Trying Something New

Unfortunately, I had to go on travel for my job at the last minute last week, so I didn't get a chance to post about the food I ate the week before until now. It was good food, so I'll try to remember the details beyond just that it was tasty. Heh.

That week I decided to try something new: Tempeh. I've read that while soy is excellent for your health, the health benefits really only apply to fermented soy, which tofu is not. Fermented soy includes soy sauce, miso, and tempeh! Apparently tofu is just the leftovers of the fermentation process. Who knew? So I decided I'd give tempeh a chance. Here's all that I ate the week before last:

• Orange glazed tempeh with beets and kale over spelt. The orange glazed tempeh is courtesy of 101 cookbooks. The glaze was absolutely delicious. The combination of the sweet maple syrup and the acidity from the orange juice...nom nom nom. Based on this recipe, I can definitely say that tempeh is definitely tastier than tofu. It has a meatier texture, and a nuttier flavor. Consider me a convert! I simmered the spelt in beer (1 cup spelt, 2 cups beer) for a very very long time (probably about 45 minutes or so), and oh man did it turn out tasty. Spelt is a rather...rough grain, so you could substitute brown rice, or quinoa, or wheat berries. I sauted the kale and beets with the tempeh after it was seared with the glazed, and then tossed everything with the spelt. Oh man this was delicious. Husband wasn't a fan. I think the spelt was too much for him. More for me! This is my kind of hippy food.

• Miso salad. Husband and I love the salads at CPK, and Husband asked if I could recreate the miso salad. CPK is good enough to list the ingredients in the salad on the menu on their website (Check it out here), so it was easy. I might do my own recipe for this next week. But basically I just followed the list of ingredients (napa cabbage, red cabbage, carrots, daikon, edamame, green onions, and cilantro - I left out the cucumbers). I used this recipe for the miso dressing, which was super delicious. And instead of the fried wantons I used toasted whole wheat tortilla strips. And to top it all off, I used crab claw meat. I always figured canned crab would be quite disgusting, but after an episode with Good Eats (because how can I go a week without mentioning it?), Alton Brown suggested that canned crab meat is actually good. And it was! Surprisingly good! And on this salad it was delicious. Filling, healthy, and delicious. My kind of salad.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween. I baked some cookies, pumpkin of course, which turned out great. But that's another post!