Tempeh madness!

On January 1, 2010 I decided to become a vegetarian once again.  And with the exception of one disastrous foray into meat eating at Easter 2010, I haven't looked back once.   

I'm not what my friend Mike terms a "militant vegetarian".  I'm not out to force my food choices on you or imply that I am somehow much more politically and socially superior to you because you have not seen the light.  I made a choice and all I ask that you respect that choice.  

I am the only vegetarian in a four person family.  This does pose problems from a meal preparation perspective, since I am the main chef of the household.  While there are vegetarian options that the family does love (I'll post those up at a later date), serving anything with tofu, tempeh or god help us lentils, is a recipe (excuse the pun) for disaster. 


The last year has taught me several things:

1. How to be creative with food.
2. There are no mixed marriage cookbooks (at least that I have found)

Knowing that we can't be the only ones in this situation, I've decide to share the experiences over the past year and those going forward. If I can help one family, I'll be happy.  And I need some writing time as well.  


Which brings me to the first trick I learned.  One of my daughter's ex-boyfriends used to cook for us (god I miss that boy!), and he gave me one of the best tricks for mixed marriage cooking: base sauces or recipes where the meat or meat substitute can be added separately.   


One of the things my family loves is beef stroganoff.  I am not big on mock beef strips, so I use one of my favorite subs, tempeh.  


Beef / Tempeh stroganoff
(servers 4 meat eaters, 1 vegetarian)
 
1 lb lean steak, sliced thin against the grain
1/2 package of tempeh, sliced
1 medium onion thinly sliced
3/4 pound fresh mushrooms sliced
1 cup vegetable broth
3 tablespoons of low fat sour cream or "tofutti" sour cream

1. Put beef and tempeh in separate bowls.  Season both with sea salt, pepper and paprika (a pinch of each spice).  
2. Get out two skillets (non stick is best) and heat 1 - 2 Tbs vegetable oil in each pan.  Put beef in one pan and tempeh in the other.   Cook each over medium high heat until browned (about 3 minutes). Remove from pan.
3. Add 3/4 of the onion to the beef pan and 1/4 of the onion to the tempeh pan. Cook stirring for about 2 minutes.  Add 1/2 cup of mushrooms to the beef pan and 1/4 cup of mushrooms to the tempeh pan for about 5 minutes, until mushrooms are browned.
4. Add 3/4 cup of vegetable broth to beef pan and 1/4 cup of broth to tempeh pan. Turn down the heat and simmer both for 5 minutes.  Stir in 2 tablespoons of the sour cream to the beef pan and 1 tablespoon to the tempeh pan.  Add back the beef and tempeh to their respective pans and heat through for 1 minute.
5. Serve over your favourite pasta!