Posted on | January 28, 2012 | 13 Comments

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. It is hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

I think I’m slowly falling in love with tempeh. While I grew up with tofu (being Chinese and all), my parents never introduced me to its fermented sibling, because they themselves had never eaten it before and never thought of trying it either. And the first time that I actually gave tempeh a try was a disaster. I don’t remember exactly what I tried to make, but I skipped the important marinade-or-steam step, which means that the first bite I took was a bitter and otherwise tasteless one. You can perhaps understand then, why it took me 2 more years to try it again.

So far, I’d only tried making tempeh cutlets (like faux schnitzels?) or adding them in cubes to meals. For the tofu & tempeh hop (a coordinated, themed weekend food post with a few Dutch bloggers, their links are posted below the photo) I really wanted to try making tempeh burgers. Yes, you heard me, not bean burgers but tempeh burgers! While I did adapt the recipe a bit (and halved it), it still turned out pretty good. I am still undecided as for which type of veggie burger is best. S. lamented that he preferred last time’s (bean) burger, but his homemade oven fries (a bit too dry, because we forgot to add a dab of olive oil and baked them slightly too long) made him so happy that he did not complain much

The recipe that I used was Vegweb’s and you can find it here. I wont post it on my blog, because I haven’t written down my adaptations and perhaps you’d like to go the safe route and check out the original recipe. My tempeh was not easy to crumble, because I didn’t have a steaming basket at hand, so I simmered the cubes in vegetable stock and a little soy. Chopping the mushrooms more finely will perhaps result in a prettier, less chunky patty. Regular mushrooms worked fine. You could even add other ingredients like corn or nuts. As for taste, the same goes for tempeh burgers as for bean burgers: make sure you season them well or they’ll taste bland. And if you make them, let me know how they tasted!

The other tofu & tempeh blog posts:
Uniflame’s BBQ tempeh sandwich
Faux feta by Gnoe
JannyAn’s Gado gado

Comments

13 Responses to “Weekend Cooking: tempeh burgers”

JannyAn
January 28th, 2012 @ 09:37

Sounds good to me. I’ll try to make it and add the right seasoning.
By the way, my gado-gado recipe isn’t dutch but it’s written in english.

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Chinoiseries Reply:
January 28th, 2012 at 09:44
I’ll change it right away, JannyAn!

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Uniflame
January 28th, 2012 @ 10:01

I am really curious to try these I will pin them for later, because I am in love with tempeh too

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Judith / Leeswammes
January 28th, 2012 @ 10:19

I haven’t had tempeh for years as I don’t really know what to do with it. I know eating it as it is (after frying) isn’t very nice.

Thanks for the recipe, this sounds like a great idea. BTW you also reminded me to make my own oven fries again. I used to, but lately I’ve gone the lazy way and bought them (which is only a very little bit of less work, actually).

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Beth F
January 28th, 2012 @ 13:24

I almost forgot read past the oven fries (love them!). I used to like working with tempeh. One thing I did was bake it or steam it and then crumble it up to add to vegetarian chili when I didn’t want to use meat. Your burgers look great.

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Carol @There's Always Thyme to Cook
January 28th, 2012 @ 14:25

The Tempeh seems like a versatile ingredient when you prepare it right, looks great as a burger, especially paired with the fries.

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Margot
January 28th, 2012 @ 15:39

Tempeh is new to me but it sounds like a versatile ingredient. Good source of protein, I’m guessing,

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Annie @ButteryBooks
January 28th, 2012 @ 20:53

I’ve never heard of tempeh until today …. fermented tofu. Your burgers look delicious, but I’m intrigued by your mention of tempeh schnitzels.

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Gnoe (@Graasland)
January 29th, 2012 @ 15:23

Aw, I’m not too good at making burgers so this could take a while but when (not if) I try them I’ll let you know how they turned out!

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Heather
January 29th, 2012 @ 19:43

I am going to give tempeh a try. Thanks for the encouragement. It seems a very flexible food.

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Joy Weese Moll
January 30th, 2012 @ 01:24

That looks like a yummy supper!

I make tempeh sausage crumbles and serve them over potatoes or rice or make a sandwich filling with them. Here’s the recipe I use: http://www.theppk.com/2008/10/tempeh-sausage-crumbles/
Except that I always seem to be in a hurry so I skip the lemon juice and use garlic powder instead of minced garlic.

I’ll often make a batch each week and have it for my lunch three days. I haven’t convinced my husband that this is something he wants to eat!

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Marg
January 30th, 2012 @ 02:41

I hadn’t heard of tempeh before today either!

By the way, I love that you Dutch bloggers are doing this kind of thing together. So cool!

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michelle
January 30th, 2012 @ 03:12

I’ve tried tempeh once or twice but didn’t love it. I do love tofu and know that fermented products are healthy so should give it another whirl!

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