Day 76 - Smoky Grilled Tempeh, Sautéed Collards, and Cheater Baked Beans

I've got the calorie counters back! David and Trey are getting a healthy rendition of a down-home Southern feast. And luckily, one of us is actually from the South and can appreciate that. (You can probably figure out who...)
 
Smoky Grilled Tempeh

This is virtually identical to the Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh recipe, and it's great in all the same ways. The blanching of the tempeh removes most of the tempeh funkiness, and the marinade provides some flavor but doesn't overwhelm it. (I'd actually love to get MORE flavor into the tempeh. I wonder if a longer marinade would help, or maybe poking holes in the tempeh, although that might compromise the hold-togetherness of the cakes.)

In any case, these are nice and firm and meaty and savory, and these non-vegetarian guys were very happy to go back for seconds.

SFO: 8
(I'll say it again, I still think tempeh is going to be a tough sell for certain omnivores.)


Sautéed Collards

You just have to make this recipe with the tempeh recipe above, because the marinade from the tempeh becomes the sauce for this! It's mandatory!! It's sort of revolutionary to cook collard greens as little as this. We're so used to eating brown collards, cooked within an inch of their life, but these are actually green and have some bite. You'd think they'd be too bitter or chewy, cooked only for 12 minutes, but no, they are terrific! And think of all the vitamins and minerals you've spared from pot death!

SFO: 10


Cheater Baked Beans 

I have always hated baked beans. I'm convinced that baked beans are what ruined the whole legume family for me as a kid, since they're the only beans I was exposed to, and I couldn't get far enough away. They were mealy and slimy, and the flavor was confusing... Are they sweet? Salty? Porky? What's going on in there??

Well, I love these beans! They are delicious! Maybe it was because I was actually making them and I could see what was going into them and understand the things I was tasting. Or maybe it's because they taste a million times better than canned baked beans. 

I&T prefer these to the canned version because "they aren't cloyingly sweet." I actually find the sweetness of these more pronounced but more palatable. The ingredients here taste vivid and fresh, the canned beans taste muddy and blech.

The combination of these three dishes was great - tempeh for heft, collards for the veggie component, and these beans for sauce, sweetness, and creaminess. Perfect!

SFO: 10