Tempeh Étouffée
And once again I must start off by apologizing for the lack of updates. Hopefully this will be the last long lull between recipes to ever happen here again.
Several weeks ago, I was inspired by a post on Smitten Kitchen to pull my much neglected slow cooker out from its hiding spot in my laundry room. That week we made some really awesome split-pea soup (whose recipe I’ll put up here soon). We’ve used the slow cooker about once a week since then and have been extremely happy with the resulting meals. Except for the aforementioned split-pea soup, whose recipe I sorta just made up, all of the things we’ve been cooking in there have come out of a wonderful cookbook we checked out of the library called Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. This étouffée is one of those recipes.
The author suggested serving it over rice, and a little research into the étouffée turned up that that is indeed the way it is classically eaten, but we had ours with toasted french bread (this recipe will also be posted soon) and it was delicious. We also preferred to have our tempeh partially crumbled, whereas the book called for it to all be cubed.
Justin put this together while I was at work one day. He did a great job and we both really enjoyed the recipe. This could also probably be made on the stove top really easily if you don’t want to use/don’t own a slow cooker.
Tempeh Étouffée
Adapted (just barely) from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker.
(makes 4 good-sized servings)
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 12 oz. tempeh, half of it cut into 1 inch chunks and the rest crumbled
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 rib of celery, chopped
- 1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- One 28 oz. can diced tomatoes, un-drained
- 1 tsp. Tabasco sauce
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 3/4 tsp. dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp. dried marjoram
- Toasted crusty bread, such as French
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- Tabasco sauce, to serve
Heat half of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the tempeh chunks and brown on all sides. When the chunks are about half-way done, add the crumbled tempeh and brown that as well. Transfer to a plate or bowl and put in the fridge for later.
Add the rest of the oil to the pan, and cook the onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic in it until they are softened and just beginning to slightly brown. Transfer to a 4-quart slow cooker. Stir in the tomatoes, Tabasco, salt, water, and dried herbs. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours (I left ours in there for 9 hours and it was still delish).
A half an hour before you’re ready to eat, stir the browned tempeh into the mix. A few minutes before supper time, toast your bread. You can either spoon your étouffée over the toast (as I did), and then top it with some parsley and extra Tabasco, if that’s what you like, or eat it with the toast on the side (as Justin did). Either way, it’s really good.
