the question I get asked a lot is where does my protein come from? So here is attempt putting sharing some information about it.

Making Tempeh is not very labor intensive. it takes a little bit of time. but it kind of does most of the work by itself. 

And now that I have finished editing my new Making Tempeh cooking video, there is really no reason for you not to make yourself some delicious tempeh! 

Tempeh is one of my favorite fermented foods. I guess most people know it as a replacement for meat protein. But having never having meat, I just love tempeh for what it is. 

A couple of things to know while making your own tempeh.

The idea behind boiling the beans for so long before you turn into tempeh. is so that way you don't need to cook the tempeh so long after it ferments.

The more soybean skins you get rid of the easier the mold will stick to the beans. 

If the tempeh is any other color than White or black (or the color of the beans) don't eat it. when it is bad it turns green and red. not good. 

tempeh needs a certain amount of oxygen and moisture. so poking enough holes into the bags is crucial. but too many holes will cause it to dry out. so sticking to a hole every square inch has always worked for me

It is so versatile. you can pretty much cook it any way you want. Fry it, boil it, bake it. 

(Need some ideas. check out theses post to see deferent ways to enjoy tempeh.

Tempeh Sushi 

Tempeh with Saukraut

Root vegetable stirfry with Tempeh 

Udon and Broth with Tempeh 

Stew

Pan-fried Tempeh

Tempeh Sandwiches 

Kinpira with Tempeh

Sauerkraut is one of my favorite fermented foods. Fermented food are pretty crucial to a plant based diet I have found. nothing helps digest whole grain like fermented foods.

Here we (and by we I mean mainly a young man named Connor who is our fermented foods guy in Ionia) usually make our Sauerkraut in the early winter with cabbage harvest from the Fall before. There will be a whole group of us around the counter chopping cabbage while Connor mixes it with Salt and shoves it into crocks. and The outcome is so so delicious! I think everyone making their own pickles at least once. to have the enzymes that are naturally in your kitchen be apart of your food.  

How does it all work? 

 "The process of lactic acid fermentation used to transform salt and cabbage into sauerkraut increases vitamins, particularly vitamin C and B vitamins, and food enzymes.  Moreover, homemade sauerkraut is also extraordinarily rich in beneficial bacteria – friendly microorganisms which help to colonize the gut, train the immune system and manufacture vitamins in the digestive tract." ----From a beautiful blog called nourishedkitchen.com

Check out the master himself Sandor Katz teaching how to make Sauerkraut here he also has a wonderful website to check out here


For Lunch
Brown Rice
(watch and learn how to make Brown Rice here)
-
Sauerkraut 
-
Blanched Greens, Manly Parsley 
-
Tempeh 
Pan fried then cooked down in a Shoyu Dashi for an hour 
-
Nori

For Lunch 

Bulgar  with Caramelized Onions and Raisins 

-

Squash Pie

-

Tempeh Pan fried then cooked down 

-

Build Beets

-

Broccoli with a Dressing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Dinner

Brown Rice with Tahini

(watch and learn how to make Brown Rice here)

-

Onion Shoyu Pickles

-

Boiled Napa Cabbage Salad with Dulse

-

Fried Seitan with Leeks, Mushrooms,and Celery

(watch and learn how to make Seitan here)