Sweet Potato Tempeh

After all the cooking and baking I did on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I decided to keep New Year's Eve an easier night to prepare dinner.  I made less food and nothing as spectacular or special.

For dinner we only had 2 dishes:
Sweet Potato Tempeh
Jerk Asparagus

Here's the recipe for the Sweet Potato Tempeh that was adapted from here:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup tamari
• 1 tbsp mirin (sweet Japanese cooking wine) (Or any sweet wine could work, I used Marsala)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 8oz package tempeh, cut into bite-sized pieces
• about 2 pounds sweet potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 tsp EVOO
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2-1 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Directions:

1. Combine tamari, mirin, garlic powder, onion powder, and sesame oil into a wide, shallow container and stir to combine.  Add tempeh, toss to coat, cover, and set aside to let marinate for at least 30 minutes. (I let mine sit overnight and almost all the marinade soaked into the tempeh).
2. Toss sweet potatoes with olive oil, ginger, cinnamon, and 1 1/2 tbsp of the marinade from the tempeh.  Set aside. (I just combined the rest of the marinade into the sweet potatoes.)
3. Preheat oven to 350F.
4. Heat 1/2-1 tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Drain any leftover marinade from the tempeh. Add the tempeh to the skillet and cook, turning frequently, about 5-7  minutes or until golden brown.
5. Transfer to a 2-quart baking dish, toss with sweet potatoes, salt, and pepper.  Cover with foil and bake until sweet potatoes are tender.  (Mine took about an hour.)
6. Garnish with parsley and serve.

This meal was really good!  I ate a large serving of this Sweet Potato Tempeh since it was the main part of my meal, but it is probably a better recipe for a side dish.  However, to make it more of a meal, you could probably even add Kale to it and Quinoa or brown rice.  I definitely should have done that and the next time I make this as a meal think I will try adding those ingredients.

For dessert I made Pineapple Spongecake from Everyday Happy Herbivore.  I'm still perfecting the recipe since I have to make it gluten-free and haven't yet found the right flour, but it was tasty and if you own the book I definitely recommend giving it a try.  If you don't own the book, I definitely recommend buying it because there are a ton of simple, delicious recipes.  A new book has even been published, Happy Herbivore Abroad, which I just bought and cannot wait to try out some new recipes!



Based on making 6 side dish servings, 1 serving yields approximately 252 calories and 10g protein.